in search of Sagarmatha - dead end

err.. ok so where did i leave off the last time?

oh ya - dingboche.

so anyway, the snowstorm eventually did clear, but only after 3 days of non-stop snow, and only after i was already prepared to throw in the towel and head back down.

the walk became progressively difficult at this point. firstly, trudging through calf-deep snow was not really easy, especially when the snow by now had completely covered the dirt track which i had been following thus far, so effectively i was as good as walking blind. secondly, it became more and more difficult to breathe due to the thinning of the air, and lastly, windchill became stronger.

luckily i had lukhpa, my nepali porter-guide to lead the way. at times the fog got so bad it was almost impossible to make out anything beyond a 10m radius, but yet we plodded on, with him stumbling at the front, and me following in his footsteps.

forging ahead

i guess it was really amazing then, that we finally made it to gorak shep, the village right at the khumbu icefall, at the foothills of Everest.

khumbu icefall. huge valley of blue ice.

- to be continued -

busy body

alas alas its been one hectic week after another.

sorry for the long downtime.. i know an update (and conclusion to my sagarmatha series) is waaaay overdue.

will try to bang out sometime soon.. i promise!

in search of Sagarmatha - blizzard of '77

up up and away!

from Namche Bazaar onwards the altitude begins to tell. Tengboche, Pangboche, Dingboche, Lobuche, and finally Gorak Shep; everyday the path leads further upward. the result? less oxygen and more cold.

and it also meant that while at lower heights we would get rain, it began to snow.

usually snow conjures up images of fun and christmas: snowmen, snowball fights and what not; we rarely think about the destructive side of it. and it is certainly not fun when you are snowed in with no form of heating at night and nowhere to go and nothing to do.

like what i experienced at Dingboche.

day before

day after

i had never seen so much snow in my life, and especially not so much snowfall in such a short period of time! well, the outcome was that i was forced to stay put at Dingboche for 2 nights extra freezing my ass off. what a holiday.

- to be continued -

in search of Sagarmatha - to bazaar we go

for trekkers in the Khumbu region, it is quite a shock to enter into the village of Namche Bazaar after days of walking in relative desolateness.

at 3440m, Namche Bazaar is the gateway into the high Himalayas, and almost everyone who is heading to the high peaks beyond will undoubtedly pass through it. unlike the villages located before and after it, Namche Bazaar - as the name suggests - is the Great Himalayan Sale. for the shopaholic trekker, this is your Everest. for those who packed too lightly, this is the place to stock up on supplies. camera broken? no worries, there are camera repair shops at Namche! indeed, such was the range and availability of "luxury" items at Namche Bazaar that i thought that i had returned to Orchard Road in Singapore!

needless to say, i loved Namche. it was like Club Med to me; my spiritual chicken soup for the entire trek. when i was cold and tired i tried to think of Namche with its huge yak steaks, beer at decent prices, and hot showers. what was supposed to be a 1 night stay became 2 nights, then stretched into 3. i was drunk on the high of civilisation and the creature comforts it offered.

yak steak!

the addiction was dangerous; i almost did not make it up to EBC, if not for

my first view of Everest from somewhere near Namche

- to be continued -

david vs goliath

the giant is slain.

and my heart is broken. =(

quel ironie que nadal ait été battu hier à roland garros. le roi s'est trouvé à la mauvaise côté pour la première fois; c'est dommage aussi qu'il n'a pas pu maintenir son record. mais pas grave, on va surement reverser ce resultat à wimbledon! vamos rafa!

in search of Sagarmatha - lost in the mist

every search has a starting point. for Everest, i started at the foothills of Lukla.

it was an overcast day when we flew in from Kathmandu, and the DHC-6 twin otter i was in barely rose above the clouds during the flight.

shrouded in all this mist, it was difficult indeed in locating my final destination. "not too good", i thought as we buzzed through all the grey and white, "is Everest a real geographical manifestation or just a figment of one's imagination?" perhaps, perhaps.

but wait.

amongst all the fluff i could make out some jagged edges. could that be it?

- to be continued -

in search of Sagarmatha - intro

in Nepali, the name for Everest is Sagarmatha, which means the Goddess of the Sky. indeed, at 8850m (and still rising), it dominates the northern Nepali landscape, and stands starkly alone even amongst the world's longest and tallest chain of mountains, the Himalayas.

thus the attraction to go there, to conquer it. in the words of George Mallory in 1924, "Because it's there"; simply put, its presence beckons like a très sexy babe.

for me, summiting Everest itself was quite out of the question at the moment in time. lack of funds aside (it usually costs about USD55,000 to put someone at the top), i had absolutely zero mountaineering experience. so base camp seemed like a good second best.

route to base camp. click to enlarge

hence, in like 3 days after my final paper, i got my air tickets, printed out wikitravel EBC, packed, brushed my teeth, and found myself wandering the noisy streets of Kathmandu and in search of Sagarmatha.

- to be continued -