Everest Base Camp Trek Part 4 ~ The highest point. Kala Patthar 5545m.. and EBC second-attempt!

Part 4 ~ The one vantage point that can allow one to have a full view of Everest is this mount called Kala Patthar.  

Kala Patthar [Photo: KC Tng]

Sometimes in life, it was like this.  Would one come all the way to London for the very first time and not visit London Bridge or the Big Ben?  In the same vein, although EBC was the pinnacle of the trek,  but to me, and to the girls, we held in our hearts the wish to summit Kala Patthar the highest point, even way before our trip.  To us, it was a MUST climb.  And we'd stop at nothing to achieve that.
Without being disrespectful to all my fellow trekkers, to myself, climbing to the top of Kala Patthar was even more important than arriving at EBC.  The magic figure of 5545m was too strong a draw.


[In this Travellogue, I have tried my best to credit all the photos to their respective photographers, and I tried my best to recall verbatim what members said during the whole trip. Most events are as I could remember them. Those who have expressed clearly to me their wishes not to have their photos shared online I have post-processed the photographs so that their faces are pixelated to protect their privacies.]


Table of Contents:

1. EBC Trek Part 1 ~ An epic adventure.  Kathmandu to Lukla.  Lukla to Phakding.  Phakding to Namche Bazaar.   Acclimatisation in Namche Bazaar.
2. EBC Trek Part 2 ~ The air got thinner & the body got more tired.  Namche Bazaar to Tengboche & Debuche.  Debuche to Dingboche.  Acclimatisation in Dingboche.
3. EBC Trek Part 3 ~ The Final Push.  Dingboche to Lobuche.  Lobuche to Gorak Shep and to EBC and back to Gorak Shep. 
4. EBC Trek Part 4 ~ Kala Patthar
5. EBC Trek Part 5 ~ The unrelenting march from day to night - Gorak Shep to Periche.  Another long day to night march from Periche to Namche Bazaar.
6. EBC Trek Part 6 ~ No matter how tired... just go into Cruise-control mode walking from Namche Bazaar to finally arrive back in Lukla in the dark, yet again.
7. EBC Trek Part 7 ~ Flying back to Kathmandu.  Rest and Relax in Kathmandu and flying home!

EBC TREK Day 10 ~ Summitting Kala Patthar - our goal! 
27 Nov 2017


Here is the Relive video of our climb from Gorak Shep to Kala Patthar at 5545m.

Relive 'Trek to Kala Patthar'

Here is the Strava Flyby of the early morning Kala Patthar trek.  Just click on the image below, play and zoom in and see.  There were only two of us on this Flyby - Kai Sing and I.  The rest were not on Strava.

Here is my short Garmin record of this memorable Kala Patthar climb.



The VIDEO:  Freezing climb up a frozen rock Kala Patthar for no other reasons than to get frozen fingers.



4:25am
I woke up with a start.  Serene realised it was 5 minutes before the time to gather at the dining area of the guesthouse, and woke me quickly. 

"Shit!"

The only thing I loved about being up here so high and so frozen was that I would be wearing every single layer every moment of my waking and sleeping hours.  And it made little difference if I brushed my teeth or shaved.  The only thing that I needed to do was to slip my feet into my trekking boots and in less than 2 minutes, I was at the girls' door already.  Such convenience.  No wonder I heard Tibetans living in the Land of Snow rarely shower.

The act of tying my shoe laces were breath-sapping.  The seven of us attempting the climb were out with our personal porters, Sabinn Rai and Koot were there, together with Babu who would be leading the climb.
4:30am was dark.  The sun was already somewhere below the peaks and transmitting a hue of deep blue light from below and behind them.  We walked along the dusty plain with our headlamps on.  Silently we walked, noisily we panted.  There was absolutely no way we could escape the agony of 52% of oxygen at this level.  Our bodies were simply not accustomed to it.
Somewhere to our left, the clanging of bells gave hint of some yaks starting their day's journey as early as us.  Their eyes shone back in reflection when our headlamp beams struck them.

[Photo: Kai Sing]

The walk from the guesthouse to the foot of Kala Patthar was a mere 15 minutes.  The moment our boots hit black dust we were already on an acute upward gradient.  One that was unrelenting and totally merciless.  In many of the blogs and vlogs I'd read and watched, some trekkers decided to give Kala Patthar a miss, for various reasons - fatigue, time factor, freezing cold.  Some made the climb for the bragging rights.
It registered a negative 20 degrees celsius this morning, which was not surprising.

[Photo: Kai Sing]

I gave up wearing multiple layers of gloves - glover liner layer 1, layer 2 followed by an external layer and stuffing a heat pack into each glove.  In such frosty condition, none of these would work.  So I took off everything except one single layer of glove liners, hooked my trekking sticks and let Sabinn Rai carry my day pack with the water bottles and just walked up with my hands in my pocket where the heat packs did much more good.

Ah Sing and Ah Li were both freezing.  They were tough girls, and though their fingers and toes were numb, they kept going, slowly step by step.   The rest of the boys were suffering a similar affliction of the icy air.  The combination of a minus twenty degrees celsius at 5200m at 4:50am in the morning, trying to climb a mount of dark rocks and gravels was really not the most comfortable way to spend a morning.
Sometimes people would question themselves, why were they doing this?  But strangely I never had once when I questioned myself.  It was an all or nothing rule.  If I'd chosen to do it, I would just try my best and do it, solving problems that I encountered along the way.

On this morning, the going was smooth-sailing, apart from the hypoxic screaming of my cardiopulmonary system, in part from trying to generate sufficient heat to overcome the deep freeze, and in part from trying to suck in as much oxygen as my alveoli could possibly muster.

My fingers were rendered totlaly useless under such weather.  I kept wondering if it was my finger or my iPhone that was not working, because many a time when I pressed on the shoot button, I wasn't sure if the photo-taking was actuated.  The cold must have made the focussing function on my iPhone a little retarded.  Some of my shots turned out blurry and out of focus.  But it didn't matter.  As a documentation photographer, what mattered more was the feeling of the moment, rather than the sharpness of the picture.

There were other trekkers who were doing the same climb with us on this morning, some Ang Mohs who were much faster climbers, chattering non-stop as they sped upwards, as if the oxygen-rare air and the cold had next to no impact on them.
The rocks were, like everywhere else, strewn in haphazard fashion.  I needed to watch carefully with every foot landing, some requiring higher lift of the legs.  By now I had truly realised that climbing without trekking sticks was good, but only if one had the necessary strength of the core muscles.  I made a promise to myself to build up my core more when I return home.

Ah Sing and Ah Li were climbing slowly in front of me.  Matthew, Jason were way ahead.  Kai Sing and Zaid were trekking together with me.  Jeffrey was somewhere in front, that robot of a man.  From behind I saw Kai Sing stopping for a moment, and leaned forward on his trekking sticks, bent at the waist and heaving deep breaths.  This was the first time I saw Kai Sing tired in thus-a-way.  Somehow it made me feel better when soon after I had to bend down, hands on knees, breathing deeply for a few minutes to rest.  If it was tiring for Kai Sing, then it must be really tiring.

Like many other climbs, looking around us, the massive mountains made the human figures appear microscopic.  We could see faraway, climbers in multi-coloured outfits zig-zagging up the steep slope.  The gradient simply got sharper as one ascended.  It would come to an end, I was sure.  The only question was when.  YOLT was limping a little.  His injured knee must be starting to bother him.

Slowly we arrived at a platform of prayer flags and rocks.

"This is the old Kala Patthar top," said Babu. "But they changed the new top to one that is higher up there because there was some electrical signal problem here."  I didn't exactly understand what he was saying but it was something to that effect.

So this wasn't the top.  Not yet.
Matthew was suffering from frozen fingers.

Ah Sing asked me: "Papa, will my fingers drop off from frostbites like these?"

"Of course not.  This is not cold enough.  And our exposure is only for a very short period of time."

The old Kala Patthar top looking up towards the new Kala Patthar top. [Photo: Kai Sing]

I glanced towards that sharp slope on the left leading to the top.  There were already several Ang Moh men and women slowly making their ways up.
I looked back at the girls.

"Ok, I think that's where we should be heading towards. Come, let's go!" I urged them on.  And Ah Sing and Ah Li happily followed.

Jeffrey and Jason were already on their way up.

Panorama of us starting that last climb to the top. [Photo: Kai Sing]

The last part of the climb was unsurprisingly difficult, as I had learned to assume after these days of climbing in this region.  Rocks were huge and irregular at many parts and we literally had to climb on all fours just to scale a small little rise.  My panting became heavier, and my diaphragm toiled to suck more air deeper into my lungs even just to gain a minuscule increase in oxygen molecules diffusion into my blood.
I'd given up watching at my heart rate.  Times like these I just wanted to make it to the top.  Ah Li was just ahead of me.

This WAS us! Almost reaching the top.. almost, but still a long way. [Photo: Kai Sing]

Looking down towards the old Kala Patthar top.

Looking back as we climbed, the sun finally risen above the peaks.

"Papa, we are getting near, we are almost there!" Ah Li was ecstatic.

A little few more steps... and a few more... add onto that several more steps.. And then, we were there right at the top.  Rocks and prayer flags marked the top.

"YES! We've made it!"

Ah Sing was close behind Ah Li.  And Jeffrey and Jason were just beside us.  We all arrived at the top almost the same time.
In exuberance we sang Jason a Happy Birthday Song to celebrate his 27th birthday on this day, and we took a group shot with a YOLT banner he brought up for posterity.


You Only Live Twice
Talking about YOLT.  Jason had a most engaging personal account of his own life when he was involved in a horrific motorbike accident some years back while he was travelling in Cambodia that left him almost crippled, and how he defied all odds to come back and live a full life with all the metal plates in his bodies.  Accomplishing EBC and now Kala Patthar was an embodiment of his YOLT philosophy.  As an author and a motivational speaker, he had proven not only to himself but to his audience what a whole lot of difference tenacity in one's life would make.



Straight ahead of us, Everest peak stood in its full grandiose, still bluish from the darkness of the morning.  The sun was beginning to rise above the peak, but the warm golden rays hadn't hit Everest yet.  Was it beautiful seeing Everest from the top of Kala Patthar? In hindsight, it was kind of an anti-climax, I felt.  We only managed to see its peak.  But that was it.  For bragging rights, some would say.  For us, it was more for the 5545m.

The golden rays of the sun hitting the peak of Pumori as we struggled upwards. [Photo: Kai Sing]

My face was anaethetised.  My fingers and palms no longer seemed to belong to me.  I really didn't know how terrible a state I was in until I saw my photo.   My lips and my peri-oral area were so cyanosed I was sure had I measured my oxygen level there and then, any emergency doctor would ambulance me towards the nearest Accident and Emergency Department.  I didn't realise I looked so terrible.

"Come, let's take another group photo!"  and Babu graciously obliged.

Study carefully and you will see that my whole face, my lips and my cheeks were all
deeply cyanosed (blue from a lack of oxygen).

The lighting conditions weren't the best but I couldn't care more.  A shot of Ah Sing and Ah Li with Everest jutting out between their heads.  That was the one single most important shot for memory's sake.

"Papa, take a shot of our backs, to change your Blog site's main photo," requested Ah Sing.  And I obliged.

Followed by the obligatory panoramic shot of the area.

Slightly below us, Kai Sing was waiting a while at the old Kala Patthar top and then the three of them slowly made their way back down.

Yes, Kai Sing, with Everest behind him. 
It was freezing.  But we could not feel anything any more. [Selfie: Kai Sing]

By the time we started down, the sun had risen and had lit up more parts of the mountains and plateaus around us.    Going down was so much easier.  At least I knew at 5545m where were were, the oxygen level was at the lowest level of 50%.  Thus any further descent would ease the efforts on the pulmonary system.

Finally descending.

Poor Ah Sing took a slip and strained her left knee.  But she bravely continued on, despite the pain.

It was only now that it was bright enough to see the sign.

We could see Kai Sing, Zaid and Matthew some distance in front walking down slowly.  The flat plain didn't look far, but it would take us some time to even set foot on the dust there.  Adrian gave us three and a half hour to do the climb and back.  We took all of four hours and eighteen minutes.  But that was good enough.

YES! Finally almost back to the guesthouse! Job done! [Photo: Kai Sing]

Sabinn Rai did a great job carrying my daypack for me.  But when we reached our guesthouse, we found that we could suck no more water from our bottle because it had frozen into ice.

By the time we returned to the guesthouse... 

As a congratulatory gift, Kong Wan and Ai Lin bought me this special gift which I framed up and proudly displayed on the table behind my chair in the clinic.  My gratitude!

EBC TREK Day 10 ~ Re-attempting EBC again, just so that she could reach the NEW EBC - Fann's goal!
27 Nov 2017

Meanwhile, at 6:15am, Fann set off with Sharan towards the new EBC.

[Photo: Fann]

Kai Sing already predicted that Fann would make it back in record time.

"She is super fast one.  She is the can one,"  insisted Kai Sing.

And Kai Sing was correct.  In fact, Fann enjoyed her second time trekking to EBC so much that she hardly took any pictures.

"I just walked with Sharan and enjoyed the views," she said.

[Photo: Fann]

When asked if it was tough for her, she replied:

"Actually no leh.  I didn't feel it was difficult at all," said the 45kg young lady.

That was that.  Totally no lasa for her.  I believed she broke the Singaporean record of a three hours seven minutes trek from Gorak Shep to new EBC and back.  

"Actually both me and Sharan, we had to each take a poop along the trek, and I had to take a pee," said Fann. "If it hadn't been for the pooping and peeing, I think I would have made it back sub-3 hours.  So like that can consider below three hours or not ah?"

"Of course not!" I replied, "Even when you do an Ironman, the time you take to pee and poop and change clothing and such are all included in your final timing." 

The New EBC! [Photo: Fann]

But she was contented.  Job was done on both ends - for her at the new EBC, and for Ah Sing, Ah Li and I, at Kala Patthar.

[Photo: Fann]

We were really grateful to our guides and to Adrian for making such arrangements to accommodate us.

"Kala Patthar is optional,"Adrian had always maintained.

But we refused to accept the optional condition. Hahaha...  And now even a second round to the new EBC was thrown into the itinerary, for Adrian realised how OCD Fann was when it came to completion.

This was most likely the moment when Sharan could not tahan but had to take a poop at EBC. [Photo: Fann]

A very pleased Fann and a happy Sharan.

After both had done their poops. It was time to return to Gorak Shep. [Photo: Fann]

The white spot marked the point of faecal release. [Photo: Fann]

While we were climbing, the boys were having fun with their drones...

Darric and Kong Wan were having fun drone-flying with their Spark and Mavic Pro while we were climbing.   When they crossed the customs through the Nepal immigration, they had to each pay US$80 just to purchase a licence for flying their drones in Nepal.  And while in Namche Bazaar, that licence to allowed them to fly did come in handy as a Namche police officer actually checked and asked them for it when he spotted them flying their drones.

Photo: Darric's drone

"As long as you are not flying the drones in Sagarmatha National Park, you are allowed to fly them anywhere," explained Kong Wan.

These were the only shots I had from Darric's Spark.

Darric's drone flew higher. [Photo: Darric]

Kong Wan's Mavic Pro suffered a sudden battery drain and crash landed not far from the guesthouse at Gorak Shep and broke a rotor blade.  But what was more sad was, his Sandisk memory card suffered some kind of circuitry problem and despite sending it in for expert retrieval, they could not salvage any of his videos.  That was really disappointing.  We were all really looking forward to his drone videos of Namche Bazaar and EBC. We felt sorry for the loss of his data and for his broken rotor blade.

Higher and Higher Darric's drone flew... [Photo: Darric]

And then Darric started turning his drone towards Kala Patthar. [Photo: Darric]

And then flew closer towards that mount of black rock. [Photo: Darric]

Meanwhile, waiting nervously at the guesthouse was Serene...

Serene woke up soon after we left and was worrying herself sick just simply waiting for us, sitting in the dining area while the rest reassured her.

"They all are very scared of cold one! Every single one of them," she said. "When I saw Matthew and Zaid and Kai Sing u-turn back, and they told me it was so cold that they couldn't feel their fingers, I was so worried for the family.  They haven't returned yet!"

But her worries were for nothing.  For almost immediately after three of us returned to Gorak Shep's Himalayan Lodge and sat down on the carpeted benches of the dining hall, someone looked out the window and shouted:

"Hey, there's Fann and Sharan! They have just returned! Wow.. that's fast!"

True enough, there was Fann and Sharan entering the lodge.  We all made it back about the same time.  And Adrian's original plan of despatching everyone in three separate groups was now made easier.  We left almost in one single big group, just that the first group departed slightly earlier, while those of us who went for the extra excursions left slightly after we had breakfast.

Thus, with Kala Patthar and Fann's new EBC both out of the way, our missions were finally truly accomplished.  And it was time to make our return trip.


Click on the following to continue to the next part of the story:
EBC Trek Part 5 ~ The unrelenting march from day to night - Gorak Shep to Periche.  Another long day to night march from Periche to Namche Bazaar.