Day 11 and 12: Chasing oxygen

Start: Gorak Shep

End: Kyangjuma

Finishing altitude: 3550m

I woke up to a bitterly cold morning and lay bundled up in my sleeping bag, admiring the view out of my teahouse window. Over the next 4 days we would descend back into the thicker, warmer air of the lush valleys, leaving this harsh panorama of rock and ice behind. I scanned the landscape; the towers of ice, the tall seracs which protruded from the surface of the glacier like jagged teeth. The summits of the peaks plastered in thick snow, looking completely inaccessible. I saw the powdery snow become disturbed in the high winds, I imagined the power of an avalanche bombarding the flanks of the mountain – obliterating everything in it’s path. I thought to my favourite adventurers; men like Mallory, Irvine, Hunt, Shipton, Hillary and Tenzing and their bravery to step onto an unclimbed mountain and achieve the impossible of mapping out a viable route. This environment was hostile and unforgivable. An exhilarating place of adventure, triumph and tragedy.

I wandered down for breakfast where I was greeted by Hom who passed me a cup of tea and we discussed how cold the night was, it was easily below minus 20. Dan and Aadam called over to me and I joined them at their table, and they cheerfully said, “Happy new year”, both clutching hot drinks to warm up. It hadn’t even registered to me that it was New Year’s day! We ate porridge, eggs and drank copious amounts of tea for the warmth before beginning our descent. We left the teahouse and as we’d become so accustomed to doing, we followed Bikash’s lead. A few steps in, he turned around smiling, laughing and dancing around. In our sleepy, oxygen deprived state we had not realised he was walking in the totally wrong direction, back towards Everest Base Camp and we had simply followed him! He joked saying, “I know how much you loved it, but we can’t go back Amy”, then swiveled around to pursue the other direction.

The typical base camp hike is linear so to return to Lukla, we would follow exactly the same route we had climbed. But as the route is mostly downhill and the oxygen levels increase, it takes half the time of the ascent. We retraced our steps over the glacial moraine with Loboche as our first target, where we would rest and each lunch. Lee was still in a bad way, a combination of an intense cough coupled with vomiting, so hung back with the ever reliable Sunam and took it slowly. It was most likely psychological, but within a couple of hours I could practically feel the air growing thicker and already sensed that breathing had become less of a challenge. After eating lunch in Loboche, we continued our descent – we practically raced down the steep hill with the Sherpa monuments on top, reminiscing on how difficult the climb had felt a couple of days ago. We clambered over the boulder field and retraced the high ridges that gently descended to Dingboche, where we would rest for the night. After dinner, Hom and Sunam entered the dining room with flasks of tea and wide smiles as they simultaneously said, "Happy new year", almost as if it had been rehearsed. They placed a large cake in front of me, the icing read, "Happy new year, 2023" and Hom handed me a knife as I'd somehow earned the title of head of cake cutting. We all ate cake by the fire before having a long restful sleep.

After a relaxed stay in the lodge at Dingboche, we felt energised and eager to continue descending through the valley. Today we would see further evidence of the increased oxygen, as the trees reappeared, a sight we were all grateful to see. We arrived at the Tengboche monastery and I rested on a wall with Aadam and Dan. In the distance we heard American accents, growly gradually louder until we saw 3 young American men appear at the top of the monastery steps, accompanied by a Nepalese guide. This is the first opportunity on the hike to see Everest, permitting the cloud cover allows. It was a beautifully clear day and their guide pointed at the horizon where Everest stood proudly. The Americans responded loudly and enthusiastically, “Oh my god”, “Awesome!”, “Really, that one?”, “Wait, which one?”, “Can you show us again?” Aadam rolled his eyes and shook his head whispering, “Americans!” We heard Lee coming, as the sound of the Khumbu cough echoed through the valley. The Americans looked nervous and one of the men said, “I feel like we are looking into our future”, I reassured them and told them it’s worth it. As we descended the steps towards our lunch stop, I faintly heard one of the Americans say, “So which one is Everest again?”

Our second day of descending was a 7 hour stint of consistent downhill and despite the long day, I was feeling energetic and most of all, hungry. Altitude suppresses your appetite as your body upregulates levels of the hormone leptin, which prevents the sensation of hunger. So despite the elevated energy expenditure when hiking at high altitude, it is a struggle to offset this with food. This explains why people lose so much weight on this trek. But as we descended, a wave of hunger hit me and all of a sudden all I could think about was food – a sign that I needed to repay the calorie deficit from my time above 5000m. At dinner I had seconds and thirds of potatoes and rice, Hom smiled as he piled my plate up with carbohydrates, saying “Hungry again?” We now only had 2 days of descent remaining as we chased the warmer temperatures and the oxygen back down the valley.