Mt. Everest - A Treacherous Trail (day 5)

Mt. Everest – A Treacherous Trail

(from Tengboche to Dingboche)

Day 5

We woke up for breakfast to the sounds of the Buddhist monks praying and the Yaks braying.  The air was so cold David and I made “smoke” with our breath when we spoke.

This was our first time eating Tibetan bread.  It is like Native American flatbread.  The taste and texture are much like a donut.  It was a wonderful and unexpected treat to enjoy in the morning with our oatmeal and Masala tea. 

It was that time again – time to hit the trail.  In spite of the beauty I am about to share with you, this was a deceptively dangerous day.  It was not a day for the faint at heart.

We put our buffs on.  They are like a scarf, except the ends are connected, creating a circle around your neck or over your head, our fleece jackets, and rain gear. 

As we entered a green moist forest, we encountered a dazed man with band aids on his forehead and nose, riding on a horse very slowly.  Something was very wrong.  A woman followed and stopped to explain that her friend had blacked out, fell on his face, with had no memory of what had transpired.  He had succumbed to altitude sickness.  They were rushing him back to Tengboche to get him to a helicopter, probably the same one that flew us in on that harrowing helicopter ride a few days ago.  She was scared and needed some time to talk to someone about it and we were there.  This is how we began the day and it became the underlying tone of the day.

The trek continued as it always does. We walked by local people working in their villages.  Dairy farmers were milking their cows with incense burning nearby for good luck. Laborers were chiseling stone by hand, constructing new lodges.  Agricultural farmers were harvesting carrots and potatoes, prying them out of the ground with short hand-held hoes. 

David stopped along the way to take pictures of natural erosion.  It was part of his science assignment for his school, while he was trekking to Mt. Everest base camp.

We ran into our friend Hemant from Mumbai again.  Our harrowing helicopter group had become fast friends, an extended family, learning more about each other at every resting point and luncheon encounter along the way.   He had actually submitted his own version of a jingle for a commercial and won.  They play it in advertisements all over India.  We were running with some pretty talented individuals.

I would be remiss if I failed to describe how beautiful the trek was today.  We entered another part of the green, lush forest – at one point there was a forest of Rhododendron (and even a lodge called Everest Rhododendron).  

Waterfalls and suspension bridges were strewn across the landscape.  However, while walking on one suspension bridge a porter pointed below.  He wanted us to see the original, now tangled and broken suspension bridge that was lying just below us.

 It had been washed out by a landslide.  It was another reminder that as beautiful as this land and this trek appears in words and pictures, there are real dangers at every turn. 

We had reached a new goal – 3906 meters or 11,718 feet – a new milestone, but also a reminder to buy more water. We didn’t have much further to go before we found ourselves on the edge of very steep cliffs.  Yaks had the right of away making it a tight and somewhat terrifying moment or two as they passed.  The narrow one-foot paths on the edge of the cliffs and the flat stone steps that hugged the edge of the cliff were probably the most frightening passages of the day. This was not a time to let your thoughts wander, to stare down below, and definitely not a time to feel light headed, dizzy, or off balance. You had to concentrate on one step at a time.

These were just some of the signs we encountered.  None of them should be taken lightly, and they weren’t.  They were reminders of the constant dangers that lurk in the background of this quest.  They reminded us of the simple things:  to drink more water; pay careful attention to the path, particularly along the cliffs; and to take each step deliberately with a concentrated focus and a sure step.   It served us well because in spite of these signs along the way we made it in one piece.

The day ended with dinner, a couple rounds of UNO (of which David consistently won and I consistently lost), and bed time.