After our rest day in Dingboche, we're ready to push on the next morning to Lobuche, our penultimate stop before we get to Gorak Shep, and do our hikes to Everest Base Camp and Kala Pattar. It finally feels like we're getting close to the destination!
At the same time, I've been investigating the possibility of modifying my own trip - making the difficult journey across the Tcho La Pass and to Gokyo, to do the so-called "Everest Circuit" instead of just returning directly back on more-or-less the same route from Gorak Shep, with the rest of the group. Our guide, Buddha, is a bit concerned about the idea of my splitting from the group (mostly, I think, for safety reasons) but he isn't going to stop me. In addition, it appears that some other trekkers are planning the difficult trek across the Tscho La Pass, so I could possibly team up with them.
However, the immediate task is to make it to Lobuche. We start out as usual at ~8:30 am. The morning is bright and sunny. It snowed the night before, so there is blinding snow at both sides of the path. I'm having trouble with a very irritated eye, and the blinding brightness is exacerbating things. I struggle as far as our lunch spot, Thukla (picture above). After lunch, we pass the stone memorials to dead climbers - stark reminders of the risks all around in the Himalayas, even for trekkers.
Above: Lobuche, our destination for the day.
After another couple of hours, we make it to the tea house at Lobuche. For once, the tea room is crowded, with a diverse selection of trekkers. In one corner, a crazy French guy and his guide are finishing off a bottle of wine - an unusual sight in the mountains! I chat with Gary, a slightly eccentric and wild-looking American guy.
Then - suddenly - Bipina appeared to have a melt-down of some kind. She dropped her head in her hands and started to complain. (I didnt take much notice, as I'd already had a week's worth of Bipina's dramatics.) But soon after, she went outside the tea house, into the freezing afternoon, and lay down on a picnic table. A couple of trekkers came running in and said something appeared to be very wrong with her. By chance, there happened to be a doctor in the tea house (Anil, a visiting doctor from Stanford, who was spending time at the Pheriche Clinic). Bipina was brought back in to the tea house and Anil examined her. He said we was fairly sure she had HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema) - a very serious altitude-related ailment, where the brain swelled, and there was a very real possibility of death. He said she should be moved to lower altitude immediately but (unbelievably!) Bipina stubbornly refused. Eventually, after much persuasion, she agreed to go down to the Pheriche Clinic (~500m lower than Lobuche.) So, Buddha and one of the porters packed up her stuff and started the long walk with her back down in the freezing evening.
We stayed in the tea house a bit longer, then headed to our cold rooms for the night, all wondering about Bipina, and how serious her condition really was. Yet another wake-up call about how suddenly and unexpectedly these types of problems can arise, for anyone, at high altitude.
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