Day 6--Dingboche

Today was a day for acclimatization here in Dingboche.  Our bodies are definitely starting to feel the effects of the high altitude.  The air is only about 60% of that at sea level, so you become out of breath (to the point of blacking out!) when performing the simplest tasks (like going to the bathroom), and the heart is continuously racing to transport what little oxygen that is available.  Taking a day to allow our bodies to calm down and adjust is very important.  But, that does not mean that we sat around the stove in the lodge shooting the breeze with the Sherpas and other trekkers.  We hiked, and I mean hiked.  The idea was to gain additional altitude and then return to Dingboche for the night.  Going up in altitude and descending for the night is one trick to help the body acclimatize more quickly.  I was tired when I woke up this morning, so the plan to hike for three hours was a bit off-putting to me.

 Yup, the walls in our room were wallpapered with astro-turf.  Hehehe...

Unfortunately, what was touted to be a three-hour walk to the next town turned into a five-hour affair.  We walked out of town and into an expanse of rock extending gradually uphill along what was once the path of a glacier.

 Don't be fooled by our smiles... we weren't having fun.

It was hard going trampling over rocks of all sizes.  At this altitude, I felt like I was walking through waist-high water at times, huffing and puffing, trying to get a full breath.  For every ten to twenty steps, we had to stop for a breather.  We were not climbing any big hills either.  Our goal was the tiny town of Chhukhung where we would eat lunch at the lodge of Nima's friend.  Wandering higher and higher and getting more and more winded, we were ecstatic to spot a roof in the distance.  That's got to be the place! 

As we got closer to our goal, we felt more and more relieved.  Finally we approached the building that we thought to be the restaurant only to find that it was a rundown and locked up house.  Ugh.  Wrong place.  "It's got to be just over those rocks," Nima said.  I had a bad feeling about that.  No sign of civilization could be seen in the distance, only large piles of rocks. 

About this time, Nima recognized a Sherpa walking down the trail.  He chatted with his old friend for a bit who informed him that the lodge we were looking for was only twenty more minutes up the hill.  Hmm... I've heard that one before.  Of course, twenty minutes for a Sherpa equates to at least forty minutes for most other people.  I was so worn out at this point that it took all that was in me to keep walking and not huff off down the hill back in the direction of Dingboche.

When at last we came to one more high rock piles, I stopped.  Gideon went on a reconnaissance mission to see what lay on the other side of the rock pile.  He hiked up and gave us the thumbs up.  We had arrived to Chhukhung!  By the time I flopped down on the bench in the restaurant I had a whopper of a headache and no smile left in me.  We had climbed 1250 feet and were now at 15,518 feet.

We recharged with soup and fried rice and many cups of hot lemon tea.  Nima chatted with his friend, the inn keeper, our Sonoma friend Jen's sister-in-law.

As they chatted I watched dark, ominous clouds move into the high valley, completely obscuring all views of the mountains.  Snow was in the air, just in time for our hike back to Dingboche.  Man, at this point I just wanted to be in sitting in front of the hot stove in Dingboche wrapped in a blanket, playing a round of cards.

Fortunately, our pace down the hill was much faster than our trek up.  We made it back to the lodge in an hour and a half.  With raging headaches, Gideon and I sat down in the dining room with a big bag of M&Ms and a large thermos of tea.  The hot fluid and the sugar helped calm our throbbing heads and soon we felt back to normal. 

We spent the evening around the wood stove with our friends from last night, Luc the eccentric Belgium, Bhim, his extra-tall Sherpa guide, the innkeeper and the crew of laughing teen-aged porters.  We played cards and told stories until bedtime.  As an added bonus, I washed my hair in a big bowl of warm water and dried it in front of the stove.  I feel like a new person now that my hair is less greasy than the fried noodles.

My hope is that this somewhat torturous day will ease the next leg of our journey to Luboche tomorrow.