The original idea was to do the Cho-La pass from near Lobuche to Gokyo. This makes for a shorter trip to Gokyo, but does mean doing a high altitude pass, and still takes two days. As Sara was not feeling that well we decided to go the long way around, the same way that I had done the last time. Done at normal speed you can get from Labouche to Phortse in one day and then from Phortse to Gokyo in another day. But with Sara not feeling well we were not going at normal speed.
We started well, getting from Labouche to Dugla in less than an hour (with some amazing mountain views in between some unusual cloud formations), and Pheriche in 2, but by then Sara was lagging. She had a bit of headache, no energy, and stomach pains. Walking very slowly, with lots of breaks we made it to Pangboche for lunch and decided to call it a day. The rest of the day was spent keeping warm next to the fire (fueled by yak dung).
Later on I finally got around to looking at Sara's throat ... and it was infected, with white spots on both sides. The question was what to do. Should we walk back up to Pheriche which had a rescue station, or continue along hoping to get to the other rescue station at Machermo (unfortunately the option of hopping in the car and driving 10 minutes to the doctor was not available). We decided to use the antibiotic we did have (a children's dose that required adding water to a powder - and also had instructions not to refrigerate - as if, at our altitude) and see what happened. The morning would tell....
As an interesting sidelight we noted the sudden disappearance of groups. The other night in Labouche we went from 55 people in the guest house to 8 the next night. Then walking down to Pangboche we saw very few people heading up. Then in Pangboche we met someone who told us that weather had closed Lukla for a day and half. Well that explained it ... and also provided an opportunity. Maybe, by timing it right, we could get to Gokyo and avoid the crowds (there had been lots of stories about Gokyo being overcroded with folks having to sleep in dining rooms).
The original idea was to do the Cho-La pass from near Lobuche to Gokyo. This makes for a shorter trip to Gokyo, but does mean doing a high altitude pass, and still takes two days. As Sara was not feeling that well we decided to go the long way around, the same way that I had done the last time. Done at normal speed you can get from Labouche to Phortse in one day and then from Phortse to Gokyo in another day. But with Sara not feeling well we were not going at normal speed.
We started well, getting from Labouche to Dugla in less than an hour (with some amazing mountain views in between some unusual cloud formations), and Pheriche in 2, but by then Sara was lagging. She had a bit of headache, no energy, and stomach pains. Walking very slowly, with lots of breaks we made it to Pangboche for lunch and decided to call it a day. The rest of the day was spent keeping warm next to the fire (fueled by yak dung).
Later on I finally got around to looking at Sara's throat ... and it was infected, with white spots on both sides. The question was what to do. Should we walk back up to Pheriche which had a rescue station, or continue along hoping to get to the other rescue station at Machermo (unfortunately the option of hopping in the car and driving 10 minutes to the doctor was not available). We decided to use the antibiotic we did have (a children's dose that required adding water to a powder - and also had instructions not to refrigerate - as if, at our altitude) and see what happened. The morning would tell....
As an interesting sidelight we noted the sudden disappearance of groups. The other night in Labouche we went from 55 people in the guest house to 8 the next night. Then walking down to Pangboche we saw very few people heading up. Then in Pangboche we met someone who told us that weather had closed Lukla for a day and half. Well that explained it ... and also provided an opportunity. Maybe, by timing it right, we could get to Gokyo and avoid the crowds (there had been lots of stories about Gokyo being overcroded with folks having to sleep in dining rooms).
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