Trekking – swapping two wheels for two legs

Of the many treks available in Nepal, I chose to walk the traditional expedition route from Jiri to the Everest region, where I crossed 3 passes – Kong Ma La (5550m), Cho La (5500m) and Renjo La (5450m).

The majority of tourists fly into Lukla, which was 5 days into my trek. This part of the trek involved walking through European type hills and forests, villages with no roads and the best part, only a small number of tourists.

Once I hit the tourist trail at Lukla, the track was wider and smoother, hotels and restaurants were everywhere and trekkers who looked down and did not know how to say hello!!

I started to notice the altitude at Namche Bazaar, 3400m, my legs were fine but my lungs just could not suck in enough air. The next few days I climbed only 400m per day to allow for acclimatisation. The day before my first pass, my resting heart rate was 90 beats per minute and I could not get it any lower, with no headache or nausea, I was a little concerned – should I go back down?? I took some diamox (acclimatisation assistance drug) and several hours later my heart rate dropped 20 beats - thank god for drugs!!

The next day I walked over Kongma La pass, it was tough but well worth it, I had great views of Makalu (8462m) and Lhotse (8516m). Now I was in the Khumbu valley with Everest at the end. I walked upto basecamp and Kattar Patel, then back down and over the second pass, Cho La. The pass was very narrow, so not much of a view, and I had to walk 500m across a glacier – lucky I carried an ice axe all this way!!

Down into Gokyo valley and across the massive Ngozumpa glacier. The most surprising part of the trek is the size, power of the glaciers and how the frozen river has carved its path out of the rock. By now I was totally over the menu in the lodges, so no time for a rest day – need to getout for a steak and glass of wine!

From here it was over the last pass, Renjo La, and downhill all the way to the Gold Coast town of the Himalayas, highrise Namche Bazaar.

I walked down to Lukla to watch friends fly off the very short runway but as is standard, flights were delayed by cloud. Now 4 days of walking to meet the bike and 6 hours drive to a steak and glass of wine.