Kalar Patar...5545mts
Well after not having internet for over 5 days, it's great to be connecting with you all again. Thanks Sue for filling the gaps while we have been off the airwaves.
What an incredible past few days we have had. After the emotion of farewelling Simi and Shailendra at Dingboche, the remaining 7 of us trudged our way up to Lobouche at 4,900mts. Our head guide Mingma put us into a lovely lodge.
The next day we departed for our high camp Gorak Shep at 5,100mts. The day was perfect, as has the weather been since the start of the trek. We arrived at Gorak at around midday and looked up at our final challenge Kalla Pattar 5,545mts awaiting us in the morning. But checking the weather forecast, we saw potential cloud in the morning..! So after the challenging hike from Lobouche to Gorak, we jointly made the decision to knock of KP that same afternoon..!! (Something I swore I would never attempt again after my failure back in 2007..!!) 2 1/2hrs later, all 7 of us stood on KP in brilliant sunshine but in a spine shivering cold wind..!! Despite being totally exhausted that night in our Gorak Shep Lodge, we felt so good to have knocked it off and be able to head back down in the morning.
We've seen so many emergency helicopters flying back and forward to Base Camp, presumably picking up trekkers suffering altitude problems, and last night in our Lodge, we witnessed an Australian girl requiring supplementary oxygen and an emergency night time walk down to lower altitude..!!
The team is going strong. One or two headaches and a few upset tummies, but all trudging along nicely and now enjoying some welcomed increase in oxygen..!
Tomorrow we plan to arrive back into Namche and then Lukla on Friday.
Thanks for all your comments. I'm going to read them out to the team around the dining room fire and respond to them.
What an incredible past few days we have had. After the emotion of farewelling Simi and Shailendra at Dingboche, the remaining 7 of us trudged our way up to Lobouche at 4,900mts. Our head guide Mingma put us into a lovely lodge.
The next day we departed for our high camp Gorak Shep at 5,100mts. The day was perfect, as has the weather been since the start of the trek. We arrived at Gorak at around midday and looked up at our final challenge Kalla Pattar 5,545mts awaiting us in the morning. But checking the weather forecast, we saw potential cloud in the morning..! So after the challenging hike from Lobouche to Gorak, we jointly made the decision to knock of KP that same afternoon..!! (Something I swore I would never attempt again after my failure back in 2007..!!) 2 1/2hrs later, all 7 of us stood on KP in brilliant sunshine but in a spine shivering cold wind..!! Despite being totally exhausted that night in our Gorak Shep Lodge, we felt so good to have knocked it off and be able to head back down in the morning.
We've seen so many emergency helicopters flying back and forward to Base Camp, presumably picking up trekkers suffering altitude problems, and last night in our Lodge, we witnessed an Australian girl requiring supplementary oxygen and an emergency night time walk down to lower altitude..!!
The team is going strong. One or two headaches and a few upset tummies, but all trudging along nicely and now enjoying some welcomed increase in oxygen..!
Tomorrow we plan to arrive back into Namche and then Lukla on Friday.
Thanks for all your comments. I'm going to read them out to the team around the dining room fire and respond to them.
