Standing In The Footsteps Of Hillary.......Well Nearly

Ok, so I'm back from the Everest base camp trek. How did it go, I hear you say? Well would anything I do be straight forward or not be an adventurous journey which added to my collection of great stories that I have to bring back to keep you bored for hours?

Read about the trek to see if I came back a wreck!

I thought I knew what 'real' adventure was before I got to Nepal, but doing the Everest base camp trek had taught me 'real' adventure - and an adventure wouldn't be, without the story being almost unbelievable - then again, with me, anything can happen!

Our first day started early 5am for the flight to Lukla, the start of our base camp trek. We were all very excited and hauled our heavy rucksacks onto the airport scales - mine was 15kg! We got into the departure lounge - no real security here and no 100ml liquid limit- we were all carrying 3 litres of water each. We quickly discovered that our flight would be delayed as the weather was too bad in Lukla to make the landing.

A few cups of tea and two hours later we were heading to our plane. We were lucky - some treks start days late due to the weather so 2 hours was not really a delay.

When we got to our plane we could have being rock stars getting onto a 10 seater private jet, except for it being about 30 years old and looking tired - we were in for a flight experience of a lifetime - little did I know that my journey would only be one way by plane!

The plane sat our group as well as a party of Swiss and French heading for the Cho La Pass to Mt Gokyo (5483m), then to base camp. I was sat within touching distance of the pilot and couldn't believe it. I may have well being sat with them - they were both looking very casual - wearing jeans and I could see every dial and instrument. I've longed to see a cockpit as an adult since I saw one as a kid and took no notice. I also wanted to see how a plane was really flown especially at the critical stages, landing and takeoff. Notice I say landing - I don't have any terrorist tendencies.

The plane, a 30 year old propeller driven one, sitting only one person on each side was quite shaky and I was sat at the side of the propeller and was hoping that it held in place or at least I'd have a faster exit from this world than the others - decapitation by propeller - mega.

The flight was amazing and my eyes never left the cockpit, watching the activities of the pilots, except to look at the giant mountains as they came into view on our left. Our guide Ram had requested that we sit on the left so we could get the best view and we did, 8000m snow capped mountains!

Ram was superb for the whole of our trip and he was on the button with every decision he made for, and with the team. I cannot express enough how much respect I have for the 25 year old Himalayan mountain guide.

There was a worrying moment as I spotted another plane only about 50m away form us, but this is normal due to the landing strip at Lukla been in a valley. What did this mean? I found out soon enough when the plane suddenly dropped over a mountain to reduce its altitude for final approach - the strip was below us, by some way and was on the side, I mean side, of a mountain!

The pilot made his approach and I could see out of the cockpit window that at the end of the short runway was a rock face! We hit the tarmac and hurtled towards the rock face. Just as I realised as the runway was not long enough we took a sudden turn to the right and came to a stop in the parking area - what an experience - I couldn't wait for the take off back to Kathmandu off the side of a mountain.

We quickly collected our bags minus Liisa's which was still in Kathmandu and headed for a nearby Tea House for breakfast and to await for the arrival of Liisa's bag. Liisa's bag turned up about 2 hours later on a following flight and we set off in the footsteps of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on the route they took in 1953.

We set off from Lukla to Phakding, which was to be out first nights stop on this 14 day adventure, which, according to Hans was going to be 'serious shit Pete'.

Within 10 minutes of us setting off at a reasonable pace, the rain started and we quickly found out that it was not going to be a walk in the park. There was only myself and Ram carrying a rucksack rain cover and Ellen, a late addition to the group and Hans not having waterproof jackets, which I thought was a little crazy.

I was surprised that there were not many other tourists on the route, but maybe with the delay for Liisa's bag they had already got a good start on us. When we got to the Tea House for our first nights stay there was only one other trekker - a Dutch guy who was only going as far as Tengboche as he was just preparing to summit the Mera Peak, leading a group to raise money for Nepali orphanages.

We had a good chat to Harry and posed for a photo for his website before heading to bed. Once we got settled and had finished laughing about Harry's guide telling us 'don’t take pills on the hills' (however I was to later to stop taking my anti-malaria pills) and about Nepal’s anti-terrorist unit being the worlds best, the local disco started. A disco in the middle of the Himalayas - what next?

Day 2 was known to be the most difficult, and it was. It was a 3 hour constant uphill slog up to Namche Bazaar. It was difficult, however, we all did well and took it at a reasonable pace, despite the cold wind and later at altitude, the snow.
Although it was cold it was not too bad as long as we kept moving. When we got to our lodge at Namche, which was more like an alpine village rather than a Sherpa village, there were more tourists staying in the lodge. There were a group of Irish girls who had dangerously run up following their irresponsible guide and an English couple.

Rebecca was from Dewsbury and had lived in Idle so knew Saltaire well - It was great talking to her and she sounded just like my cousin Jo. We chatted for ages talking about home, our plans for when we return and where we'd been. I think it was just comforting for us both to hear such familiar accents that kept us talking all evening but she also had an interesting occupation - she was a professional author who had had 3 title published and one of the books 'e11even terrible months' sounded like a good read featuring local people and areas - always a winner with Yorkshire folk.

The following day was a scheduled rest day. The idea is to trek to altitude without packs on and come down to sleep - this is supposed to help reduce the chances of AMS (acute mountain sickness). I awoke with what felt like the mother of all hangovers so I took some 'pills on the hills' which made me feel better - I did decide tho' to ditch my anti-malaria tablets as I thought these were making me feel a little lousy too. After breakfast we set off to gain altitude where we would get our first glimpse of Everest. After about 40 minutes Liisa was struggling with her knee which she thought could be a problem so the girls opted to return to the lodge - this was safe as the lodge was still in site and wasn't too far down. Myself, Hans and Ram continued to the higher altitude to aid acclimatisation.

Once we reached the top we could see good view of Everest and Ama Dablam a really interesting shaped peak. We sat at a tea house for a while and drank ginger tea to spend as long as we could at this altitude. Ginger and garlic is supposed to be good at preventing the symptoms of AMS. After our tea we headed down to meet the girls and relax for the afternoon.

We managed to make good use of the last shower for the remaining 11 days! The next day we awoke all feeling the benefits of a rest day and set off to Tenboche - again we bumped into Harry and pretty much followed them to Tengboche.

Tenboche has a Monastery for the Sherpa’s which was destroyed by fire many years ago, and which was re-built for the Sherpa people with the help of Edmund Hillary.
For most of that days trek we had magnificent views of Everest, Ama Dablam, Nuptse and Lhotse. It was on this day that I first realised the tranquility of the mountains, the vivid colours, the cold, crisp silence, even though the wind seemed to have quietened down. For some time the atmosphere seemed very spiritual as I took a rest to let the others to come over the last steep ridge - This was a moment I had to myself and one that I will remember for a long time.
Hans had also realised on this day, anything from China was crap. 'Fuck China, Free Tibet' - He was hurting badly from first his Chinese made trousers having no stitching in the groin and then by his serious sunburn even though wearing some factor 90 sun cream again made in China!
That night it was much colder and our Tea House was much busier, but we managed to get a good spot around the fire until it was time to crawl into bed - We decided that our rooms looked like giant wooden coffins!

The following day Liisa was ill and although she wanted to continue myself and Hans decided that the group should take an unplanned rest day for Liisa to rest.

We said good luck to Harry and then spent the day pottering about and managed to send some postcards, yes postcards, before returning to the lodge to watch ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ while sat around the fire. Liisa later said that we being firm and making the decision to stay had helped her a lot.
The next day, day 6 we were all feeling pretty fit except Ellen who was suffering mild symptoms of AMS. Later that evening she took some Diamox. On this day we would break the 4000m mark. The day was very easy and it seemed that I had managed to get my breathing pattern right. At altitude the body goes through physiological changes to deal with altitude, but it needs time.

That night we got to a lodge with no one else there. At this height there are no trees therefore much less O2 - almost 50% less than at see level and no firewood. Instead the locals use dried Yak shit! (A female Yak is called a Nak). The sky was very clear and I could see thousands of stars brightly - like on Cathedral beach on Fraser Island but colder as we were now at temperatures well below zero. Further up without wind chill, the temperature was to get to -16 degree C.

Day 7 was another scheduled rest day. We realised how little O2 there was in our room that morning when the lighter Hans had brought along wouldn't work in our room but it would outside! The Diamox had worked for Ellen and we were all raring to go up to 5000m for our acclimatisation. After about an hour something in my leg popped! It felt like my cruciate ligament had given way. I tried to go on but knew that this would be worse for me than rest, so Liisa headed back to the lodge with me to have a look at it and strap it up - we were fortunate enough to have Liisa with us as she was a Physio - they get everywhere Michelle - I'll be surprised if you didn't know each other some how.

Fortunately it wasn't my cruciate ligament but Liisa suspected I may have a problem with a tendon. We rested for the rest of the morning trying not to sleep (that’s the altitude) and waited for the others to get back. For the remainder of the day we played cards and a nice American guy CJ, from New York joined us later on. That afternoon Hans was suffering from the affects of been up at 5000m but he rested in the afternoon and was ok later in the evening.

The next day, with the help of Liisa's strapping and some Ibuprofen, the knee felt better however it kept reminding me every now and then that it was sore. We started early for our long walk to 4950m. Our last sleep before reaching Everest base camp - morale was high in the camp and we were all relatively fit. This stretch was easy - too easy I thought, as I was doing it, shouldn't I be feeling a little AMS? My breathing was good, my head was good and our pace was good - maybe it was the adrenaline of the next day's achievement that was keeping us together.

At 4800m we walked through a memorial ground with dozens of memorials for people who had died tackling Everest - 8 people a year die doing the base camp! The memorial ground was totally silent and I had a walk around and felt total respect for these fallen adventurers who had died while fulfilling their passion and dreams - I could now imagine, at least a bit, the pull of such a feat as I was feeling the same for the Base Camp.

That evening I had a chill and that is where it all started to go wrong, seriously wrong. I went to bed early and got into my sleeping bag to warm through and shivered myself to sleep. At about 1.30am I woke feeling like all hell was about to break loose in my mind. I was spaced out and couldn’t walk without nearly collapsing. The team was really worried and Ram gave me a Diamox, which didn't work and I was to have the worst night of my life! I was feeling sick, dizzy and generally spaced out - I apparently had a conversation in the middle of the night with Ram and Hans which I cannot remember, but was just saying how it was 'serious shit' over and over again.

As I didn't improve Ram decided at first light that I needed an evacuation from the mountain as I was showing serious symptoms of AMS. So day 9 was a decent to the next village, as I had picked the only village on the mountain side to get ill with no communications. Ram took my bag and ran down to the next village, but I cannot really remember much more about the climb down except when we got to the bottom Ram said he'd called for the evac. and Ellen should go with me? This was a strange request, but as we later found out there was an emergency within her family and she needed to return home – it was all happening on our watch.

If I hadn't got ill, Ellen wouldn't have found out about her family emergency until we returned to Lukla on the 16th!

We sat and waited for the air lift but it was cancelled due to the weather so we headed further down for my benefit to reduce altitude.

On the was down we had to stop as my lungs were cramping and as I was explaining to Liisa, her nose started bleeding quite badly and the weather was closing in. The whole situation seemed hopeless. We continued down to our planned lodging and I again had a poor night. Before I want to bed I had news that my insurance company had changed their mind about my cover.

The next day we decided that we would try bribing the helicopter pilot who came to collect Ellen to take me also, but when he arrived he refused as he'd loose his job.

After Ellen's dramatic evac. we headed down further so I could check my policy and call my insurance to get the correct story. Finally I got confirmation of my cover and the emergency airlift was called in. Usually AMS symptoms lesson as you get lower but by breathing had got worse on the way down so an airlift was still necessary.

The flight back to Kathmandu was amazing - once more it felt like I was in a war movie flying feet above the Himalaya mountains and low in the valleys seeing the Himalayas in a way not many other people get to see - what an experience - if I wasn't feeling so ill then I could have been a pleasure flight, but a bloody expensive one $5500, which the insurance company has since informed me that I was not covered for!

When I got to Kathmandu I was rushed to the waiting doctor, David a doctor from the US. He said I was very lucky as I had the symptoms of serious AMS and most likely had a cerebral oedema which of I had stayed for a couple more hours at that height would have lead to a coma and eventually death - I told you anything can happen to me.

I'm ok now, I have a raised blood pressure (not sure if that’s for the credit card bill I’ve got or AMS) and the doctor prescribed rest so that’s what I'm doing until the remaining team members return tomorrow.

I have once again had more learning to take with me from the past two weeks. I have learnt how important teamwork is to get through the toughest moments with everyone standing up to be counted as the right moment all for the benefit of the team or another individual. I have also realised that I have been part of a great team more than once, I have taken the bond for granted in the past and it has taken this to realise how important teamwork and trust in others is to achieve favorable results.

One big thing that I have realised is how important the people that surround you are – without the people around you, you will find it hard to get through the hard times. Cherish your family, friends, colleagues and loved ones and let them know that.

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of my team.”