On the way back to Australia

Well, after three fantastic weeks in Nepal I am now on my way back to Australia (currently transitting in Singapore). My last post was in Namche Bazaar on Monday - since then we made the long trek back to Lukla on Tuesday. This was a total of 17km with interestingly 1,200m of descent and 600m of climb - not bad for a downhill leg along with Dudh Koshi River. This leg was split over two days on our way up a couple of weeks ago, but with the majority of it downhill and all of us far better acclimatised, it was a straightforward single day walk to finish with. Lukla was nearly a ghost town, deviod of western tourists who have already headed home as Nepal heads into its cold winter. We spent a single night there before flying out of Lukla back to Kathmandu late on Wednesday morning, farewelling the last of our Sherpa crew - Ang and Pasan (that's them above with Pemba and Pasan Tenday along with the four of us). Again, it was a most amazing flight of Lukla as headed down the 12 degree slope runway and made the 25-minute journey back to KTM.

Because we had arrived back with time to spare (I was due to fly out Friday, PaulD on Saturday) we went about seeing if we could fly out on Thursday instead. As luck (??) would have it, both Paul and I could reschedule to Thursday. Chris is still flying out Friday and PaulT is hanging around till Boxing Day!!

With a short time left in Kathmandu, I did a quick bit of "gift" shopping before we headed out for our final dinner. We had been recommended "McDonal Fast Food Restaurant" by an English group we kept bumping in to our trek, and this turned out to be a masterstroke. Unlike its global cousin, this restaurant had a plethora of nice dishes on offer. So we opted for Tandoori Butter Chicken with four types of Naan Bread for the bargain price of $3 each. This was one of our best meals of the trip, or was it just that we had some meat for a change?!

Thursday morning involved a quick breakfast at a cafe - I opted for the "Juice Lover's Breakfast" which was eggs, suasage, fried potato, toast, jam, coffee.......and a small juice. Work that out!

Paul and I our now on our way home - I cannot wait for some Perth heat having had three very cold weeks up here. I even left Singapore Airport for half an hour just to soak up some heat and humidity on my way home!

The last photo is taken from my flight between Kathmandu and Singapore today. It was a beautifully clear day as headed along the Himalayas - that's Everest and Lhotse in the photo. Island Peak is far obscured!

So that's just about it for this trip. For those who are interested in maps and GPS's as much as me, I will post all the GPS logs along the trek from my watch. Unfortunately the day on Island Peak does not quite go where I wanted it to.....

A bit of an update.....

My last "real" post was from Pheriche some days before we attempted to climb Island Peak. By having a satellite phone within our group, I was able to keep Heather up-to-date who was then able to update the blog. So from my last post at Pheriche we slowly made our way up the valley to Island Peak by stopping at Dingboche (one night) and Chukkung (two nights). Chukkung is definitely the end of the earth - there's not much there, its bitterly cold and a chill blows up the valley through the village. We spent a couple of days there as part of our acclimatisation as it situated at about 4,730m. Without too much to do, we played plenty of games of cards in the "sun room" which is about the only place with warmth in the lodge we were staying in. We also practiced our rope techniques for the final part of the climb of Island Peak, which as we all know now, never came to fruition!

On Thursday we made the trek up to Island Peak base camp which was situated at 5,120m. Our fantastic team of Ang Chhiri, Pemba, Pasan and Tenday already had our camp set up - two two-man tents and a cooking tent. At this point I really wasn't feeling too good and the altitude had probably finally caught up with me. Having arrived mid-afternoon, our plan of trekking to the summit at 2am the following morning was put on hold by how I felt, not that the two Paul's were feeling great either. So Saturday was spent relaxing around a very cold and desolate base camp. The temperature would have struggled to have been above 0 degrees so your tent was by far the warmest place to be. There was still some spectacular scenery around, so I did go for a short walk and take some photos. However, as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains at around 4pm, ice would start to appear on the ground and on the tent, so it wasn't the most comfortable place to be! The meals cooked up by Pasan Tenday were fantastic and included soups, spaghettis, rice dishes and the local dish of dahl baht.


So at 1am Saturday morning we were out of sleeping bags in minus 15 temperatures with a light wind. For me, I did not have a good night's sleep and was feeling the altitude quite badly that morning. It was quite a struggle to get myself ready as I was constantly short of breathe, but after a bowl of porridge we were off just after 2am. The first stage is quite flat as it follows a valley along the side of Island Peak. Soon after it turns sharply up the hill and a small track zig-zags its way up the hill. Unfortunately for PaulD, he had picked up a bit of a chest and cough and was the first to start struggling at around 5,350m. He made the decision to turn back as he realised he would not have the strength to continue, so Chris (our lead guide) headed back with him. So it was left to PaulT and myself to continue and we both felt quite good until the track steepens and hits some quite severe rock that you need to haul yourself over. By around 7am and having progressed to around 5,700m (still 490m from the summit), we both new our morning was over as we struggling to get ourselves over the rocks and steep ledges. The photo taken is of myself, PaulT and Pasan Tenday and is from our highest point with the summit in the background (in the sun so hard to see). So disappointingly we both turned back, with still a few hours of effort required to get to the top. We arrived back at base camp at around 9am quite shattered from the physical exertion we had made. Lunch was egg, chapati, backed beans and cheese - I had a double helping I was so exhausted from what we had done. We were all keen to leave base camp so at around 1pm we made the two hour trek back to Chukkung in the freezing wind.

So where did it go wrong? Although we had spent alot of time above 4,700m prior to the climb, we didn't spend any time higher than our base camp and in hindsight that was where we could have acclimatised better. By the next day I was quite personally disappointed that I had not summitted, having come all this way. However, we had still thoroughly enjoyed our travels, seen some fantastic scenery, met some great people and spent a fortnight with four local Sherpa people who added alot to our journey. I think my future treks and climbs will be limited to day walks in the French and Italian Alpes where there is a cafe at the top to enjoy a hot drink and pastry!!

Following our return to Chukkung, we put spent the next two days trekking back to Namche Bazaar where we are now. It is amazing how easy this walk was, not just from being downhill, but from now being at a lower altitude which made even the uphills seem easy.


Today was an easy day around Namche. I bought some new trail running shoes which I can use for orienteering - half the price and by far better than anything I could find in Australia. We then went to Ang Chhiri and his wife Pemba's house in a nearby village (about an hour's walk), who had invited us around for lunch - another massive meal of chapati, fried rice and hot potato chips! This evening we went down to the local bar to play pool and have a few beers (not celebration ones unfortunately) which was a welcome change to being in bed by 8.30pm because it is normally too cold!

So we are now on the last few days of our journey. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we walk back to Lukla to hopefully catch a flight out on Wednesday back to Kathmandu, weather permitting. I am still struggling to convince Heather to let me shave off my furry and annoying beard - she wants to see it "live", all I want to do is get rid of it! I certainly won't be following the trend of a couple of other work colleagues that kept their facial hair following trips to Nepal.....

Back in Namche

As you all know from Heather's updates over the last week, our attempt on Island Peak was not successful. We are now safely back in Namche Bazaar soaking up the warmer weather (maximum of about 10 degrees) and lower altitude. We are here for another day yet so I will give a blow-by-blow account of how tough Island Peak was, how we suffered camping a base camp in -15 degree temperatures and how good our base camp cook was sometime tomorrow! Although we did not achieve our ultimate goal of summitting the peak, we have still had a fantastic time hiking in this region.

The positive point of being out of mobile/internet coverage for the last week is that I have been able to avoid the latest cricket scores!

A leisurely stroll up Island Peak....NOT!

I managed to speak to Adrian briefly on Friday, and here is an overview of their summit attempt...

They started out as planned at 2am Friday morning. Adrian said it was very difficult to breathe and the going was very hard; the climb very rocky. Unfortunately, they were not able to complete the summit, as they were all "shattered" as he put it, and had to turn back prior to getting to the top. Adrian managed to make it to 5,700m. They have decided that they will not be making any further attempts on the summit.

Once they had regrouped at Island Peak Base Camp, they headed off back to Chhukhung (4,738m), where they stayed over on Friday night. From here, they are planning to head back to Pangboche (3,938m) on Saturday.

They are all safe and well, although still recovering from the hard slog. I am sure Adrian will be able to provide more details and some spectacular photos on his return to internet service.

Phone call from Island Peak Base Camp

I received another brief satellite phone call from Adrian last night. They reached Island Peak Base Camp (4,970m) yesterday afternoon, although they are all "absolutely shattered". For this reason they will not be doing a summit attempt today (Thursday), and instead will have a rest day to acclimatise further. They will hopefully be ready to go first thing Friday morning (2am).

Of course, they are all very cold...! Not surprisingly.

Yesterday evening, I found a website detailing Nepal 6-day weather forecasts for Island Peak (Imja Tse), and at that time it appeared that they were picking the best day for a summit attempt on Friday - clear and low wind. Adrian was quite happy to receive an up-to-date weather forecast over the phone. And I was thrilled to help from so far away!

When checking this morning (choosing the 6183m forecast), I notice there is 1cm of show expected to fall on Friday afternoon, but still low wind. Friday and Saturday still seem to be the best days for the ascent.

The site is: http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Imja-Tse/forecasts/6183

Cheers, Heather :-)