Gastrointestinal Illness Strikes

I invited Stephen to join me on my second trip to Nepal in 2007.  First he had to be vetted by Leeli, but she, and later Denise, found him to be as wonderful a person as I did. 

Before the trip Stephen and I did a training hike along part of the Cross Rivendell Trail above the Ely Copper Mine in Vermont. He brought along two pairs of trekking polls for us to try. I was never enthused about them, but then I had never really tried them.  It did not take me long to realize they were great. I got home and immediately ordered a pair, which I’ve have used ever since.

 

Five days into the trek we stayed at a newly-opened lodge in Khumjung owned by the brother of one of the sherpas on this trek. It did not yet have a name. So we spent the next week trying to think of a good name for the No-Name-Lodge.  

On the ground floor was a large dining room with a small charcoal fire under a large dining table. I worried about carbon monoxide, but nobody keeled over.  Bedrooms were upstairs.  I was assigned to an inside room with no view, but I later talked Chhongba into switching with me so I could photograph Ama Dablam from the room as seen below.

For some reason I woke up in the middle of the night and looked around the room for my trekking poles. They were not there. I thought I might have left them by the front door, so I quietly headed down to the main floor and the found the sherpas and porters asleep throughout the room. I did not want to disturb them, so I retreated quietly to my room and fell back asleep worrying that the poles were lost. Thankfully, the next morning I found them in the room I was in earlier before I switched with Chhongba.  I had already gotten to depend on them, especially on steep downhills.

We left Khumjung and had lunch at Mong La before staying overnight in Phortse.

Our destination for this trip was Kala Patthar, an 18,514 ft mountain peak overlooking Everest Base Camp. But things didn’t go as planned. 

The first day of our trek was fine, but then gastrointestinal illness started striking. As I recall, it hit Stephen and Leeli first. We later learned that most people in the whole Khumbu area were sick that season. I was fine for a number of days until our second night in Dingboche. 

As we approached Dingbouche I took a photo showing Everest, with its characteristic cloud, Lhotse on the left, and Ama Dablam on the right. You can see Dingbouche in the Imja Khola valley before Ama Dablam.

Here is a zoomed-in view of Mount Everest.

I was up very early the first morning in Dingboche and climbed a hill above the town.  Here are photos of Ama Dablam, Dingboche, and the Imja Khola valley.

 

We wound up staying in two different lodges because the one Chhongba wanted was full the first night.  Our first lodge is near the bottom of the photo below.  Our second lodge has the red roof.

Every morning the sherpas would bring a bowl of very hot water and a washcloth with our “bed tea”. I prefer coffee and Chhongba was always great about bringing his own that he brewed for us, sparing us from having to drink the horrible instant coffee that is characteristic of Nepal.  I had already been out and about. I washed my face and then used the hot water to wash my very dirty bandanna. I hung it on the clothesline outside and 15 minutes later came back to retrieve it. This is what it looked like when I held it sideways by the end. It had been frozen solid.

After breakfast we had a wonderful acclimatization hike above Dingbouche to 15,400 feet. Here is Chhongba taking a photo of the Imja Khola valley. The mountain at the end of the valley is Imja Tse (20,305 ft), also known as Island Peak. The peak to the left is Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world at 27,940 ft. It is just south of Everest across the South Col and past Camp IV.

That evening the illness struck me.  I was in bad shape the next day, but not as bad as one woman in our group. We hiked about a mile to Periche up and over some significant hills. The sherpas took turns carrying the sick woman on their backs. There was a clinic in Periche. 

We stayed in Periche two nights.  The afternoon we arrived, I was still feeling quite ill and somewhat reluctantly visited the clinic. There I was told I could have an examination or a consultation. The examination would cost $100, and the consultation would be free. I asked her what the difference between the two was. The doctor, from England, basically said, $100. I am cheap, so I opted for the consultation. She said if I had Cipro I should take it soon and drink a lot of water. I went back to the lodge and followed her advice. About four hours later I felt great. Not fully recovered but certainly a lot better and well on my way to mend.

Chhongba thought we should head back at this point but I argued, unsuccessfully, that some of us who were now healthy could go on and summit Kala Patthar spending two night in Lobuche. Here we are leaving Periche. Chhongba is in the white hat. Nuptse, Everest with its characteristic cloud, and Lhotse are above Chhongba’s head (left to right). 

The facemasks that some of us are wearing was not because of covid or other illnesses but because the area around Periche was very dusty because of the high winds in the valley. 

It would not be until three years late that I finally made it to the summit of Kala Patthar.

When we finally returned to Khumjung and the No-Name-Lodge with a great name in mind, we found to our horror that it had been given a name. And even menus were printed with the name. They called at the Namaste Lodge. We thought this was a poor choice compared with our suggested name since almost half of the lodges in Nepal are called Namaste.

This region is home to a very colorful bird called the Daphne. A pair are seen here just outside Khumjung.

So our suggested name for the lodge was the Daphne Lodge. We managed to convince the owner, who is also named Chhongba, to change it. When I got home I created an image that they could use on their menus and advertising. It is below. The lodge is in the back left with the blue windows. In the center of the photo is the beautiful Ama Dablam.  Standing on the right is a Daphne.

The lodge owner was also a chef at the very upscale Everest View Hotel, well uphill from the village of Khumjung. We had a great snack on the patio of the hotel and he gave us a great tour of some of the rooms. In the photo below are L-R Tabuche, Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam.

We hiked a short distance to the highest airport in the world, the Syangbouche Airport at 12,402 ft. From there I took this photo of Everest, Lhotse (this time with the cloud), and Ama Dablam before we descended to Namche Bazaar and headed back to Lukla.