2016 Island Peak

Thur 11th Feb. Farewell Nepal

12/2/2016

Our last feed of Dahl Baht. A little restaurant down a back alley you wouldn't know existed. One of those places only locals eat at.

Love this dude.

Wednesday
A quick blog update. Caught some last minute shopping. Blair had a Trekkers massage. And I had one too. Poor David wanted to but his bum is in a delicate state at the moment and any sudden movement will see it all over for him. Hahaha poor bastard.

Unfortunately I booked him a window seat for tomorrow's flight, so god help is fellow passenger. He skipped lunch with Blair, myself and Prakash who took us to a local haunt you wouldn't even know existed, and he hasn't really ventured far from the white porcelain. Hahahahaha poor bastard.

A last meal was had at the New Orleans famous for its Indian. David managed to eat a salad, but could pay the price in an hour or so....hahahahha poor bastard. He thinks it's his stomach trying to adjust to "wistern food".

Prakash has organised a van to take us to the airport tomorrow ready for our 1.30 flight. Will send a photo through later.

Thursday
Another tremor last night. 4.2. Didn't feel it so must have been sound asleep.
Kozak up all night with squirty bum. Hope he has managed to clean himself up ready for flight.

Blair and I are sitting at Himalayan Java coffee house (best coffee in Kat). One more before pick up. May even be the new Pumpernickels as watching people's rolls coming out at lunchtime yesterday looked delicious.

Power is out so no wifi to check email also means no coffee machine just yet.

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Wed 10th Feb. Back in Kathmandu

10/2/2016

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Departure Lukla

With long time friend Utam

A night out with our guide Prakash.

There is no sleep in regardless of whether planes are flying or not. The fact is, you need to be ready by 6am just in case. They want you sitting in the dining room of the lodge, packed, eaten breakfast and ready to go.

This morning seemed a little De Jar Vue of yesterday morning. The only difference was Lukla had beautiful blue sky and no wind. The fact that Lukla was beautiful doesn't mean planes will fly as Kathmandu could still be fogged it. That wasn't the case this morning and at approximately 7.40am the siren sounded. This indicates the first lot of flights had left Kathmandu. We were booked on Sita Air along with only a handful of others. The majority were flying Tara air. 40 minutes later we hear the roar of the first plane as its under full brakes.......Tara air. Bugga. 3 minutes later the roar of another plane.....Tara air. And not 3 minutes after that and surely a Sita Air???? Nope Tara Air, then a Cargo plane. We stood at the window and waved goodbye to the three Tara Air planes and all of a sudden things went deadly quiet. With grim faces I had in the back of my mind maybe Sita Air won't come if there's only a handful of people......it has happened before. I looked at my guide, he shrugged his shoulders and went to talk to someone behind the desk. Next thing the roar of SITA AIR. Hallelujah. Thank you very much.

Now sitting back in Kathmandu, showered and about to have my first coffee (proper coffee, you know the one, with foam on top made from proper milk and not powdered milk). Boys will be fighting one another to see you gets in for the first shave. We are meeting at 1pm for lunch. No Rice, No Noodles, No Dahl Baht, No Vegie noodle soup, No Momos. Some Wistern food is on the cards I think. We are meeting our guide Prakash for a drink at the guest house later this afternoon and hopefully he can join us for pizza at Fire and Ice a local pizza bar that always has good reviews.

(Goodbye Lukla. About to board our Sita Air plane Kathmandu bound).

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Mon 8th Feb. oh oh...!!

9/2/2016

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So it's 6.30am. We've had breakfast and now the waiting game begins. A little foggy here as daylight breaks.

We have no idea what's happening in Kathmandu. Yesterday Kat was closed all morning and flights started after lunch.

Weather for Kat meant to be 20 degrees with possible thunder.

Will keep you posted.

------------------------
Now it's raining!!!

Sue

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Sunday 7th Feb. Lukla + WIFI = Photos..!!

7/2/2016

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Click on the above photos and then use left/right arrow to navigate

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Sun 7th Feb. Lukla bound.

6/2/2016

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Okay, so it's official. We now smell worse than any porter in the Khumbu region. Not even the local dogs will come near us when we call them for a scratch behind the ear. To make it worse, we are on our last day back to Lukla, which means we are passing fresh first day Trekkers that have just got off the plane in their clean clothes, fresh smelling pits, hair blowing in the breeze.....I have that much oil in my hair that it would stay put even in the strongest hurricane. What are they possibly thinking when they pass us??? Davids socks are walking themselves back to Lukla. And Blair wouldn't be able to give his socks to even the most desperate in the region.

Blair has just realized he has no clean clothes back in Kathmandu when he gets back there. After 16 days of no showers and clothes that not even the homeless would appreciate, it's the one thing you look forward to when arriving back in Kathmandu. His plan is to still shower first, put his dirty clothes on, go out and buy some new clothes, come back, shower again.....because he can... But by this stage David and I would have used up all the hot water within the complex. Then it will be a race between David and Blair to see who can get in first to Denese the local barber at the guest house who does the best cut throat shave and post trek massage ever. I think David will win because Blair stuffed up by not saving some clothes for Kathmandu.

Our bodies are still struggling to return to normal after our efforts climbing Island Peak. We are all looking forward to the 3 days R&R back in Kathmandu.....that's hoping the planes are flying as everyone who knows Lukla airport can put it almost on a par with a woman with really bad PMS. You take it minute by minute.

We arrived into Jorsalle last night at around 4.15pm, a big day with two huge downhill sections within the day (Tengboche and Namche). Staying at a nice lodge with a flushing wistern toilet....although the flush is more like a trickle. I'm not sure how David managed to rid his 7am ritual with just a trickle, but if I get the details I'll post.

Apologies I couldn't answer individual comments as we only had wifi for a short time yesterday.
Yes, Glenys, I remember you and Barry well and so pleased you have been following us and more importantly David on his adventures.

Veals, when you called around home the other day was the house tidy? Can you call back around on Wednesday and just remind James he has 2 days to get it up to scratch?

Christine, thanks for following us and yes there is still spots available for Annapurna next year.

Everest from KP

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Success. Fri 5th Feb.

5/2/2016

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Blair at Gorak Shep, 5,100mts

SUCCESS..... We have had no wifi or phone service for over a week.

Yesterday all three of us busted our arses to summit Island Peak. We set off for Base Camp from Chukhung and arrived at around 2pm. Tents were set up in very windy conditions and no sooner were we huddled in the warmth, food was brought into us and we were settling in for the night in preparation for a 1am wake up call ready for a 2am start.

Very little sleep and before we knew it we were on the trail under headlamp. All three of us agree had it have been daylight and we could see what we were climbing we would have said "no thanks". At one stage what I thought was stars, turned out to be climbers head lamps way up where stars normally are.

We had four hours of literally straight up......could it possibly get any harder? Well we then hit the ice. Out came the crampons. We had two ladder crossing with crevasses that went to nowhere. I felt really safe though as we were all harnessed and tied together so basically if one goes, we all go.

Could it get any harder??? Well yes it can. We then hit a sheer wall of ice we had to climb. About 80 meters in height and about 80 degree steepness. So it's then I realize the ice axes we were given the day before weren't just for looks!!!!. It took us around 3 hours to climb this wall of ice, which took us up to an iced ridge line about 60 centimeters wide and a sheer drop on either side. Another 30 minutes climbing this ridge we were all standing on the summit.

We can now appreciate why it's called Island Peak. It sits in the middle of other giants on its own. The views are amazing. We stayed up there for about 10 minutes (9 hours of busting our arses for 10 minutes on the summit)!!! We couldn't have been more exposed, 10 minutes was long enough.

We followed the same route down and it took just as long to get down the ice wall. Attached to ropes and kind of abseiling down but so difficult with the ice shards. We ended up back at Base Camp at around 5pm after 15 hours of one hard slog. We then decided to not spend another night in tents and head back down to Chukhung again under head lamp arriving around 8.30 - 9pm absolutely stuffed.

Going back a few days now and Blair had stomach problems during our 2 nights acclimatisation walk at Periche. He lost his ability to fart confidently very quickly. He managed to still do an acclimatisation walk up to around 4600mt before calling it quits.

There's no stopping David as he decides the morning we got to Gorak Shep we would all go to Everest Base Camp, come back to the lodge, relax at 5100meters, have tea and be ready for an early ascent up Kalar Patar. Nope David had other plans, he went up Kalar Patar that afternoon after doing Everest Base Camp in a record time of one hour 10 minutes up and 40 minutes to come down. Meanwhile Blair and I sat back in the lodge around the Heater fueled with yak dung drinking hot chocolates etc. Well the laugh was on us as all night it was gale force winds and we were up at 5.30 to start our walk up in blustery conditions while David was having a little sleep in.

Blair and I put David's lung capacity in altitude down to the fact that he can free dive for nearly 5 minutes under water. His body tells him at the 2 minute mark that if it doesn't get air he will die......he ignores it and stays down (which apparently is what you're meant to do). I start to panick at 17 seconds.

Blair is still struggling with his speech and a few days ago commented that Prakash our guide would probably be sitting back in his "dick chair" while we summit Island Peak. I'm trying guys.

FYI Prakash didn't join us to summit as he doesn't have insurance to climb.

We are now in a place called Pangboche. Still no wifi, so can't attach photos. Tomorrow night we will be in Jorsale, then Lukla. Heavy knee deep snow in Lukla a couple of days after we landed shut the airport for around 3 days. We have found the higher we climbed the better the weather. Trails are very dry and dusty and to be honest could do with a bit of snow to keep the dust down. Blair flinches when I say this with his experience only 11 months ago when he was here in waist deep snow.

We can't read comments or answer comments until we have wifi. I was looking forward to the normal 5 bars at Gorak Shep but apparently the tower was broken.

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Mon 1st Feb. No Communications..!!

1/2/2016

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The communications tower at Gorak Shep, 5,100mts amsl. Kallar Patar is in the background, and Everest Base Camp is a few kms to the right of the photo.

Hi everyone. It's Sue's brother David here.

Like most of you, I have been eagerly awaiting an update from the team on their hike up to Everest Base Camp, and then on to Island Peak.

According to my knowledge, they were due at Everest Base Camp or Kallar Patar (above Everest Base Camp) either yesterday or today. The weather forecast has looked to be sunny days, although very cold nights. (-22deg)

Normally, there is a strong mobile signal available at Base Camp due to a communications antenna being present at the last village of Gorak Shep. This antenna normally acts as a means to provide communications in the event of emergency from those trekking to or climbing Everest (or neighbouring mountains). On past trips, it's been a welcome surprise to suddenly get a 5 bar reception on your mobile after several days of nothing..!

I had anticipated an update from the team around this time. The fact that we have not heard anything since Thursday suggests that the communications tower may be down..! Given this is the only real means of communication, you certainly become very isolated at Everest when it is not available..!!

Assuming this is the reason, and the fact that there are not really any other towers in the area, a worse case scenario is that we may not hear from them for several days yet (or absolute worse, not until they are back in Namche, almost another week away.!!).

Anyway, my advice is to keep checking the blog every couple of days. I just know that Sue and the guys will be keen to make up for the lost days of no communications.

Going to be good hearing from them.

David G

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Thur 28th Jan. Continuing higher.

28/1/2016

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We are now at Deboche and no wifi so can't send Photos. It's 6am and I've woken from my best sleep so far. We were all in bed at 7pm = 11 hours sleep for me. Didn't hear much during the night so assuming the boys slept well too. It's still to dark too see what's happened overnight with the snow. Hopefully blue skies today as yesterday was all fog and no visibility.

We are staying at the lodge right next door to the one we normally stay in at Deboche. For the simple reason when we arrived at around 2pm we noticed smoke coming from a chimney at this lodge and nothing at our normal lodge. Smoke indicates a fire and fire indicates warmth. That will do us.

The owner has two puppies 6 weeks old that kept us entertained. David did the smell test on them and to be honest I think they smelt better than we did. I think Blair is going to smuggle one home. They were the healthiest most well looked after dogs I've seen here.

David happened to mention that it was at Deboche 10 years ago that his lovely wife Wendy had an unfortunate mishap in one of the squatters. Wendy, you might like to fill the blog followers in on what happened...... Put it this way, she was never a wombat in her previous life!!! It's all about the aim.

Blair is coming along nicely with his daily speech and we have discovered he can actually say the words properly when he concentrates and thinks about it. A lapse in concentration yesterday after walking past a row of tents set up for World Expeditions when he says "how cold would it be in a tint now." Get your head around it Blair as we're going to be spending two nights in a "tint" in colder conditions.

We are heading to Periche today for two nights acclimatisation. We've been told no wifi there either. Can't send any photos.

Sue

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Wed 27th Jan. Arrived Tengboche

28/1/2016

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Just arrived in Tengboche. Lightly snowing, nothing too bad. Very foggy with no views at all.
Everyone trekking well and we all powered up Tengboche hill in an hour 15 minutes.
Blair still in shorts and David mastering the art of signing his name in the snow.
No wifi so will send photos through when I can.

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Tue 26th Jan. Acclimitisation Day

26/1/2016

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Everest View Hotel

David's handy work...!!!

The snow from last night didn't eventuate to anything. This morning while eating breakfast it was minus 5.7 degrees outside and minus 1 inside.
We left at 8.30 after a breakfast of porridge for David and vegetable omelet for Blair and myself. Not to forget our 5 minutes of speech to help Blair with his letter sounds.
We have just returned from our acclimatisation walk. Blair can't remember it being that hard last year. Told him it's a bit like childbirth, you forget about it until you go back again.
We had a view of Everest along with the standard pot of hot chocolate that cost $15 for the pot.
A sprinkling of snow left over from last night that David thought he might try and write his name whilst relieving himself. Came back quite chuffed, although he had none left to dot the "i". Bit of team work boys and it could be done.
It's warmed up to 2.8 inside. We have just had lunch and about to get changed into our warm gear and head down to the bakery.
More photos to come.

Sue

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Mon 25th Jan. Day 2 to Namche, 3500mts

25/1/2016

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Sitting in the bakery at Namche. So yesterday we commence our walk down from Luka to Phakding for lunch. No sooner do we arrive and David has put his down jacket and every other piece of clothing on complaining about how cold it is.....this is day 1.!! Boy oh boy. He rubbed some tri-actin into himself last night and is much better today (anyone who has trekked with us will know what Tri-actin is. Anyone who doesn't know what it is, sign up to treknepalwithme and come visit this magic place).

Blair AND David fart a lot..! I have my very own Terence and Phillip show happening around me. Anyone who watches Southpark will know who I'm talking about. I'm just wondering how we can get a "sound" blog happening. They will come unstuck though, it's only a matter of time. Golden rule number 1 on the mountain is to never fart unless you bum is hovering above a toilet......the mountains will always win..!

David and I are having a hard time understanding Blair's accent. We have banned him from saying number "6" and he has to say the number between 5 and 7. How do you get "iggs" out of eggs. He also gets into a lodge and announces "cool, a wistern toilet"! I'm putting aside a couple of minutes each day during tea stops and doing speech with him. "Blair, say "e" "e" "e". Blair mentions Des a lot but it comes out as "Dis".

Jorsale was our lunch spot today at 10am. Yes lunch at 10 as there is no other village between Jorsale and the the climb up to Namche.

David has a pulse monitor on his iPhone and decided to check all our pulses climbing up the Namche hill. David's pulse was 112, Blair's was 129, mine was 116 and our guide Prakash's was 49. He obviously does it a bit more than we do.

As we are sitting in the bakery it is lightly snowing outside. We will do our acclimatisation walk tomorrow.

Sue

Night 1. Toc Toc

David feeling the cold

Blair and friend.

Breakfast at Toc Toc

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Sun 24th Jan. Into Lukla. Trek begins.

25/1/2016

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We have arrived into Lukla. We're staying in Toc Toc tonight and no Wifi. So next update will be from Namche. David struggling to adjust with zero temp after Western Australian 40 degree heat. Harden up David..!!!

Sue

So what do you do when waiting on the Tarmac for the fog to lift....you pull a couple of seats out of the plane and sit in the sun.....that's what you do.

You never know who you run into at the airport. Sitting having a cup of tea with Mingma in Lukla. Nima here too. David. Mingma doesn't need that operation and will be all good for next month.

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Sat 23rd Jan. Our day in Kathmandu

25/1/2016

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Quick update prior to heading out for dinner.

My favourite taxi driver Laxman charged us 3000rp to go to cremation site today. No fuel stations have petrol and they can only buy it on the black market for three times the price. This means it's fairly quiet on the streets. India still banning all fuel so they have to buy on the black market. Today Laxmans car stalled and he struggled to start it and it wouldn't go up a hill. He blames the shit fuel he has to buy.

One of my favourite restaurants Rum Doodles is no more......closed down. Very sad..!

Very little damage at Pashputinath. In fact bugger all for a sight that is so old and yet a few kilometers away at Durbar Square is a different storey. We didn't get there today, but plan to on our return.

I struggle to find any damage at all in Thamal as a result. I think it's worked like a bushfire. Some suburbs cop it severely where others are spared.

We are just sorting out our bags then going for tea. We have a 5am pick up in the morning to the airport for our flight into Lukla.

Blair farts a lot and my guess is if anyone is going to crap their pants on this climb it will be him.......! He showed me his medical kit and he has everything known to mankind in it. Also in it was a golf ball. I asked him if that's for a kinky pleasure purpose, but he assures me he uses it as a foot roller...!!

Sue

Me at Utam's hotel. (Utam is my old friend who use to manage the Kathmandu Guest House). Utam wasn't there so I left a message that I had dropped by

For those familiar with KGH, that yellow building with what looks like green windows is a new facade. The doorway in the middle of it is the corridor that leads down to the little shops (barber shop). The man at the table is sitting roughly where the old check in counter used to be..! Just to give you some idea.

Hopefully our last meal in Kathmandu before flying out to Lukla. I have visions of us sulking around Kathmandu tomorrow night because the planes weren't flying.......stop those evil thoughts. This photo was at a Mexican restaurant just down from the Guest House.

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Sat 23rd Jan. Arrived Kathmandu.

24/1/2016

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After what feels like a 10klm walk through Bangkok airport to get to our gate, you arrive feeling a bit clammy as the airport does struggle to keep the cool in the consistent heat. We are told the plane is full, and they weren't wrong. 97% local Nepalese people, 3% tourists. You can spot the tourists. Besides the obvious physical appearance, we're the ones wearing T-Shirts. The Nepalese are wearing their down jackets.... Bearing in mind it's 31 degrees outside. It's at this point we asked ourselves "what are we in for, how cold is it really going to be?". We land at Tribhuvan Airport and are pleasantly surprised that we can get away wearing our T-Shirts while the other 97% zip their jackets up and head through immigration.

Didn't really know what to expect on the drive from the airport into Thamel. Very little signs of April 25th.

You will not believe the Guest House when you see it. Totally transformed. The whole middle of the establishment no longer exists. The room you would walk into to check in has gone completely. Check-in is now near the elevator of the new wing and the garden is about 4 times the size it used to be. So the garden is now the central point and everything works off around that. The undercover cafe that you would walk through no longer exists, the barber is where he used to be but that corridor has been shortened and modernized.

I will take a photo in the morning and send it through.

We will visit Durbar Square later today and we have been told Kumari has had to move palace due to Earthquake damage to the old palace.

Sue

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Thur 21st Jan. Departure day

22/1/2016

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My farewell to family from the the 6am Bairnsdale to Melbourne train.

One looked pleased to say goodbye, one looks like he wants to go back to bed and one is saying "what am I going to cook tonight after I put on the washing and do the housework..!!

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Thur 11th Feb. Farewell Nepal

Wed 10th Feb. Back in Kathmandu

Mon 8th Feb. oh oh...!!

Sunday 7th Feb. Lukla + WIFI = Photos..!!

Sun 7th Feb. Lukla bound.

Success. Fri 5th Feb.

Mon 1st Feb. No Communications..!!

Thur 28th Jan. Continuing higher.

Wed 27th Jan. Arrived Tengboche

Tue 26th Jan. Acclimitisation Day

Mon 25th Jan. Day 2 to Namche, 3500mts

Sun 24th Jan. Into Lukla. Trek begins.

Sat 23rd Jan. Our day in Kathmandu

Sat 23rd Jan. Arrived Kathmandu.

Thur 21st Jan. Departure day

2016 Island Peak...

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