I waited a couple days to write, so I’ll do my best to
remember the events of the last few days.
On Nov 1 we walked from Deboche to Dingboche. We started the morning by visiting a nearby Buddhist female
monastery, and that was pretty interesting. The walk to Dingboche was nice, but we definitely went up in
altitude, climbing to about 4300 meters.
By the time we reached the lodge, I had a pretty wicked headache. I assume it was due to the
altitude. We had hot tea and
eventually dinner, and then went to sleep.
When I woke up on Nov 2, my headache was still lingering a
bit but it was not nearly as bad.
I talked with Gianpietro and we agreed it was fine for me to move
forward. That morning, we made a
very slow ascent to the small village of Thukla. The views along the way were really spectacular and
humbling. The Himalayas are really
incredible. You can tell from the photo below, I felt pretty good that morning :)
In Thukla we had lunch
and in the early afternoon we began our ascent from 4600 meters to the Pyramid
monitoring station at about 5,050 meters.
Unfortunately, during the initial part of the ascent my headache came
back as well as a bit of a stomachache.
I consulted with our trekking guide, and he spoke to Gianpietro (who was
in Thukla at the time) by walkie-talkie and we agreed I should descend back to
Thukla to rest and make a slower adjustment to the altitude. This was an option
Gianpietro and I had discussed earlier in the day, should my headache
resume. I was disappointed to
leave my group but I knew it was the right thing to do, so I descended with our
trekking guide. My colleagues were
very kind at that moment, handing over various articles of warm clothing to get
me through the afternoon and evening.
I ended up staying the night in Thukla and Gianpietro stayed there with
me. I did not feel great during the afternoon and evening due to my head and
stomachaches, but Gianpietro took good care of me and by the morning I was
feeling better.
We took a slow morning, hanging out at the lodge for a few
hours, and around 11am we started a verrrrrry slow ascent to the Pyramid. Gianpietro was constantly asking me how
I was doing, and thankfully my headache did not return; however, I am inclined to subtitle this portion of my post "Climbing 400 meters while fighting the flu". We arrived at the Pyramid around 4pm,
and all of my colleagues greeted us with open arms. I am happy to be here now and will be heading to dinner
shortly. I plan to rest for a
couple days (given that we are still waiting for our instrument to arrive from
Kathmandu) and I think that will be very nice. I have free wifi here, so hopefully I can connect with some
of you by Skype or email more often now!
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