Trying Freedom

This trip was definitely the most difficult yet most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, a bit dramatic maybe?

I won’t focus too much on the itinerary because to be completely honest, the place names all sound very similar and you will have seen them in every other blog already, however, if you are interested you can take a look here, along with some other general updates from the trip.

Culturally, it’s been mind-blowing, from Kathmandu and even more so as soon as you reach the mountains to embark on the (roughly) 15-day trek. I can safely say the local people are some of the nicest you’ll ever meet, mostly living in poverty but happy, I imagine partly due to the majority of locals being Buddist/Hindu and the beliefs that they follow. This does mean there are plenty of incredible monasteries for you to visit along the trek such as Tengboche or Khumjung which even claims to have a Yeti Scalp inside…

Starting sleepless at around 1 am on the 8th of April, we left on a 5-hour drive to Ramechhap Airport as you cannot fly directly to the tiny 527m long runway of Lukla Airport directly from Kathmandu, without knowing the right people which we clearly did not…

After landing (somehow in one piece) we then met the local team that would be supporting getting our western selves up to the summit. When I say supporting that’s definitely an understatement, at least for me I literally couldn’t do it without them. Between us all, we had 4 porters who would be carrying our extra equipment, 3 climbing guides, 1 assistant climbing guide and a trekking guide, all of which would disappear and reappear throughout the trek, which we’re told is very normal by our UK leader.

Honourable mention to all of the Naks, Yaks and Donkey trains which you cannot miss on the trail, ferrying around supplies for treks and expeditions, the downside is you have to watch your step if you catch my drift.

We then made it over to our first tea house, a tea house is the most common type of accommodation in the mountains, they’re very simple with either single or twin rooms and one common area in which you spend most of your time, either eating Dal Bhat or some other essential carbs or wishing time away before you go and visit the next one higher up, sounds thrilling I know.

They vary hugely in quality as you make your way up, you start fairly warm with a comfortable mattress, free WiFi, a socket to be able to charge your devices and flushing toilets, then watch them all start to disappear as you go on. This is definitely a bit dramatic (excluding the bathrooms) since even the highest of the tea houses are easy to get a good night’s sleep in after a long day’s walk, then charging and WiFi only cost around £7 per day, just don’t expect good WiFi.

Hopping between these tea houses and going higher up is actually one of the most important parts of a trip like this in terms of success, acclimatisation is the key, along with all of the snacks and Mars bars.

Physically I felt fit enough, although in hindsight I should’ve put more effort into my training instead of rushing an intensive one-month schedule of HIIT classes in Australia, however, the acclimatisation amplifies that massively and it was definitely not easygoing.

I decided not to take Diamox, which is the most common drug you can get to support any symptoms of altitude sickness you might get and instead opted to trust in the slow and steady process, fortunately this worked for the most part but didn’t stop me from getting the headaches which most people experience. I’d say it’s most similar to feeling like you’ve got a hangover constantly, which does make me wonder why the first night I got back to Kathmandu I chose to pay for another one.

On top of that, we spent quite a while (for someone who normally lives at an altitude of 16m in Norwich) living around/over 5000m, sounds cool right but it definitely takes a toll on your body, you can physically feel your body trying to take in more oxygen than it can get, which also leads to a kind of panic breathing to catch up, especially when you’re trying to sleep at high camp (5500m) which is nice.

One of our team struggled with this more than most and had to be helicopter rescued from a tea house in Chukhung after a night on Oxygen, which is just before the base camp of Island Peak. On top of this our UK leader was also hit with a chest infection so weren’t able to progress from Chukhung leaving us in the capable hands of the local team for the summit day.

It’s worth mentioning that it had now taken us 10 days of slowly acclimatising to even get to a point where we could make a summit attempt, the sheer amount of time you have to invest to be able to make it up to the top of these peaks is huge, however, still hasn’t managed to put me off it, I’ve got a lot of free time at the minute…

Despite some language barrier issues with one of our local climbing guides, lots of unexpected rock fall and traffic on our way up and down the headwall, I safely made it to the summit at a height of 6,189m and back down on the 18th of April. Unfortunately, another member of our team had to turn back halfway up to the summit due to sickness which made a total of 4 of us successfully summiting, but an incredible effort by all.

Due to the team’s sicknesses, I was then the only person out of the initial 3 that would continue onto Everest Base Camp, two days later on April 20th we successfully arrived there but to be completely honest I was underwhelmed, partly because the first part of the trip was so incredible but mainly because of the massive amount of tourists you encounter on the way, a completely different experience from the trek up to Island Peak which was quiet in comparison.

However, Kala Patthar, which is a mountain not far away from Everest Base Camp that sits at 5,644m was well worth it, the sunrise hike with views of Mount Everest itself was absolutely incredible, made even better by bumping into Shaun (a friend from home who will be joining me on my travels for a while) by complete coincidence just before the summit.

I parted ways with Shaun after some breakfast as he goes to finish his own 3 passes trek, we then made it back to Kathmandu in 4 days, not complete without a stop at the Irish Bar in Namche Bazar for some Sherpa Beer with my now personal trekking guide, Tika. I still haven’t gotten my head around being able to get these Western delights in the middle of a mountain.

It’s now a few days later I think I’m just about returning back to normal and ready to tick off some more destinations which aren’t at a headache-inducing altitude, stay tuned!

You can also now find the fully edited video from the trip below.