Two weeks of walking was the build up to this day...'The pass', climbing 1000 metres to an altitude of 5416 metres. The nerves of anticipation were building, adrenaline pumping through my veins and the question of 'could i do it?' whizzing through my brain.
Day 14..."Altitude sickness raises its ugly head"
What you need before a 1000m climb is a good nights sleep, and that's what we were hoping for as we tucked ourselves into bed last night. However a little mouse had other ideas.....he was going to torment us all night leaving us feeling shattered! After a hearty meal we went to bed fully clothed as the temperature was freezing, beds squished together so that we would share
our body heat and tucked in tight. Starting to drift off i heard a noise....all of us sat up.."there is a mouse in the room" Mark exclaimed....so we all proceeded to get out of bed, search around in the hope of finding it....bags were riffled through, food and snacks zipped away, not finding it we got back under the warm blankets. Again the noise started, i fumbled for my torch, got my thumb in position and fired the baby up in the direction of the rustling.....as soon as i turned it on the noise stopped. This proceedure went on at least another five times, Sharon, Mark and i getting more annoyed. There was nothing we could do but try and sleep through it....this mouse was playing a game with us and as far as i was concerned he had won. After not a lot of sleep we all got up at 5 am and headed for breakfast, some nutters had already left to go over the pass but we wanted to wait for the start of sunrise. Porridge with apples was the meal for the day, now i am not great in the mornings but trying to eat at that time as hard as i tried was not happening. I managed about a third then passed it on to Mark our dustbin who devoured the rest. We finished our packing and wrapped up warm, down jacket, thermals, the whole cheebang. At 6 am we left..... i was so nervous, nervous of the unknown and could i do it? The first section was a mean old climb of 400m to high camp, we set off following the other trekkers slowly inching there way up one step at a time. We were all really slow, leaving Thorang Pedi at an altitude of 4450m really has an effect on your breathing making the fittest of people slow right down and take it easy. After about 20 minutes i started to feel a bit dodgy, a little nauseous and getting really hot so i started to strip off some of my layers to cool down even though it was starting to lightly snow. I made a real effort to carry on drinking my water which in my plastic bottle was now actually starting to freeze, ice cubes forming at the top. Eventually High camp was in sight and i was relieved, feeling sick and having a dodgy tummy i walked as fast as i could up the hill, threw my bag down on a bench and rushed to the loo. The loo in itself was a danger hazard....it had a window (but no glass) and snow flakes began to pour in but to make things more interesting the ceramic squat toilet had a layer of ice on it! It was like ice skating and doing your buisness at the same time...not fun! We stopped at the tea house to warm up before the next part, the guys thought i was feeling sick from nerves but i wasn't convinced. Our friend Jenny had joined us with her guide and so as a group we carried on. It was so cold and to keep moving was definately the best thing, we were surrounded by clouds and getting covered in drizzle of snow. The path suddenly turned icy, i literally inched my way across the path with trepidation as it only allowed one foot in front of the other...to be honest i was terrified of slipping. I just took my time. Sharon also fell ill, before leaving high camp she had to mad dash it to the loo and for the rest of the journey had to scope out places to 'go'...it was a bit of a nightmare....thankfully Mark was feeling fine. We needed at least one of us to be compus mentus on the path! My feelings of illness got worse, i wasn't being sick but felt that niggerling feeling in the pit of your stomach. What began to worry me was the stumbling pattern i had accumulated whilst walking, i felt like i had been drinking and i had started to feel light headed. I was beginning to think it may be altitude sickness....but i had been fine in Tibet and fine at Everest base camp so surely not? The thing is Altitude sickness is not something to take lightly, in fact it is a killer and had struck down two people the week before. The main sympton is a headache and then comes the stumbling, dizziness etc, the only thing you can do to alleviate it is to go back down and wait it out. At one point we all stopped for a rest, the group was now aware that i was not feeling great and a discussion began fuelled by Jennys guide, "do you have a headache?" i was asked repeatedly....i didn't and so let them know. I was sat on a rock listening to them decide what we should do, head down? get a horse? ....i just pulled my hat over my eyes and burst into tears. I really felt like i was letting the group down, being the weakest link and causing a drama. What made it worse was the fact that the weather was drawing in and we needed to get to the top fairly promptly as it was starting to get stormy. I knew that i couldn't walk to the top as much as i wanted to and i didn't want to go back down not after we were so close. So it was decided i would ride a horse to the top, gut instinct told me i would be fine, i had no headache so the plan was made. The others carried on leaving Mark and i to wait for the horse. Once the guy arrived Mark started off to jion the others and i clambered on the horse. Thoughts did cross my mind, would i be okay, would the symptons get worse? i was fully prepared to head back down if they did get worse...i just hoped it wouldnt come to that. The horse ride was better than walking but through the ice i got very twitchy, this was heightened when the horse fell over twice! I just wanted to get to the top and get the hell down!!!!! The top was a relief.....a big sign congratulated us on reaching 5416m! Mark was grinning like a cheshire cat, i was holding my head (headache had just kicked in) and Sharon was holding her stomach against the ailing cramps. We took a picture....not the best photo of the three of us!!!! and got the the hell out of there! The actual pass was a bit of a disappointment in itself, after seeing lots of pictures and maps i thought we would be standing on top of a peak like Everest but it was flat...that was it! However none of us wanted to hang around, i paid the horseman a silly amount and we left. The 'fun' was not over....we had a serious descent of 1600m ahead of us. Sharon and i 'the gruesome twosome' had a pattern of walking...she was good at the ups and not the downs and i was the opposite, so i knew this was going to be harder for her now in the state she was in. Asking if she was ok i first got ignored and then the gruff response of "i don't want to complain"....thinking i was going to irritate her more by being sympathetic i left Mark in charge of the nursing duties. (We have since laughed about this, our one and only little spat....the thing is she knew that if she had 'let me in' it would of made her cry and not want to carry on so i let her be) It was a steep and constant downhill, i cracked on, the headache still pounding, wanting to reach our destination. It was tough on the knees and never ending through the barren landscape...nothing was living there at all. Occasionally you could hear the scuttle of displaced rocks tumbling down, other than that it was silent apart from my own thoughts. Nearing the bottom hail started to pound on us....great...anything else????? It was decided that Mark would crack on to the next town finding us somewhere to stay and Sharon, Jenny, her guide and i would take our time. We stopped at a tea house on the way to warm up and get out of the impending weather for at least for 15 minutes, when we finally left the hail had stopped thankfully but was replaced by snow. This i could cope with, at least it was soft!!! The four of us walked on to Muktinath in a line, heads down just watching eachothers feet, stepping in the persons snowy footprints. It was pointless to look up as the snow flew in your eyes and the visability was very poor, so we plodded on occasionally shouting conversations at one another through the wind! Before reaching the town we had a wonderful suspension bridge to cross....it was hilarious...my boots couldn't grip on to the icy platfrom so i half skidded and walked my way across. This lightened the mood, Sharon and i were back to our laughing selves! I was so happy to reach our hostel (we looked like snowmen by this point,covered from head to toe in snow), i showered and swiftly plonked myself down in the dining room tucking my legs under the table where little stoves warmed our feet. I couldn't have felt happier. Part of me felt disappointed that i wasn't able to carry myself and my bag the whole way but knowing i wouldn't have done it without the horse put it into perspective. The main thing was we HAD DONE IT and we were all safe and sound. It was the hardest thing i have ever done...and i am really proud of myself and my buddies. Mark and Sharon were stars, we came as a team and we would leave the mountain as a team and i knew they were by my side the whole way. Team M.R.S (mark sharon reb) had done it! YES!
