We have just done the warm up. 4 days of hard trekking to get us fit and acclimatised for the big bastard, Everest Base Camp. Here's some stats of what we did.
PLACE: Gosaikund - Hindu holy lakes in the Langtang Nat Park north of Kathmandu.
EQUIPMENT: 1 x Booce, 1 x Tony, 1 x Nunu, and a very competitive man
AUXILLIARY STAFF: 1 x packet of antibiotics, 8 x trekking poles, 50 x chlorine tablets, Not enough sleeping bag power
Day 1: Dunche to Sing Gompa - 1950m to 3250m - the only word to describe this is punishment! This is Barney and a bit AT ALTITUDE. The last 300m was bloody tough, especially after the teahouse we thought we could stay at (3000m) was closed for the winter.
This was the day that the Super Plod Mode was introduced into our trekking. Plod Mode was all that was needed for hikes in the UK and Oz, but this is different. Fujisaw the Super Plod Mode but it was never coined. EBC may even see the more elusive Super-Duper Plod Mode (note: Dave never needs to go past Plod Mode, even at altitude).
Sleeping at 3250m didn;t present too many problems, it was just if we need to walk from one end of the spacious teahouse to the other we got a bit puffed.
We shared the teahouse with some crazy and very fit Swedish people, one of whom was planning on climbing Cho Oyo in the next 5 years. I did say crazy didn't I?
Day 2: Sing Gompa to Laurebina (3900m). The phrase to desribe this day is 'off to a bad start'. Booce and one of the Swedes woke up sick as dogs. Spewing and the rest. We have no idea what it was, maybe some contaminated water? Dunno. Whatever it was it was the start of something special. A he-man effort from a very tough man.
We had to climb another 650m at altitude. this would be the highest any of the Wards, Allendens or Holloways had been before. This is where headaches and lethargy sink in. Top this off with not eating and losing vital electrolites and you can buy me a ticket to Couch-ville. Not Bruce though, he climbed this in a pretty good time, keeping up with the younger, fitter (maybe not!?) and above all not sick kiddies.
At about 3500m today we went past a place called Chalangpati, home of the endangered Red Panda. Tony believes that it's endangerd because the locals conduct seasonal milking of it to make Panda-Cheese. Mmmmmmmm Panda-Cheese.
At about 3700m we came out above the tree line and started to get some pretty spectatular views of the Himmies. Annapurna, Manaslu, Ganesh Himal, Langtang Lirung.
Sleeping at 3900m the altitude was obvious. The heart was beating QUICKLY. Movement brough about a case of the puffs. Good stuff. Plus it was sooooooooooo cold. we reckon about -10 outside, and it was below zero in the teahouse. I spilt some water on the table and it froze in a few minutes.
Boring bit (got this idea form Sir Chris Bonington): List of Clothing used by me - 2 x thermal pants, 1 x fleece pants, 1 x thick hiking socks, 1 x fleece socks, 2 x thermal tops, 1 x high loft fleece jacket, 1 x mummy jacket, 1 x beanie, 1 x pair of gloves.
Day 3: Laurebina to Gosaikund (4315m) and back to Sing Gompa. This was the real day for getting as high as we could before turning around the way we came. Bruce again woke up pretty damn sick, and he hadn't eaten the previous day. We suggested that he stay at Laurebina while we quickly went up, but he wanted to go high as well. Eventually after a he-man effort he had to stop at the 4000m mark and went back. We though he would stop at 3900m, but he went all the way down and we didn;t see him until he was in bed at 3250m.
Steep terain, a stupa and a and ever-expanding view was abov 4000m. Some snow was left over from aprevious fall, but the true snowline was still 1000m above us.
We got to a view of the holy lake and said stuff it, lets go back. We were all dizzy, had slight headaches and just basically couldn't be stuffed anymore.
We got over 4300m, but EBC is still 1200m higher. DAMN!!! The cold is unthinkable. We are hiring / buying 4 season sleeping bags, coz the Moonrakers just won't do.
1050m descent to Sing Gompa - knee shattering
Day 4: Sing Gompa to Dunche. Another big descent - 1300m! Knees and calves and hammies done for. Thank crap for a few days off!
All up we climbed about 2 and a half Baz's. And that's just the warm up.
