Easter in Nepal

It was 5am as we loaded our packs and began hiking in the morning cold. The thermostat read -20 degrees and everything seemed cold. No matter how hard I walked I found that I could not get my fingers warm. As we walked over the moraine we paused in wonder as we saw our 5th avalanche crashing down onto the glacier. Soon the sun began to rise over the mountains that dominated the eastern sky. It was Easter morning as we watched the sun rise over Mt. Everest and Nuptse.

We slowly made our way towards our destination at the base of Mt. Everest. You know that you are close when you stumble upon the wreckage of a crashed helicopter that went down last year at this time. Just beyond the helicopter was a huge village of tents representing several different nationalities. The brilliant colors of the tents and the prayer flags stand in stark contrast to the bleak landscape. Surrounding us were huge ice seracs and a river of ice known as the Khumbu Ice Fall.

We had come here for two weeks of hiking and exploring the Solo Khumbu region. A month ago a few friends invited me to join them here and I could not resist the temptation to come. The opportunity to immerse myself in the Sherpa culture that inhabits this region was something that I have always wanted to do. From the moment you get off the plane in Lukla you are surrounded by the culture that still exists like it did two hundred years ago. People cook on fires inside their homes that are made of stone and yak dung. There are no vehicles here and the only way to get around is to walk. The trails are lined with dozens of yaks and at the higher elevations it is estimated that there are 200 yak for every 30 trekkers. It is an experience that everyone should have in their lifetime.

The religion here is Tibetan Buddhhism and it dominates the every day life of the people here. The Sherpas are immigrants of Tibet who settled here hundreds of years ago. Things have not changed much since then. Monks still blow their horns throughout the day and people still worship all the deities that they are surrounded by.

The mountains here are the highest in the world. Ama Dablam, Nuptse, Lhotse, Pumo Ri, and Mt. Everest are surrounding you as you walk up into the valley that leads to the Khumbu Glacier. Rivers come crashing down out of the valley that appear to be white and a deep blue. It is the most magnificent landscape in the entire world. The trek from the airport to the base of Everest goes up and down so many times that by the time you actually get there you have ascended over 29,000 feet.

The journey begins in a small mountain village called Lukla. There is a recently built airport there that looks like a long driveway leading to the edge of a cliff that drops 2000 feet into the valley below. Landing and taking off from this airport resemble trying to land on an aircraft carrier. Prior to this airport being built a trip into this region began in Kathmandu and took three months to complete. Now with the airport it can be accomplished in less than three weeks.

My first obstacle in completing this trip meant overcoming my fear of flying. I hate to fly and the thought of getting on some small plane that would fly up into the mountains and land on a tiny airstrip was terrifying. As scared as I was though I still had to go and I was not going to let my fear keep me from going.

The temperatures drop significantly as you climb higher and higher. During the day the sun warms the air and the reflection off the snow is quite warm. By noon the wind starts to pick up and by three in the afternoon it is snowing again.

There are only two options of housing along the trail that leads up to Everest. The first is to sleep in a tent. The second is to stay in lodges that are found all along the trail. The lodges are by far the most fun and the best way to meet people. The walls are made of rocks that are found in abundance here and the roof is made of aluminum covered with rocks. The rooms are nothing more than wooden slats that resemble the shelters all along the Appalachian Trail in the United States.

The shelters offer some heat even though they are not insulated. A pot bellied stove in the center of the shelter is filled with yak dung and it burns extremely hot. Each night we would huddle with a group of Sherpas and other trekkers around the heaping pile of burning excrement and tell stories of our adventures.

One reoccurring late night conversation revolved around the use of the toilet. I know that sounds crazy but the toilets here are rock outhouses that become the scene of some of the nastiest crimes I have ever witnessed. High altitude does crazy things to your body. You become more forgetful, have frequent headaches, become dehydrated, have diarrhea, and vomit. For the most part you just tolerate the symptoms but inevitably it will lead you to spend more time in these high altitude outhouses and they always came up in our conversations.

The altitude here is so high that it actually becomes very dangerous. When I was along the trail the fifth victim of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema and High Altitude Cerebral Edema passed away. He was a Sherpa who had gone too high too fast and lost his life as a result. The other four people killed here died in the couple of weeks prior to my arrival. Each day I saw three or four people being carried to the health post who were later evacuated by helicopter. The doctors said that at least 1 in 10 who come here have to be treated for HAPE or HACE and 50% report having moderate to more severe symptoms. With this in mind we attended a lecture at the health post about what to look for and how to treat victims of this problem.

The day at base camp flew by as we met several of the climbers who shared stories with us around the yak dung fires along the trail up here. We drank endless cups of tea and had the privilege of sharing a meal with the Malaysian climbers before they escorted us up to the infamous Khumbu Ice Fall so that we could take a closer look at it. When we were there we met the most famous athlete of our lifetime, Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa. If you don’t recognize the name you may remember that he broke the world record last year for the fastest ascent of Mt. Everest, 10 hrs 56 minutes from base camp to summit.

The Discovery Channel was filming a documentary that is set to be released this fall. They invited us to watch some of the footage and give our opinion of it. I was very impressed and it made it much more real to know that just outside the tent we were in was the very place that we were watching on the screen.

After the long hike to base camp and the hours of playing around once we were there I was exhausted. At over 17,000 feet it is so high that it is just exhausting being here. My resting heart rate was well over 100 bpm at this altitude and it just drains you to be here. We knew we still had to make it back down to a lower elevation to spend the night and we wanted to hurry so that we could beat the afternoon snow storm.

We started down the trail and paused to photograph the wrecked helicopter. As we were starting again a young Malaysian girl stopped me and asked me to help her boyfriend. She said that she did not know what was wrong with him and that he was really sick. I found him laying on a rock and after speaking to him I could tell that he was terribly sick. He was suffering from HACE. The symptoms of this ailment left the young man unable to even walk. He suffered from a terrible headache, feeling of being intoxicated, slurred speech, nausea, and felt like he was going to lose consciousness. He was dehydrated and had not eaten all day. He had been trying to reach base camp and had not listened to his body and turned around when he should have. Now he was unable to continue moving and he had to get lower soon or he would continue to get worse.

I tried to do everything that I was taught in the health lecture that I attended. Pump fluids in him and get him down as soon as possible. The only problem with that was how we were going to move him. The only option we had was to carry him so I picked him up and began the longest walk down a mountain that I have ever had. We would stumble ahead three or four steps then fall to the ground gasping for breath. He was scared of dying and asked me to keep talking to him so that he would not lose consciousness. He made me promise that if he lived I would come visit him in Malaysia. I told him that I would if he would come visit me in Tennessee. We eventually stopped and I asked for his permission to pray to my God for his help. At this point he happily agreed and we asked God to instantly heal him and restore his health so that he would be OK.

We finally made it to Gorak Shep after several hard hours. We filled up on black tea before continuing down the mountain. By now he was starting to recover. We had dropped 1,000 feet and already he was improving. He began walking on his own and by night fall he was able to tell that he would be fine. The next day he descended even further down the mountain and made a full recovery. We made arrangements to meet in Kathmandu once our trip was over and then eventually travel to Malaysia and the United States.

That night we gathered in a frozen room lined with candles and celebrated Easter. We shared communion and gave thanks for all our Father has given us. This was a very special Easter celebration and it is one that I will never forget.

Throughout the night I began to feel worse and worse. In the morning I felt so bad that I was not able to even move. One of the friends that I was traveling with was a doctor and he diagnosed me with food poisoning. He suggested that we hike a day down to Pheriche where there is a health post and I could see a doctor. The problem was getting there.

I eventually finished purging my guts and decided that I could walk as long as I kept my head down and did not look into the sun. If I glanced up I would feel terribly nauseas so I just kept my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

It was during this time that we passed a few tea houses in Dughla. We stopped for a rest and I put my head down on a table and just sat there praying for God to take me home. Being sick at home is miserable but being sick up here at over 16,000 feet in the freezing cold was just beyond miserable.

“Where is the outhouse?” My friend asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t care. I have spent enough time in those things today” I answered.
“Can you ask the store owner in Nepali for me?” He asked.
“No, I cant even lift my head off the table. Figure it out yourself” I answered.

My friend began trying to motion to the store owner about his need to find the outhouse. Eventually he got the answer he needed and by this time he was starting to sweat profusely. He ran around the corner in a panic and returned just as fast as he left. He was nearly in tears now as he said…….

“Ahhh guys, is there another toilet.”
“Man, would you just go do your business so that I can lay here and rest. If you don’t leave me alone I am going to end up getting sick again” I answered.
“Well, you are not going to believe this but the toilet is on fire!” He said.
“Use it anyways, a little smoke won’t kill you. I just want to lay here and die” I said.
“There are flames coming out the door guys! He exclaimed.

Sure enough, he was right. I was so sick that I could not believe my eyes and I really did not care. He eventually found a yak laying in the rocks behind the store and was able to do his business. The problem came when the yak decided that he was not too impressed by my friends proximity. The yak got up and walked off leaving my friend literally caught with his pants down.

Traveling in Nepal is very cheap compared to traveling in the west. A room in the shelter cost 50 cents and usually you can eat for even less. I planned a tight budget for my trip based on the food prices in Kathmandu but quickly found out that when you get higher the food prices also go up. The reason is because the food has to be brought up on the backs of porters because nothing grows here. This left me with a difficult situation. I was forced to eat the cheapest thing on the menu at all times. This meant plates of rice or boiled potatoes for every meal. You burn so much energy up here that you find yourself getting extremely hungry. On one such occasion I saw a woman with a plate of fresh, hot, steaming, smoking, yak meat. I drooled over the huge pile of meat and let the scent drift into my nostrils. She sat the plate down and I had to move in for a closer look. I just wanted to smell it and dream of eating it. My dreams came to a crashing halt when I discovered that my carnivorous fantasy was actually a heaping pile of burning yak dung.

We eventually made it back to the airport in Lukla and boarded a small plane heading back to Kathmandu. Again I had to face my fear of flying but it was easier this time. I focused on returning to my family and seeing my wife and kids again. Traveling into the Solo Khumbu is never easy but it is very rewarding. Getting to know the Sherpas was worth the effort of going and standing in awe of our creator in the heart of the tallest mountains in the world is worth whatever it takes to get here. It was a great privilege to get to know so many of these wonderful people and see this wonderful place.

Posted by Jon at April 19, 2004 08:34 AM