No Small Feet

The Last Trek! With anxious and excited footsteps, we left Phakding and headed off on the last leg of our trek. Raju had said it would take 3 hours, mostly uphill. The day was hot and humid, not particularly enjoyable weather for our last day. We walked on, our feet leading the way and our minds wandering their way to thoughts like "hot showers" and "clean clothes" and "rooms where everything isn't slightly damp to the touch". Don't get us wrong, we loved every second of our trip but after 2 weeks, we were ready for some homely comforts! On our way down we were passed by many large groups coming up from Lukla. We were pleased, as this meant there had at long last been flights. As more and more large groups (10-15 people in each) walked by us, the more we realised how perfectly we had timed our trip. Mid to late September is the beginning of peak season, as this is when the monsoon season ends and the views become spectacular. We worried th...

The Road Less Travelled (And With Good Reason) At a shocking 4 am we stumbled out of bed and wrapped up warm. Bleary-eyed we made our way across the dried river bed by the light of flashlights to start our climb of Kalapatar. Our goal was to see the sun rise over Mt. Everest. Jumping back in time to us walking into Gorak Shep, the dirt path on the hill is the one we'll take up to the summit of Kalapatar. The difficulty of the climb surprised us both, from the bottom it looks like a long hill but in reality, it was steep and rocky. Though we didn't make it to the summit in time for sun rise, we managed to snap a couple pictures of Everest from about midway up. Regardless of what anyone says, seeing the sun rise over Everest is spectacular no matter where you see it from! A mountain looms over us at dawn. The sun rising over a giant. Dawn over Mt. E. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in and that was our cue to continue climbing up. Winding up the...

Through the Fields, In a Daze Up and at it again! A little colder than we were used to so we wrapped up warm and headed off for the day. We walked through the tiny village and were surrounded by grazing yaks. Holly was so fascinated by them that she slipped off a rock and got her foot wet in a mucky puddle, which earned her constant supervision from Raju from there on out! As we walked along, a flurry of helicopters kept coming into land and taking off again in the fields beside where we were walking. We were half envious of whoever was in them because they didn't have to carry their bags up and down the mountains! Holly's dist-yak-tion. The climb in the morning was harder than we expected. When looking at it, it didn't seem too challenging, a gentle incline up a field between two mountains. However, at 4000m, this became quite challenging. We finally felt the effects of the altitude and went up very slowly, stopping to catch our breath and sneak a peak at th...

A Rude Awakening We wake up to what sounds like a torrent of rain on the rooftop. Later, we would find ourselves mistaken: what we heard was in fact the river roaring through the village of Phakding. Breakfast was at 7:00, and after some last minute packing we set off for Namche Bazar. The hike started off pleasantly enough. Clear skies and a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. The trail took us through several small communities, and we crossed back and forth over the Dudh Koshi river several times. Several picturesque waterfalls lined our trail, and we were in awe as we spied our first snowcapped peak, which Raju pointed out as Thamserku (6608m). Thamserku. Holly trekking under a waterfall. Who says you can't be romantic in the Himalayas? After clearing the checkpoint in Monjo, we breaked for lunch in Jorsalle. Encouraged by our easy going hike that morning, we set off for Namche. After a brief hike along the river, we spied in the distance a ...

Kathmandon't Want to Leave A 5am start, bags packed and ready to go. We threw on the cleanest clothes we had and joined Raju for breakfast, anticipation tight in our stomach. He smiled and told us the weather is clear and we will be able to fly today! Our excitement was mixed with sadness, we were happy it would be a stress-free departure but so sad we'd be leaving. We had the most incredible time and would miss the mountains, but most importantly, we'd miss Raju. We had made a friend for life and vowed to return with a big group of people (any takers?). After enjoying one last Chapati and Tibetan bread for old times sake, we walked to the airport. The sky was crystal clear and perfect to fly. We said our goodbyes and uneventfully went through security and waited to watch out plane arrive. Lukla airport doesn't house any planes so we had to wait for the one arriving from Kathmandu to be unloaded before we could go. The waiting made us more anxious about the...

Good-Bye Old Friend! We awoke at 6:30 am slightly disappointed: Raju had said that given good weather, he would wake us up at 5:30 to steal a glimpse of Mt. Everest. We assumed the gloomy weather had persisted and we wouldn't get to see her one more time, our consolation prize for missing Gokyo Ri. However, we were promptly snapped out of our disappointment by a knock on the door! Raju said the clouds were clearing and if we hurried, we'd be able to make it. We dashed out the door and walking the 10 minutes to the national park and stood in the clearing. Ever modest, Mt. Everest was concealed in clouds. Disappointed, we took turns peering through the camera lens to try and spot her summit. She must have felt us watching and suddenly, the clouds parted and we saw her, cloudless for the first time, waving us off! Good-bye Mt. Everest! You've been spectacular.  Happy that we had one last look, we headed back down and enjoyed our classic breakfast: Matt eati...

Homeward Bound Waking up this morning, Holly felt right as rain. A good couple nights sleep and she was right back in the saddle. A sure sign that she was better, she decided to take her camera out on the trek for the first time since she had felt unwell! That being said, there wasn't much to photograph today. The gloomy and cloudy weather that had been following us for the past couple of days persisted. The weather has been so overcast that flights to and from Lukla have been cancelled for the passed 6 days! That's a problem for future Matt and Holly though.... right? Our "view" for most of the day. Our good luck was spent on the ascent. Our walk from Mongla to Namche was an easy and familiar one. It took 3 hours and was downhill or flat the whole way. With the view obstructed by clouds and the path easy, it's hard to mention anything notable. We considered asking for a lift down, but we didn't know how to ask in Nepali. Finally,...

And So It Goes We had gone to bed unsure of what the morning might bring. Thankfully, Holly felt much better than she had the night before, and though still not quite 100%, she felt up to the 5 hour hike down to Mongla, and even could carry her bag. The walk unfortunately was not very scenic, as clouds obstructed our view most of the way, but we did see our fair share of yaks stampeding passed us. Mostly focused on getting to Mongla without Holly feeling too unwell, we failed to take many pictures, preferring to spend as little time trekking today as possible. The one picture we managed to take holds a funny story. We were overtaken today by dozens of yaks, at least 30, all making their way in a hurry. We did what we normally do and stood aside to let them pass. Once the herd had passed us and were out of sight, we heard a huge CRASH! Raju and Matt both looked up at the mountain, weary that it was a small landslide in the making. With nothing to show, we carried on until...

Murphy's Law Having conquered the Cho La pass, we were both in good spirits, congratulating ourselves and bantering with Raju as we settled in Dragnag for the night. After a series of early and gruelling days, we were excited for our later than usual 8am breakfast and looking forward to an easy 3 hours hike to Gokyo. Howevers things always can, and often will go wrong. I awoke in the middle of the night to the sight of Holly leaning over the side of the bed, being sick all over the floor. Awakening Raju, we cleaned up as best we could at that hour, and assessed Holly. She showed no other signs of altitude sickness, and it was just as likely she had eaten something off. By the morning, it was becoming clearer that that wasn't the case. Abandoning our hopes of seeing Gokyo's lake and taking in one last panorama of the Himalayas from the peak of Gokyo Ri, we descended instead to Machermo, shedding 300m from Dragnag's 4700. Debating whether to descend lower still...

What the Hell Were We Thinking...?! Ok... So everything we have said so far about any part of this trip being "dangerous" or "precarious" or "slippery" or "challenging" was a completely lie compared to today. Crossing the Cho La Pass was the most challenging and scariest part of our trip. But we're getting ahead of ourselves... Breakfast at an unusually early 5am this morning. We ate up and got ready for the day, still carrying exhaustion from the day before. We set off and begin out walked through a field in a valley. The field was covered in grass with streams running through and beautiful snow-capped mountains surrounded us on all sides. Walking towards the Cho La Pass, located just on the other side of those peaks. We walked for about an hour before we reached a wall of rocks. It was here Holly's previous rock climbing experience came in handy as we had to climb over huge boulders up a steep cliff face. Sounds a bit f...