Not too much running done in recent weeks. I am feeling very fit and have dropped 2 kg in weight.
I will apologise now for the following posts length. Yep it is a looong one.
I will start from a month ago.
Week starting Feb 20.
Mon. 30 min kayak. 3 km run in 17 min. 20 min mtn bike.
Tue. 3 km run in 21 min on steep trails.
Wed. 25 min kayak.
Thu. 20 min mtn bike into steep 1.5 km run 12 min into 13 min mtn bike.
Friday and Saturday. Flying from Melbourne to Kathmandu. Our crew of 11. Myself. My son Joel (25), running buddies Greg, Gary, Phil, Dev, Johnny, Chris, Matt and 2 non runners Dee and Russ. At Kathmandu we were joined by a 12th member American girl Charlotte (21)
Sun. City sightseeing Kathmandu.
Week starting Feb 27.
Mon. Supposed to fly to Lukla but the weather not cooperating another night in Kathmandu.
Tue. Flight to the tiny clifftop airport at Lukla 2800 metres asl.
A comfortable undulating 14 km hike to Phakding.
Wed. A steep 11 km hike from Phakding at 2700 m. to Namche Bazar at 3500 m. Great scenery. Quite a number of treacherous looking supension bridges. A lot of mule and yak trains.
Thu. Acclim. day. A 6 hour trek up beyond 3800 m. ending back at Namche. Some good views of Everest and Ama Dablam. I could feel the altitude on the last push to 3800. Our last night with running water and flushing toilets.
Fri. From Namche to Tengboche, 11 km . Finishing at 3900 m. Wandered up beyond Tengboche to above 4000. A good solid hike up and also a steep down at one point.
Tengboche is famous for a magnificent Buddhist Monastery and spectacular Everest views. Looking at the last rays of the sun on Everest was amazing.
Temps dropped to minus 15 C overnight.
Sat. About 15 kms of hiking to the gorgeous stone walled farming village of Dingboche at 4400 metres. I loved this little village. It is situated at the very foot of the majestic Ama Dablam, arguably the most beautiful peak in the Himalaya. It also has a great view of Lhotse the 4th highest mountain in the world at 8516 metres.
Sun. Acclim. day. Up a hill behind Dingboche to 4750 metres. We stayed up there for about 90 mins wandering about.
Back in the village my teammate Johnny D, a bricklayer, decided to rebuild the collapsed stone wall at the entrance of our tea house. We all pitched in and knocked the job over in about 90 mins. I did a slow km jog back from the store later in the day.
Mon. A short 9 km hike up past Thukla to Lobuche at 4900 metres. We then had a good hour of playing on a nearby ridge at over 5000 metres.
Now things were getting serious. We heard a fellow Aussie had died at Lobuche 2 days earlier. One of our 12 trekkers Gary was feeling the altitude badly now. His O2 sats were down in the mid 70s ( mine were still hovering around 90). Overnight was minus 20 C.
Tue. Our time had arrived. Base Camp awaited but not for Gary. He clearly was suffering acute altitude sickness and he was taken back down to Dingboche by one of the porters. He told me he had no memory of the day.
The rest of us pushed up to Gorak Shep at around the 5100 metre mark. Much of it was rugged stuff across glacial moraine. We dropped off most of our gear as we would be staying there overnight. From there a bit over an hour and a half and we were at Everest Base Camp 5365 metres above sea level.
It was quite an emotional place. Chris engraved a tribute to his recently deceased wife. Dee left a message and prayer flags for her late father. Johnny D. donned his Melbourne Marathon legend singlet (he has run all 39 of them) and proceeded to do 25 pushups. I sat beside my son on the pile of rocks delighted we had got here together then shed a tear for my buddy Gary who had just fallen short of a goal he had carried for 20 years.
The hike back to Gorak Shep was not without incident. Johnny D. had to be helped back by the porters and Phil was also physically distressed with a hacking cough.
Wed. Down we go. Johnny had been vomiting all night and couldn't see properly. Phil was hacking away dangerously. Russ was feeling weak and lightheaded. It was a long day. About 20 kms down to Pheriche at 4200 metres Johnny and Russ struggled but improved the lower we went. Phil's cough started to improve after lunch. By the evening those 3 boys were much improved.
Thu. It snowed overnight. Things started well but after 30 minutes my son Joel started vomiting. He seemed to be ok but after a couple of hours he started again and continued to vomit frequently. He couldn't hold down any fluids. Our guide decided to get a medivac chopper in. An hour later I was in the sky with my son and a porter.
An ambulance met us at the airport and took us to a classy International hospital.
He spent 2 nights there with a low level fever. A battery of tests showed up nothing.
The trek was over for me. The rest of the crew had one more day ahead of them.
The rest of our time was spent in Kathmandu.
I did go out with Matt, Greg and John for a 16 km runin the surrounding hills with a running guide. Otherwise just lots of walking a few light jogs and lots of stairs, squats, pushups and core work.
We arrived home Saturday evening.
I went out for a short kayak, bike and run on Sunday.