Because the best travel stories don't end with ". . . and everything went according to plan"
Epic Hike to the Roof of the World
Nov 8 2024 – Lobouche to Gorak Shep Super weird dreams aside, I woke up feeling mostly okay today, so I decided to head up. The topographic map I have basically showed today being 800 vertical feet of elevation gain over 3.5 miles, which would’ve made today the easiest day of the trip. Sadly, the …
Nov 7 2024 – Lobouche Day 2 Last night after dinner I played cards for a while with a girl from Germany and a guy from Israel and then I went to bed. Woke up a few hours later with a pounding headache and a powerful wave of nausea overtook me. Ended up vomiting in …
Nov 6 2024 – Dengbouche to Lobouche Got a later start this morning than I have been. Didn’t hit the trail until 8am. Was stuck behind a long conga line of people on a narrow trail heading up to the ridge above Dengboche, which was pretty frustrating. Fortunately once over the top of the ridge …
Nov 5 2025 – Dingbouche Rest Day So last night it snowed. My plan for today was a hike up the 16,662 foot Nagkarshang peak. But I was dubious about it because the weather forecast said it was supposed to snow all day today too. Instead, the clouds cleared. So I started hiking. I ended …
Nov 4 2024 – Tengbouche to Dingbouche It was a cold slog of a day. Basically followed the imja khola river all day. Last night before I went to bed my SpO2 measured 74%. When I was planning this trip I made a completely uninformed rule that I’d turn around and head for lower altitude …
Nov 3 2024 – Namche to Tengbouche The trails up here are marked with signs which list distances to places in hours. They’re all wrong. And every sign pointing to Tengbouche says it’s 2 hours, no matter where the sign is or how far away from Tengbouche it actually is. It actually took me 6. …
Nov 2 2024 – Namche to Khumjung to Khunde to Namche My sleep schedule since I’ve been in Nepal has basically been nowhere time. I crash after dinner and wake up in the absurd wee AM hours. I haven’t actually found a downside to that though. Upside is I hit the trail running before other …
Nov 1 2024 – Monjo to Namche Bazar Yesterday was the day I started going up, today is the day I stated going UP. Most days on this trek, by design for altitude acclimation purposes, don’t involve gaining more than 1000 feet in elevation per day. This is one of the few days that’s an …
Oct 31 2024 – Phakding to Monjo I took it easier on the trail today. Made sure I ate a good breakfast, had plenty of hydration, and paced myself. There are multiple river crossings on the trek, and today was the start of that process. They’re all cable suspension bridges that seem sort of dicey, …
Oct 30 2024 – Lukla to Phakding Today has been a crazy day, and definitely a day that showed me my limitations. I’m now unsure of how the rest of this trip will go. Certainly isn’t going to go as planned, just not yet sure of how it’s going to change. Ended up waking up …