It snowed a little last night… not much more than a dusting, but it was the first precip of the trip. Apparently the hill directly above Phortse can be scrambled, but it’s steep, and with the fresh snow, we decided on a mellower hiking objective. Remember, the goal is to acclimatize, not to beat ourselves up. So we aimed for the ridge above the hamlet of Khonar. It’s mostly grassy pastureland, but it still got us up to 14,950’… and no matter how you slice it, it’s a day hike in the Himalaya. It’s always spectacular. Overall, it took us 4 hours to go 5 miles round trip, with a tad over 2500’ of ascent. Galzn didn’t even bring a pack.
The obligatory summit video.
I don’t have a picture of it, but a hundred feet below the summit there was a few feet of exposed scrambling… steep enough to make you think, but not really hard. In descent, Galzn was going first, and after he down climbed the step, he turned around and asked to hold my trekking poles as I down climbed it. My initial reaction was: you have to be frickin kidding me! Here we are about to climb Mt Everest together – Mt Everest! – and you think I need help on a casual scramble, but…. …. …. I knew something like this was coming, and I had mentally prepared myself for this moment. You see, back in 2009, our Sherpas fixed about 100’ of rope up some easy 4th class rock on a pass called the Tashi Lapsa. Back then I was in my guiding prime, and it didn’t even occur to me to grab the rope… I just free soloed it because it was fun. Well, it turns out that the Sherpas took it personally. They thought I didn’t touch the rope because I didn’t trust them. It may seem trivial but it turned into a minor brouhaha and knowing that we had a lot of climbing ahead of us, I had to essentially grovel for their forgiveness. There’s no need to go through that again. I don’t know how Galzn would have reacted had I declined his help, but the fact of the matter is that I need him on Everest, and if this is what it takes, well, I’m not that proud. I handed him my poles. I don’t have a partner. I have a guide.
I wonder what Galzn would think if he ever read this blog?
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