Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Pheriche, again!

Tuesday, March 27

 Corell and I rocked our borrowed down suits this morning at breakfast- we woke up so cold, despite the, theoretically, warmer night. We were also very pleased with ourselves because we only broke free of the tent once each during the snowy night. The path to the toilet tents is a bit precarious, and I was worried that in my exhausted stupor, I would somehow slip off one of the rocking rocks. Corell is still winning in the sleep department, not sure why.

 Today was a long day...we said goodbye to Jeff, although we Island Peakers hope to see him on trail in a few days...still, I hate to say goodbye! We have loved having him with us... We left EBC all bundled up, freezing, and then had to navigate the "minefields" of glacial moraine. Still think we are lucky that no one has injured themselves-- but I must admit that in the past couple of weeks, we have each drastically improved in the "mountain goat" department. My vote for Best Trooper? Renee. With recently injured ankles, she has such courage to brave the incredibly uneven terrain every day. And today, as I said, was long. We dropped about 3300 ft over the course of ?11 miles and about 7-8 hours of walking- most of it on treacherous ankle-snapping terrain. We walked down past Gorak Shep, this time covered in snow, and then on to Lobuche for lunch. After lunch we walked past the memorial grounds at the top of the Thukla pass, and headed down the other side. The clouds came in, alternately covering us and then breaking. By the time we reached the valley where Pheriche is located, the landscape was eerie. Rocks and fog, and a few stone-walled compounds. Our tea house was a most welcome site.

 Corell and I are thrilled to have, in comparison to our last visit, a room with light-colored walls. No doom and gloom- what a difference!!! We bolted to the showers since we will be un-showered for the next 5 days as we tackle Island Peak. After another delicious dinner of Dal Bhat, Corell hit the bag a bit earlier than usual while I am staying up trying to figure out why sending these posts is so problematic. 14,000ft or simply idiocy? I will try again in the am...before we leave for Chukkung... and before we say goodbye to the rest of our teammates who are walking down to Namche Bazaar tomorrow and then onto Lukla on Thursday.

 On a fun note, we met up with Mark Tucker, RMI guide and Base Camp Manager again this year. Mark was one of the senior guides on the expedition skills seminar I took on Rainier in '09- so it is fun to see him here. In addition to no showers for our Island Peak adventure, my understanding is that there will be no Internet or cell connectivity as well. I will post blogs, I hope, once we re-enter civilization. Linden will be calling in on the sat phone, so check out RMI's blog for news while we are off-grid. For the record, I am nervous about this climb--- being cold and tired and weak. Jeff and Linden have made a great effort to help me be at my best- including limiting my carrying my own pack- and you know how that gets me! So, I am working on my "PMA"- positive mental attitude and hope that this time, I will have a successful summit. If not, I will have another story to tell! It's late, and I need to get to sleep... Hope all is well back home--- and thanks for the blog comments- we love them!!!! Xoxo

1 comment:

  1. I am enjoying your posts . What a wonderful trip .Except feeling cold despite down suits...

    ReplyDelete