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 exception to that rule.

But, first thing is to head into the Sagarmatha National Park. The entrance is just outside Monjo.

From the park entrance the trail actually heads down a long staircase and then across another bridge to Jorsalle, which is not that far from and much prettier than Monjo. Had I realized that yesterday I would’ve stopped for the night instead.

After Jorsalle the trail crosses the river yet again, and forks. One clearly goes up, and one heads along the side of the river. I stayed river side. I knew I’d be going up eventually, but why do now what you can put off until later?

The riverside portion of the trail doesn’t last terribly long. You pretty quickly come to a staircase that goes up, and up, and up, and brings you to the Hillary Bridge.

The Hillary Bridge had all the bounciness of all the other suspension bridges, plus is swayed, plus it’s by quite a large margin higher up than all the other bridges.

The hike from the bridge up to Namche actually reminded me a lot of the western shore of Lake Tahoe – similar dirt, similar rocks, similar trees. Eventually after much climbing you’ll come out from under the trees and see buildings. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a moment of “Hurray! I’m finally there!”

But, no, no you’re not. You’re close though.

I was very much running out of steam once I got to that point on the trail, so even though Namche is only another 1/4 mile it took me quite a long time since I basically stopped to rest every 5 feet or so.

Also, even getting to Namche isn’t the finish line. Namche is basically built in a bowl in a hillside. The trail takes you to the bottom of the bowl. Nearly everything in the village is up from there. My teahouse was on one of the upper terraces, and it took me the better part of an hour just walking to it from the bottom end of the village.

Incidentally, when I walked into my teahouse the owner was blasting “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora, and when he noticed me he quickly changed it to Nepali music. So I instantly made up this story in my head about how there’s a Sherpa conspiracy to hide the fact that they all secretly love American 80’s music.

Once I checked in and dropped off my pack I headed back down to the Namche pharmacy to buy shampoo and just-in-case Diamox. Even without lugging my 35 pound pack on my back it still took me 30 minutes to get back up to the teahouse.

My original plans for tomorrow was to hike up to Khunde, Khumjung, and then head down to Sanasa. Sanasa and Namche are at roughly the same elevation, so it would give my body an extra day to catch up to where I’m at before I head further up. But, I really need a day without carrying the weight of my full pack, so I’m probably going to day hike up to Khunde and Khumjung and then come back here.