Leo Power Everest Marathon Dispatch
May 24, 2011 – Lobuche, Nepal, 4940m/16207ft
The small but scenic village of Lobuche
Well once again "I'm all in”! It was a tough trek to Lobuche but I am feeling much closer to Everest Base Camp.
In an earlier dispatch I had referenced the May, 2003 edition of National Geographic magazine. On page 40 Hillary wrote, "I clearly remember the happy day when we first opened the Khumjung school with only 47 children in scruffy Sherpa clothes- but with rosy cheeks and beaming smiles. Now one of them is a pilot of a Boeing 767 and others are important executives in travel, business and nonprofit organizations."
At breakfast this morning I struck up a conversation with a man who at first I thought was of Japanese ethnicity but I later learned he was Ang Jangbu Sherpa, now living in London and working as a pilot for Thomson Airways and he flies out of Gatwick. I asked if he was the pilot Hillary referenced in the National Geographic story- he had not heard of it so I retrieved the magazine and showed him the story and sure enough it was Jangbu who Hillary wrote about. I was more excited than Jangbu, but he's a soft spoken man with impeccable manners and maybe deep inside he was just as excited as me.
Jangbu went on to tell me another one of his classmates at the school Hillary built is Dr. Lhakpa Sherpa, a PhD in Forestry and Nature Conservation who teaches at Yale University and commutes to and from Nepal. Lhakpa also played a key role in convincing the Chinese to establish a national park of the Tibet side of Mount Everest, similar to the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal.
Yaks take a break at the Sherpa memorial cairns.
Facilities are much sparser at higher altitude but here at the Himalayan Eco Lodge in Lobuche I have a good bed to sleep in, my warm sleeping bag and there is hot tea and a hot dinner. The air is thin and cold and this afternoon we had snow flurries which have now dissipated. Normal symptoms at this altitude include sleeplessness, occasional breathlessness, mild headaches, anxiety, tiredness, and so forth. Fortunately I've only so far experienced a little breathlessness which goes away once I breathe deeply and slowly.
Tomorrow we will trek to Gorak Shep which is 5170m/16,962ft and in the afternoon, or Thursday morning, we plan to ascend Kala Patar, the famous mountain known for its great views of Everest. Kala Patar is 5554m/18,300 ft. and this will be the highest altitude I will experience on this trip (when I reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania the altitude was 19,341 ft).
We will spend tomorrow and Thursday night at Gorak Shep and on Friday we will trek to Everest Base Camp at 5334m/17,500 ft. where we will overnight on Friday and Saturday in tents. I will report and sign in for the marathon on Friday at base camp and on Saturday we will receive a briefing about the race and each marathoner will be checked by doctors to ensure there is no altitude sickness or other medical problems.
Sunday morning the 42.195 km/26.2 mile marathon starts from base camp and will end in Namche. I have had no blackberry service for 2 days and tonight there is no internet service in Lobuche so hopefully tomorrow I will find a way in Gorak Shep to send this dispatch.
Namaste,
– Leo Power