The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
This was to be a rest day with a little morning hike and a lazy afternoon at one of Namche's many excellent teahouses. The hike was spectacular with the top of Ama Dablam (literally: Mother's Jewelry Box) popping up for the first time from behind the hill followed by all the other giants including a fantastic profile of the Mother Goddess of the Snows, also known as Sagarmatha to the Nepalis, also known as Chomalungma to the Tibetans, also known as Mt Everest to everybody else.
We paused at the Everest View Hotel, a surreal place built by the Japanese at 3859m, offering mind-boggling views of Mt Everest (8848m), Nuptse (7854m), Lhotse Shar (8386m) and of course Ama Dablam (6828m). The room rates are also mind boggling ($ 175 single / $270 doubles) but they come with unlimited oxygen supply in the room!
We lingered for a while, soaking up the sun and the view, before heading back to Namche for pizzas, fries and apple pie. Dinner was more momos and yak sizzlers. The "Singapore Zoo" had departed but another arrival had the members of our all-male expedition excited: an all-female expedition from Colorado had checked into the guesthouse next door. Their objective: to climb Ama Dablam!
After an evening of introductions with the ladies team (known as "Chicks with Picks" or "Mama Dablams"), who were all drowning San Miguel while our all-male team dutifully stuck to lemon tea, we departed Namche, heading for the famous monastery of Tengboche. The effects of high altitude and sometimes dubious hygienic standards had however taken the toll on some of our team members: Steve, Matt and Joe all came down with a bad stomach overnight and hadn't slept much. They looked their part at breakfast.
Once out of Namche the trail leads along the hillside on an altitude of around 3600, past a Rolex-sponsored stupa before descending to the river crossing at Phunki Thonga ("Funky Town"), 3250m. Steve was in a pretty bad rut, exhausted from the lack of sleep and weakened by his inability to hold down much food. It took us some five hours to get to Funky Town - and this was only the easy bit. After a hearty lunch and powernap we continued the path up a steep ridge, regaining our previous altitude and heading higher. Since all our heavy packs and gear were moving by yak from place to place we actually carried very light day packs and I found the going quite easy despite the altitude. However, it must have been hell for Steve who crawled his way up the hill. We reached Tengboche (3867m) around 4 pm and - having missed afternoon prayers - headed straight down to the Ama Dablam Garden Lodge at Dewoche (3770m) for a night's rest. It was a long day and Matt, Joe and Steve headed straight for bed, missing out on an excellent dinner of fried noodles and momos and a nice chat with the lovely Canadian trekker who seemed to have been stalking us since Lukla.
I got up a t 5.30 am to catch the sunrise over Mt Everest from Tengboche. Having failed to rouse any of my teammates out of the warmth of their sleeping bags I headed back up the hill on my own. It was frosty cold but the magic of the sunrise made it all worthwhile. In addition I arrived at Tengboche in time for morning prayers, joining the monks in their magnificent monastery for 1 ½ hours of praying, chanting and listening to the spiritual sound of their drums, bells and Nepalese alphorns. Magic!
The rest of the day was a leisurely walk to Pangboche (3860m) for an afternoon of resting and acclimatization at the beautiful Highland Sherpa Resort. The day ended badly, with me losing in Cho Dai Dee and having to imitate a yak in the dining room - with full load and original yak bell around my neck.
Rest day at Pangboche. We take a late morning stroll up to the local monastery, but not before Hamish performs his Cho Dai Dee punishment from last night: balancing five dried yak dungs on his head for 20 seconds. The locals start getting concerned about the mental state of our expedition members!
The local monastery, which is over 500 yers old, is a delightful place where we linger for a while and have a little "team meeting". We spend the rest of the day lazing around (all in the name of acclimatization). Matt and I settle down in a local teahouse where a cute little boy insists on some football action in the dust with his deflated ball. I'm enjoying myself in the dusty action, which - at 4000m - is quite breathtaking (as is the view). Only before we leave do we discover that the little soccer star is the son of one of our Sherpas, Phu Tashi. His wife shows us around the lodge where he keeps and original oxygen bottle from the Everest reconnaissance expedition of 1952 - used by none less than Edmund Hillary himself!
Destination for today: Base Camp (4590m). Before departure we to through our daily routine of Cho Dai Dee punishments of the last night. It's Hamish again, donning the blue rubber gloves and making yak dung paddies. Yum! The way to base camp is a somewhat convoluted affair and we get lost a few times looking for river crossings and the proper path upwards. We eventually get on the right track, slogging uphill all the way to base camp, which lies at approximately the same altitude as the highest point in Switzerland (Monte Rosa = 4638m)!
And what a base camp it was! Our Sherpas had moved up a few days ahead and selected a superb site on a grassy corner right below "our"mountain. A bright yellow mess tent, surrounded by nine blue tents for the climbers and guides together with a kitchen tent and tents for the Sherpas and - last but not least - a shower tent created our own little city - home for the comings days and weeks. The entire set-up was pure high altitude luxury: individual tents with plenty of room, a superb mess tent with upholstered chairs, heater, stereo speakers and plastic flowers for an extra homely touch! Apart from our Sherpas we also met our cook and cook boy for the first time, who would crate some fantastic menus over the course of the expedition. Whoever thought I was going on a one-month trip of self-imposed misery is severely mistaken!
It did get miserably cold at night, however, and here was my first concerns about the expedition: if it was this cold at base camp, how freakishly freezing would it be at camp one, two or three? I shivered through the night and tried to think warm, happy thoughts.
