Everest Base Camp Day 5
Today was around a 350 metre descent day, climbing to Machhermo at 4,400 metres. My head ache from yesterday returned which pretty much confirmed I have acute altitude sickness.
It’s not a pleasant thing to have. If it gets worse I will either stop ascending or descend. To try and mitigate or treat it I have doubled the Diamox dose from 125 mgs twice daily to 250 mgs twice daily. Also having garlic soup for lunch and dinner, and drinking at least four litres of water a day.
The Diamox makes you go to the toilet more often anyway, and add to that four litres of water, two bowls of soup, and lots of lemon tea – well when at the lodge I’m going to the bathroom around every hour, and usually twice at least during the night. Luckily I’ve not yet needed to go while between lodges – as that would be very cold!
But the discomfort doesn’t take away from the amazing experience and views.
Some amazing birds you see high up in the mountains here.
The view from outside the lodge at Dole. Not a bad sight to wake up to.
This is the sink. The water was frozen this morning.
Believe it or not this is one of the better toilets!
The rooms are basic and very very cold during the night. Am now sleeping with clothes on in the sleeping bag. Also the walls are paper thin so you don’t get a lot of uninterrupted sleep.
A nice section through some trees.
Dole from above as we leave it. Stunning views.
The view ahead.
A typical local house.
Two of our guides with a great view behind them. The guides are fantastic. Great senses of humour and lots of experience.
A long trail along the hills.
Finally Machhermo at 4,400 metres.
Some local crows to welcome us.
To help acclimatise we climbed 200 metres up the hill, which gave us a good view of the next day’s trek.
One of the guides showing his climbing skills.
A cute baby yak.
We attended a free seminar by a (New Zealand) doctor at the International Porter Protection Shelter. The charities involved do amazing stuff. This is the chart that stuck with me – that we were already at only 57% atmospheric pressure.
A tenting site for the really hardy ones.
Will decide in the morning whether or not to go up to Gyoko. If I can make it to there then we have two days there which should help me with the altitude sickness.