Nick Hardcastle

We left Namche Bazaar at 7.45 am following a brief goodbye ceremony during which the owner of the lodge tied silk scarves around our necks for good luck.

Some of the older members of the group were not looking forward to the steep walk from Namche – 700m of unrelenting,knee jerking descent, but in fact all went well. Panadol and ibuprofen work wonders on aging knees, it would seem. Most of the younger members had no problem at all.

Once we had descended to the Dudh Koshi river everybody felt much more energetic, with so much more oxygen in the atmosphere to breathe, we felt that we could almost run up the small hills. Almost.

The trail is getting busy now. There is a constant stream of trekkers heading up towards Namche and there are many porters and yaks carrying expedition kit up to Gorak Shep in preparation for the mountaineering season.

It has only been two weeks since we left Lukla, but this has made a difference to the landscape. Bellow the treeline the flowers are coming out – rhododendron, magnolia and primula denticulata; it is a pretty time of year.

It just took us 7 hours to walk from Namche to Lukla and the kids arrived in good spirits and with energy to spare. They are now expending this around town. Lukla is a one street town and there are no motorvehicles at all. We have a special dinner planned tonight.

We fly to Kathmandu tomorrow morning.

This morning everybody was feeling happy and although most of the group had gone down with sore throats, the level of morale was very high.

We began the nine hour walk back to Namche at a very good pace. As we lose altitude the amount of oxygen in the air makes it much easier to breathe and the students are starting to feel much better.

Although we were descending to Namche Bazaar, it is what Danbar calls Nepalese flat – in other words lots of up and down! There was a steep climb up to Tengboche and the monastery, followed by a steep 600m descent to Phunki Tenga. This left many sore knees within the team. After lunch we were faced with another climb from Phunki Tenga (3250m) to Namche at (3440m). It might not sound a lot, but after seven hours of walking and at this altitude it is no mean achievement.

At Sanasa we split into two groups. The faster and stronger group climbed higher to 3880m and the Japanese Everest View Hotel, where we had tea and hot chocolate. There was no view unfortunately as the mists had closed in, but it was a worthwhile experience nevertheless, if only for the snowball fight.

For once, the faster group arrived at the lodge well after Team Turtle, as they have named themselves.

Now we are back in Namche Bazaar, taking a rest day.

One more day’s walk to go – the long hike to Lukla where we will spend tomorrow night before flying to Kathmandu.

So far the expedition has been a tremendous success. The students are happy and in high spirits. It has been a privilege to work with such a great group of young people.

Sorry that this blog has been so short. Now I am going to find somewhere warm to thaw out.

More from Kathmandu.

We got up fairly early, but didn’t start climbing Kala Patthar until well after 9am. This was great as the sun had time to warm the air, but would have its consequences later.

After breakfast, Muir performed the usual health checks and then we put together a team to climb Kala Patthar. Due to lack of acclimatization, we decided that a small group of students should remain in the lodge whilst the rest of the team climbed. We didn’t want to risk anybody getting ill on the mountain. These students were very dissapointed but they already had so much to be proud off. Climbing to Gorak Shep is a huge acheivement – it is after all 5140m above sea level, higher than any mountain in Europe.

The ascent team made slow progress up Kala Patthar, pounded by the bitter wind and suffering from the thin air, but to look at their expressions when they reached the summit, it had all obviously been worth it.

The descent to Gorak Shep was fast and dusty, I think that the kids were longing to meet up again with their friends and have something warm to eat and drink.

Leaving Gorak Shep about lunch time, we began the very long walk down the mountain to Lobuche and then Pheriche, where we arrived in the gloaming. Scott Browner, Ash and Josh had walked up the trail to meet us.

The lodge was full but the atmosphere was great, everybody in very high spirits.

The rest of the party followed the path alongside the Khumbu Glacier and over the steep, undulating moraines of the Chagri Shar Glacier to Gorak Shep. It is an exhillerating if exhausting climb at this altitude. The moraines, mountainous piles of broken granite, seem never ending. The students were somewhat relieved to see the small lodges of Gorak Shep come into view at the base of Kala Patthar.

After a fairly light lunch and large amounts of chocolate (it is good to have an excuse), we set off for Everest Base Camp. It is a tough trek over the moraines and can take 5 hours unless you are well acclimatized. I have never seen students as happy to achieve a goal. There were no tents in sight – but a number of yaks passed us on their way to set up a camp for a British climbing team that is due to arrive in Lukla on April 4th.

Back at the lodge in the late afternoon, the students sat drinking hot chocolate and talking of their success. Dambar and I went off to climb Kala Patthar for the sunset.

One goal achieved!

It is a steep but beautiful climb through the mountains to the small lodge at Thokla, where there are hundreds of memorials to those that have died in their attempts to climb the big mountains in this part of Nepal.

As we had lunch in the lodge at Thokla, it was clear that Mueen was becoming too sick to carry on up the mountain. We suspected that he had a virus or tonsilitis and that this, combined with the effects of altitude, would make carrying on up the mountain difficult. I decided that he should descend to the medical post at Pheriche and spend the night there. Shortly before getting to the lodge, Ashley slipped and twisted his ankle. He didn’t feel able to continue and so John Power and a porter escorted both students down to the lodges in the small village of Pheriche whilst the rest of the party continued to climb up to the Khumbu Glacier and Lobuche.

The Eco Lodge at Lobuche was by far the best place we had stayed in. It had a great atmosphere but the rooms were so cold that my water bottle froze.

The following morning Josh was suffering from very painful ribs, an effect of breathing heavily at altitude. We decided that it would be difficult for him to climb higher without a further rest day, so Scott escorted him down to Pheriche to join the others. Actually, they passed on route. Mueen and Ash were both feeling much better and John was bringing them back up the mountain.

I was sad to leave the peace of Tengboche, but the walk to Dingboche is interesting and passes through some exciting scenery. We began by descending to the Imja Khola river through a frozen forrest hanging with old man’s beard.

Climbing back out of the river valley to Pangboche we had excellent views back towards the mountains above Namche Bazar and the monastery of Tengboche, like an imaginary fort set against the distant white snows.

We visited the small school established by Sir Edmund Hillary at upper Pangboche. The kids spent a happy, if rather breathless, hour playing with the Nepalese children before we continued our walk to Dingboche.

At Dingboche the effects of altidude were really starting to kick in, with some students and staff suffering from headaches and slight nausea. It was good to have Dr Muir De Wet along with us to attend to the parties woes.

We spent two nights at Dingboche to acclimatize – to allow our bodies time to get used to the lack of oxygen in the air at this altitude. The kids were great,they had fun playing with the snow, walking around the village and exploring. We have a great team with us.

I really felt as though our adventure was under way again as we climbed out of Namche Bazaar early in the morning. The mists were hanging above the depths of the Dudh Koshi thousands of feet below. Occasionally the air would clear and we could see back to Monjo,now a tiny speck far away in the valley. We rounded a corner and Ama Dablam, Lhotse Shar, Taboche and Kang Taiga came into view for the first time. It is a strange feeling having already climbed so high (3500m) only to look on mountains that still seem huge.

There is a steep descent to Phunki Tenga where we had lunch. We were sharing the path with small caravans of yaks and zopkyo (a cross between a yak and a cow), and were forced to dodge to one side to avoid being knocked down the hill.

The weather was fantastic and we took our lunch in a sunny courtyard in front of a lodge at Phunki Tenga.

The climb from Phunki Tenga to Tengboche was both steep and long, 600m of hard work in an atmosphere with too little oxygen and too much dust.

Tengboche is a beautiful place, with a large monastery and beautiful views of the mountains.

We weren’t alone in the lodge, but the other guests seemed to enjoy having the kids around, particularly when they started reciting poetry and singing songs they had been composing on the trek.

It was a cold, cold night.

Scott,whose health had given us cause for concern in Namche Bazaar was on top form today.

We are all back in Namche Bazaar and with the first real internet connection since my last entry on this blog. I don’t want to spend all day sitting in this freezing cafe typing so I will try and give you the edited highlights. The kids will fill in the details when they get back.

Scott was ill in the evening , shivering but with a slightly high temperature. Much to everybody’s relief, he recovered through the night and was back to normal this morning, determined to go for a walk with the rest of us.

Today we seemed to be behind schedule all the time, late for breakfast, late for our briefing by the Park Warden, late for lunch and so late for the tree planting that we had scheduled in that we had to cancel it. Ho hum. Sometimes things just have to go more slowly.

The mists had cleared overnight and we had a great view of Tham Serku, the huge mountain that towers over the cwm of Namche Bazaar. Awsome. The only word that I can think of to adequately describe it.

After a breakfast which was either delicious or disgusting depending on to whom you were speaking (Tibetan bread, eggs and cornflakes with hot milk), we set off in to the chill mountain air for an acclimatization walk. By this time the clouds had come in and wisps of white cloud swirled around the mountain chaotically, wrapping us in a surprisingly cold embrace.

The National Park Warden might not be the most popular person in town. He is responsible for stopping people logging and hunting in the National Park. His office is closely surrounded by trenches and razor wire. I think it is better protected than the US Consulate in Al Khobar. The warden gave us a welcome talk and told us something about the National Park’s work in the region. His English was good, but fortunately not good enough to understand one student’s question about the rare snow leopard – ‘Is it eatable?’

From the Park headquarters we climbed up to the airport – actually just a dirt runway now used solely for helicopters. We had tea in a lodge there to escape the bitter wind and Dambar, our guide, told us stories about how the people of Namche rid themselves of yeti. The yeti used to copy everything the people of Namche did, so eventually the people of Namche played all day with wooden kukri – the Ghurka knives. In the evening they put out sharp knives. Sure enough the Yeti copied the humans but of course killed each other.

We returned to the Lodge for lunch, but too late to go to plant trees as we had planned. Instead we gave the kids some free time and I went for a run. It is amazing how much difference the altitude makes when you haven’t yet fully adjusted. Then I had a shower and changed my clothes – the first time since leaving Saudi! I will let you use your own imagination to determine how often your kids have been changing their clothes and taking a shower. Really it is just too cold you know.

Tomorrow we head of again for the wonderful monastery of Tengboche. I can’t post photographs from here in Namche, but if you check out my website www.hobnail.com you should be able to find photographs from the trip I made in December.

We will be out of email and blog contact for a while now, but I will update the blog as soon as I get chance.

Nick

We decided not to get up too early to give the day time to warm up a little. Outside the lodge we could hear a steady, slow hammering. Two men were trying to split a boulder the size of a small house using a hammer and chisel. The sledgehammer in use had the longest handle I have ever seen, almost two metres. I admired the courage of the man who was holding the chisel.

From Monjo it is a fairly steady uphill climb of 550 m to Namche Bazaar. The kids did it well, although some of them are still walking far too fast. They haven’t quite got the idea of the benefit of walking slowly at altitude. The views along the trail are getting better and better, even though it is quite cloudy and we can’t see the big mountains. I can’t wait until the kids get their first views of the high peaks.

Namche Bazaar is an important market and the biggest town in the region. There are a lot of shops selling trekking gear and souvenirs. As I write this in an Internet cafe, the student are wondering around looking for things to spend their money on.

Everybody is well and enjoying themselves. We have a great group of students this year and they are working well together.

More again tomorrow, hopefully.