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Travel Writers: Trekking the 'mother Goddess of the world' by Kevin Dyer

Location: Kathmandu, Himalayas, Nepal

Ama Dablam Mountain

Namaste!
Well, after 26 days of trekking all over the Solu-Khumbu region and Saga Martha (Mt. Everest) National Park, as well as waiting in Lukla for two days for a flight back, we are finally back in Kathmandu where the O2 is plentiful, if not a bit polluted.

I can give you some highlights, but even trying to describe what it's like to walk through and on the Himalayas's makes me feel like one of those people who describe the Grand Canyon as "a big hole". Let's just say that they are the superlatives of all mountains, by far the world's tallest, biggest, longest and youngest mountains. They are so high and so jagged that they actually look like a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out jutting into the stratosphere. I want to go to Tibet just to make sure there aren't enormous wooden planks holding them up from behind!

Humble Beginnings

The trek started with us getting thrown around on a bench at the very back of a bus that was rickety at best for ten hours from Kathmandu to Jiri where the trail started. It was straight up for hours and then just to let you know that all of that sweat and energy were for no gain, back down to the river on the other side! The trail never once relented for 26 days!

Unlike the Annupurna Circuit that follows river valleys around the mountains, the Everest trek cuts across the river valleys. The altitude graph looks like a Richter Scale readout during "The Great Quake". The first nine or ten days consisted of going 1,500 - 3000 ft up to a pass,
only to cross and head straight down until you crossed the river again, or your knees exploded. Luckily, it was always the former!

We finally strolled into Lukla after more than a week of trekking. Most people take the 30 minute flight from Kathmandu to Lukla, thus avoiding the "whip your butt into shape" portion of the trek as well as shaving a week off of the trek, however they also greatly increase their chances of getting AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) from the altitude.

Mother Goddess

The dynamics of the trek changed greatly once we reached Lukla. First of all, Adam decided to fly back to Thailand to "chill out". At first I was incredulous at the idea of him leaving after all that hard work without even seeing Everest and her giant neighbours, but having done the whole trek now I can see that we really would have had to do the "speed trek" version of the Khumbu which is never a good idea.

Everything changed soon after Lukla. The trail would go from sub-tropics to high desert plateau to above the tree line to "holy cow there's no air up here", sometimes all in the same day! After Namche Bazaar is when the views really become stunning. Coming around a ridge to our first unobstructed view of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam was like having an epiphany. I can see why the local peoples call Everest the 'mother goddess of the world'. You could also see a little building on top of what they call a hill here (a big mountain most anywhere else) that was our next destination, Tengboche gompa monastery.

Leaving Kansas

It was a beautiful 6-7 hour walk along a high ridge down to the river, of course, and then straight up for a few hours to Tengboche. The monastery has been there for centuries and is the most famous and important in the region. Until recently the monks lived there in complete isolation from the rest of the world. Today people like myself come from around the world to try and find a bit of inner peace. Ironically, I realized that for me inner peace comes from travelling to places like Nepal and experiencing places like Tengboche monastery. I found myself playing hacky-sack with a couple of young monks in their maroon robes in the monastery's courtyard with the world's greatest mountains as our backdrop! It was definitely one of those, "I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore" feelings.

The following morning, as every morning, the entire village was woken up by two of the monks blowing in conch shells at 6:30a.m. to let the village know that morning chants were about to start. Having been invited to observe this exotic ritual we got out of bed, put on every article of clothing that we had and went next door into the gompa. We sat on the floor against the side wall and observed with all our senses as the monks burned incense, chanted sutras in that low tone that only monks can seem to produce, banged drums and blew in those ridiculously long horns you can hear from miles away.

Approaching Everest

Once we left Tengboche we were to spend the next two weeks above 13,000ft! We gradually made our way up towards Everest taking acclimatization days and side treks along the way. The best side trek was to a town called Chukung which is nestled between the Lhotse Massif, which contains the fourth highest peak in the world and the back side of Ama Dablam with huge ice faces and glaciers all around. We climbed the "hill" in town called Chukung Ri which is over 18,000 feet! The views from up there were awe inspiring to say the least.

After Chukung it was a two day walk up a glacial valley to Gorak Shep which is at the base of Kala Pattar "hill", one of the best viewing points for Everest and also the final accommodation before Everest Base Camp. I decided to climb Kala Pattar before sunset since it is on the West side of Everest. A tough two hour climb paid off with the entire Southwest face and summit of Everest lit up right in front of me. Everest looked like you could reach out and touch it! To be standing at over 18,000 feet and still be gazing up at what you know is the highest point in the world another 11,000 feet above you is inspiring and humbling simultaneously! A good 45 minutes to 1 hour after the sun had set where we were, it was still illuminating the face of Everest in that orange hue that only mother nature can produce leaving even neighbouring top five peaks in the shade. Incredible!


Lost in the Tundra

Kevin hidden on a giant kumbu ice pinnacle

The next morning we walked to Everest Base Camp checking out the cairns (stone monuments) dedicated to those who have lost their lives either on Everest or en route. We walked along the moraine of the Khumbu glacier for a couple of hours before dropping down onto the glacier itself. This may have been the highlight of the trek! Walking across the Khumbu glacier with ice pinnacles the size of homes, huge boulders supported by thin pieces of ice and of course Everest and Nuptse looming over us the whole time with the Khumbu icefall cascading down between them. I felt like I was walking through my 7'th grade geography book! Having an intrepid nature, Miles and I decided to traverse the glacier to where we figured the actual base camp was.

Once we accomplished that goal we realized that we had lost track of the small cairns that people make along the trail to serve as a kind of breadcrumbs and that we were burning daylight rapidly. O.K., I admit it, I was definitely getting a bit nervous there for a while. Lost on a living glacier at over 16,000ft is not the ideal place to spend the night. We eventually found our way back and now being lost and scared on that glacier is one of
the fondest memories.

We were going to continue on over another pass to a place called Gokyo but we had heard that most of the lodges on the way up were closing. Furthermore, old man Winter was starting to rear his ugly head up there (it was between -15c and -20c or about 5 degrees Fahrenheit in our rooms at night) and Miles had enough of trekking so we decided to start back towards Lukla.

Homeward Bound

Back in Lukla just three days later we found out that weather had once again cancelled all flights for the past 24 hours. We along with everyone else had to wait for the sound of propellers. Finally, after 48 hours of waiting and looking for something to do besides tour the town bakeries, our time came and we were handed boarding passes. Let me tell you that this flight was an experience! The plane was a Twin Otter that sat 18 abreast. It was easily the smallest plane that I haven't jumped out of. I was in the middle (fold down chair) in the first row so I was practically between the pilot and co-pilot, or should I say, guy reading the newspaper while sitting next to the pilot? The runway has to be one of the shortest and steepest in the world. It is between a mountain at one end and a sheer drop off of thousands of feet at the other. For take-off they backed up as far as possible, turned the prop's up to full throttle until the wheels actually started to skid and then simply released the parking brake and we went screaming downhill for a surprisingly smooth take-off over the canyon. I am certain that there are many people in the world, my mother being one of them, who you couldn't have paid enough money to get on that airplane. The flight was actually great. You could see the Himalayas all the way into Kathmandu, including another superb view of Everest at the beginning. What an exhilarating way to end the trek. After four weeks of walking, a small
plane returned us to Kathmandu in 30 minutes!

I've got to go now, there's a yak steak with my name written on it!