Trekking to Everest Base Camp - Part 2 - "Sick and struggling"

Hey Steemians

So in my last post I finished off with arriving at Gokyo in the rain and Charlene was starting to feel a little bit ill.

https://steemit.com/travel/@markangeltrueman/trekking-to-everest-base-camp-part-1

^{Gokyo Lake - the sun is finally out}

Even though the weather picked up, unfortunately, things got worse for her and she spent the whole night hovering over a long drop with a really bad stomach. It is said that 75% of trekkers pick up some sort of intestinal bacterial issue while out in Nepal and it appeared that she was one of those 75%. However, even after a pretty rubbish night and now not really being able to eat anything, we awoke the next morning ready to attempt the climb to the summit of Gokyo Ri. That means climbing from 4750m to 5357m; at this altitude that's not an easy task. We also started in the dark and cold in order to get to the summit in time for sunrise. So why do we try to summit Gokyo Ri? Well from the top of Gokyo Ri it is possible to see four of the 8000m peaks; Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu. You also get a great view of the Gokyo lakes.

^{View of Goyko and the lakes from the summit of Gokyo Ri}

Charlene found this incredibly hard and really struggled with the altitude for the first time. She got really out of breath and it didnt help that she didnt have much energy from being ill with the stomach bug. However, serious kudos to her, we both made it to the summit in time to see the sun rising from behind Mount Everest. The view was one of the most incredible things that we have seen and well worth the very difficult climb.

^{Sunrise over Everest (can you guess which one is Everest?)}

^{Prayer flags on Gokyo Ri}

After spending about an hour at the summit, we returned back down to Gokyo for some well-deserved breakfast before getting our gear ready for another short but challenging trek to our next destination - Thagnak. Thagnak is the last settlement you stop at before the attempt to cross the Cho La pass and in order to get there, you have to traverse the Ngozumpa glacier.

^{Ngozumpa glacier - a rocky wilderness}

This is not easy - it's not a glacier in the traditional sense, it is covered in large rocks and boulders which makes it really hard to get across. You can also hear it creaking and cracking as the underlying structure moves around. It's quite unnerving!. The Ngozumpa glacier is the largest glacier in Nepal and is pretty impressive.

The hike to Thagnak took us just under 2 hours and by the time we got there we were pretty exhausted. Charlene was not well still, so she rested in the room and I ventured out to take a look around. Thagnak is basically about half a dozen tea rooms and a small stream. Pretty much as basic as you can get but you do get a glimpse of the climb to have to make to get to the base of the Cho-La Pass. the climb out of Thangnak is big enough, but then to have a climb up a near vertical stack of rocks onto a glacier is a worrying prospect, to say the least.

^{The path to the Cho La Pass from Thagnak}

Charlene had yet another difficult night with pretty bad sickness so we had an extra unplanned day in Thangnak to try to give her some time to recover. By now she was having trouble eating too but she was determined to make it over the pass so we ate what we could in the morning, grabbed some snacks and started our trek over the Cho La pass.

^{This way to a near-death experience}

^{View back towards Thagnak from the top of the Cho La pass}

We made it! We managed to get over the Cho-La Pass (5420m). It was an interesting experience. I started to feel a bit dodgy too on the way up. I dropped and nearly lost the Go-Pro down between some massive rocks and Charlene got hit on the boob by a falling rock that probably would have done some real damage had it hit someone on the head. Thankfully we managed to survive though. Climbing at that altitude was really hard work.

^{The view of the glacier after getting over the Cho La pass - time for crampons}

This was, without doubt, the hardest bit of the whole trek. Not only did we have to do the really challenging pass and get to Dzongla (which took us six and a half hours), but because we had spent an extra day at Thangnak, we had to make that day up so did extra hiking for another two and a half hours to Lobuche. By the time I had reached Dzongla, I was completely exhausted, but to then have to walk another two and a half hours was totally soul destroying. It got to the point where I was really struggling to put one leg in front of the other. In cycling circles, we call it, "bonking"; where your body gets to the point where it starts to shut down due to lack of energy. That's exactly how I was feeling and to be honest, by the time we got to Dzongla I was running on fumes. However, we did make it - I was totally amazed by how Charlene managed to do it. Tomorrow we would trek to Gorak Shep, just one day away from Everest Base Camp.

^{No time for snowball fights}

It was another bad night of sickness for Charlene and now she hadn't eaten properly for 4 days. It was really starting to take its toll. We got an hour into our trek to Gorak Shep and we had to stop. Charlene had completely run out of fuel and was feeling pretty bad. With a considerably long trek and a pretty big climb in front of us, we took the difficult decision to try to make it down to a town called Pheriche where we could get medical help and get some antibiotics.

^{A sad moment - the turning point}

It was still to be a really long day. We had the one hour walk back to Lobuche and then another three and a half hours down to Periche. Thankfully it was all downhill and somehow Charlene made it. She managed to see a doctor at the small hospital there who gave her some antibiotics to kill off the bacteria that was causing her so many problems.

^{Our guide, Laden, with Ama Dablam in the background as we descend to Pheriche}

Charlene's health quickly turned around and she started to feel better the next morning. She managed to get some food into her for the first time in a few days and we then made the move from Pheriche back to Namche. It was a good job that she did get some food in her cos that day was a monster 12 mile downhill hike that took us eight hours in total to complete.

^{Yak Yak Yak}

However, there was a great sense of relief to be back in Namche which is far more civilised. We had our first hot shower in over 7 days (yeah, things were getting pretty smelly for a while there - I hadn't taken my socks off in 5 days) and things started to feel good again with Charlene back to full health. We spent a bit of time wandering around Namche before a pretty uneventful couple of days trekking back to Lukla via Phakding. As per usual, we had some great views and our final view of Mount Everest through the trees.

^{Goodbye Everest!}

Overall the trek was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was really really challenging, but for me, not so challenging as climbing Kilimanjaro. That is probably because the altitude didn't affect me as much here compared to Tanzania. The hardest thing with trekking to EBC for me was just the non-stop walking for 2 weeks. That's a really long time to be walking every day and towards the end, it did start to get a bit tedious if I'm honest. Really glad that I did it but I do think I need a break from adventure holidays for a while. After that, a 2 week relax by a pool sounds like a great idea!!

^{Massive thanks to the happiest Nepali you could ever meet - Laden}

If you have managed to get this far, thanks for putting the time into reading my story and looking at my pictures. Id love an upvote and re-steem on this one if you think you can!

Thanks for reading and I hope to have a short video up of the trek very soon.

Mark