Day 21 -- October 18 => Lobuche to Kala Pattar to Dughla

Early start for today, up at 4 am. My headlamp battery decided to give out on the morning I needed it so I had to scramble around, first to find my lighter to see in the dark and then to actually replace the battery. When I finally stuck my head out the tent, I saw white everywhere on the ground. Fortunately, when I looked up, the stars were shining brightly and the skies clear -- Kala Pattar bound!

Joe Jr., Joe Sr., Padam and I left camp just before 6 am after a light breakfast. The trail was fairly level for the first 45 minutes although the light dusting of snow during the night made you be extra careful. We then went up a big hill as the sun began to rise. The trail was then a mixture of rocky and smooth sections as it went up and down over glacial debris. The sun finally popped out from behind a mountain around 7:30am. It did not take long before the little snow there was on the trail quickly started disappearing. The trail was fairly busy with Westerners. There were some tricky sections of trail as we approached Gorakshep and not something I would have enjoyed in the dark. At 8:20am, we descended into Gorakshep (5288m/17,349').

GorakShep is the starting point for the highest marathon race in the world, from GorakShep to Namche Bazar. The first race was in 1987 and is run in alternate years.

Pumori (7145m/23,442'), Kala Pattar (5545m/18,192')

There is a lodge/tea house in Gorakshep but expect to pay a premium for anything you buy. I paid 200 rp ($4 CAD) for one liter of bottled water! I purified it just to be safe. After some trail mix and fluids intake we left Gorakshep at 9am, my headache now being a concern along with some nausea. After a brief descent into an ancient lake bed of sand, the ascent of Kala Pattar begins with a series of short switchbacks followed by a long upward traverse over a mostly smooth trail.

Up to the summit of Kala Pattar, Pumori on the right

As we rounded the corner to our left, we finally got our first view of the summit block. There was a steady stream of people going up and down. At this point, the trail switched to scree and it was quite a slog up to the summit block.

Summit of Kala Pattar (5545m)

As we reached the summit block, the wind picked up considerably. The summit block consisted of boulders with a scree trail etched in spots. I had to put my down jacket back on as that wind was pretty fierce. When you see Pumori rising 1600m/5,250' above you, you see how insignificant Kala Pattar is in the grand scheme of this landscape.

Padam and I on Kala Pattar (5545m/18,192')

I touched the top of the summit cairn at 11:40am. One had to be careful on top as the wind was probably blowing at over 70 kmh/40 mph and there was a considerable dropoff on the other three sides.

On the summit of Kala Pattar (5545m/18,192')

No, that's not my laundry -- those are prayer flags.

Mt. Everest (8848m), Lhotse (8501m), Nuptse (7896m) from Kala Pattar

The angle and the shorter distance to Lhotse makes it appear that Everest is not the highest.

Mt. Everest (8848m/29,031') from Kala Pattar

You can just see the south col (7986m/26,201') between Everest and Lhotse and if you follow the right hand ridge of Everest up, you can see the small bump of Everest's south summit.

On Kala Pattar with Mt. Everest backdrop

Padam, our sirdar, took this picture of me just below the summit cairn.

Mt. Everest and the Khumbu Icefall

There were no expeditions at Everest base camp when we were there.

Khumbu Glacier and Icefall on Everest

The icefall is a treacherous section of huge moving ice blocks called seracs and many crevasses. Many people have died in this section of an Everest expedition.

Views from Kala Pattar

Lhotse (8501m/27,890') from Kala Pattar

Lhotse was first climbed by a Swiss expedition in 1956 from the Western Cym (pronounced "Coom"), which is reached after the Khumbi Icefall.

About 15 minutes after we had summitted, Bonnie and Lal reached the summit. After 25 minutes on top, we started our descent to get out of that wind and have our lunch. I had a major headache with nausea at this point. I dragged myself to the lunch spot but could not eat anything. I had a real rough go of it for the rest of the descent back into Gorakshep, arriving around 1:30pm. I collapsed into my tent and rested for about 90 minutes, still unable to eat. After discussing the situation with Chris and with Island Peak still to come, I relunctantly decided to go back down that afternoon. It was a difficult decision as it meant that Everest base camp was out for me (it turned out that no one in our group attempted to go to EBC) but I was really looking forward to Island Peak and thought that not going down now could seriously jeopardize my chances on Island Peak. Padam had also talked to someone on Kala Pattar who had done EBC the previous day. He was told it took them 10 hours to go there and back due to very strong winds.

Chris arranged for Lal to take me back down to at least Lobuche if not further. After a few biscuits and tea, we left Gorakshep at 3:45pm. The up and down over the glacial debris did not help the situation at all. I had taken another 250mg of Diamox before leaving Gorakshep and by the time we reached the flats below the last big hill, I was starting to feel better. We reached Lobuche (4930m/16,175') at 5:30pm as the light was starting to fade. Since Chris had mentioned that the lodges here weren't that great and I still wasn't feeling as well as I would have liked, we decided to continue on down to Dughla (Lal estimated 1½ hours). This would give me another 310m/1,000' of elevation loss.

I was able to pick up the pace after leaving Lobuche but the light was fading fast under mostly cloudy skies. Around 6pm, it started to snow. I had set the pace by being in front but the blowing snow and darkness was making it hard for me to see the trail. Lal finally took over route finding duties as we made our way up the big hill towards Dughla. I had hoped to spend some time at the top on the way back to view more of the memorial cairns but it was not to be. As we crested the top, the snow had stopped and the skies started to clear. Fortunately, there was a full moon and that greatly aided my descent. We reached the lodges of Dughla (4620m/15,157') just before 7pm.

We met up with Jagat and Ester, who was 71. Ester would be going back down with a guide to Lukla on a modified itinerary as she was not quite up to the pace required for attempting Island Peak. She is a remarkable lady and we learned she was quite popular with the other tourists, which came as no surprise. Ester and her husband had summitted Kilamanjaro (5896m/19,344') earlier in the year. If I am as fit and healthy when I reach their age, it will be quite an accomplishment. Maybe there is something to be said for vegetarian diets!

Day 20 - Dughla to Lobuche Day 22 - Dughla recovery

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Created: December 23, 2002