As Brian mentioned, our trek was unexpectedly miserable at times. There were definitely some moments though that are unforgetable..
The Freedom Pee at 16,000 feet
Finding a good spot to pee in the Everest region is tough for a girl. There weren’t a lot of bushes or boulders to hide behind and there was always someone (or a yak) nearby. You couldn’t just squat off the side of the trail. It was in a town called Lobuche around 16,000 feet where I was finally fed up with the peeing situation. The outhouses were filthy and it seemed so unnecessary to have to go in there just to pee. No man ever squats to pee, so why should I?? That’s when I decided to create a device to let me pee standing up. In short, it consisted of a water bottle that I sawed off at one end (at an angle) and covered in duct tape so it wouldn’t hurt any tender spots. The aim was to pee using the funnel – the freedom pee. It worked beautifully! Everyone thought I was nuts.. and maybe i was since this was a high altitude innovation and I was probably depriving my brain of valuable oxygen. Regardless, the funnel traveled with me all the way to Gorak Shep.. and I never had to squat to pee again. I have pictures of course.. hehe..
The Korean Expedition Team
During our descent we stayed a night in a small lodge in Debouche. Also spending the night there were 7 Koreans who were attempting to summit Everest. For some reason, they zero’d in on Brian. Brian was really good at gesticulating so there seemed to be no language barrier. Before we knew it, they had us sampling Kimchee and drinking sake with them. They had brought along their own chef and food (including a 2 litre plastic bottle of sake). At one point, Brian opened the floodgates by asking them if they knew any songs. That started a night of singing and dancing.. Brian rapped “the Humpty Dance”, the Koreans sang their national anthem and a couple English songs, our guides entertained us with some Nepali songs. It’s hard to describe the night in words. Just imagine 7 Koreans, a couple Nepalis and us singing, dancing, eating and drinking.. neither of us fully understanding what the other group is saying.. it was too funny!
Being Sick at Gorak Shep
Unfortunately, Brian and I both got sick at Gorak Shep and weren’t able to hike up to Kala Patthar. On the first day at Gorak Shep I acquired a terrible altitude headache.. it lasted over 24 hours and even 8 tylenols couldn’t take care of it. I decided to attempt the trek to Base Camp even with the headache because there was no way that I hiked so many days to get sick at the end. We managed to get to Base Camp without incident (I think it was all the tylenol) but the trek back was something else. Brian, Buddhi and I slowly hiked back, but it’s an experience I will never forget. The hike to/from base camp is along a ridge about 4 feet wide with 1000 foot drops on either side. The ridge is full of obstacles, climbs and descents. If you’ve ever had any AMS symptoms then you’ll understand how difficult this was. I had a throbbing headache, felt dizzy at times, and had to stop myself from throwing up. It tooks us about 4 hours to hike back to Gorak Shep from basecamp.. it was one of those experiences where you just accept the torture and put one foot in front of the other. I mentioned that Brian was sick as well, but we don’t think it was AMS. We suspected the water at Gorak Shep – they probably didn’t boil it long enough and he acquired some bacteria. Regardless, we decided to skip the hike the next day to Kala Patthar and head down as fast as we could.
We’re safe and sound now in Kathmandu. The other trekkers, John and Mike, left this morning. The Big D departs tomorrow. We’re tentative to depart for Bhutan on Monday but our plans are still in flux as our flight is unconfirmed.
