Trekking Day 8: The Medical Clinic, Pheriché

Dingboché to Pheriché (and back): The Stats

Distance Walked: 4.7km

Hours and Minutes Taken: 6 hours, 5 minutes (walking time: 3 hours, 20 minutes)

Origin Altitude: Dingboché, 4308m

Destination Altitude: Pheriché, 4287m

Approximate Total Metres Ascended: 268m

Approximate Total Metres Descended: 268m

Weather: A sunny, still morning remaining cold most of the day.

Morning Temperature in our Tea House Room: 3 degrees Celsius

Chris not wanting to emerge from his sleeping bag

When we woke up this morning Chris had a mild headache but was feeling substantially better than he was last night. We stepped outside to find Dingboché covered in a few inches of snow and it was still very chilly. We had a breakfast of muesli and hot milk and wished the guys we had met last night luck on their journey as today they set off for Lobuché. With Chris feeling better we thought we'd give acclimatising a go by climbing the big hill behind Dingboché. He popped another half a diamox and we crossed our fingers.

We rugged up and set off up the same hill we had climbed yesterday with the intention of going higher. We gained about 100m in altitude to reach the same chorten we had reached yesterday afternoon. This time though, Chris was not ok. Even after sitting for a few minutes he was struggling to catch his breath, was on the verge of throwing up and had so little energy he could barely stand. As he put it, "I almost vomited up a lung." There was no choice...we needed to get him to a doctor. The only problem was that when you're in the Himalayas, walking to the doctor is your only choice unless you want to get air lifted out. We had to get to Pheriché and walking was our mode of choice.

Located about 2km from Dingboché, Pheriché wasn't far compared to other distances we had covered. However, with Chris barely able to walk two steps without hunching over with fatigue and nausea we weren't sure we would make it at all.

As we continued down the snowy hill Chris began to feel slightly better and, as we were decreasing in altitude, the likelihood of his sickness being the result of Acute Mountain Sickness, was becoming more and more likely. We walked and rested and walked and rested and made slow progress in the direction we hoped was Pheriché. We were following footprints in the snow and hoping with every ridge we crossed that we would spot a township on the other side.

We sent Anando ahead to ensure we were on the right track while Chris and I made painfully slow progress in the same direction. Turns out we were going the right way and, as we reached the final ridge before Pheriché, spotting the village at the bottom of the hill, a wave of relief swept over us. Slowly we zigzagged down the slippery, snowy hill and found our way to the Himalayan Rescue Association Medical Clinic. We had read in the guidebook that usually the clinic had Western volunteers in attendance and we couldn't have been happier when we arrived to find two Americans waiting to greet us.

A short consultation told us that Chris did officially have Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Despite us following all of the rules about ascending slowly, in fact we even went slower than recommended, we hadn't managed to avoid the dreaded AMS. He was somewhere in between the beginnings of the condition and an extreme case. The doctor gave us some advice on how best to increase our chances of going higher and gave Chris another diamox to take. Before he could take it though they were hoping he would take part in a blind medical study that was testing the usefulness of two different drugs on helping with the headache and nausea associated with AMS. He agreed hoping that maybe he'd get to feel better at least for the day.

Being part of the medical trial meant hanging in Pheriché for two hours so we ordered some food at a nearby restaurant which was seriously fancy compared to our usual digs. We forced some food into Chris while he sat and filled out a half hourly log of his symptoms. When the restaurant started blaring some horrible pop music we went outside to sit in the sun to kill time until the trial was over. As bored as we were it was no doubt a good thing to rest for a couple of hours before tackling the hill back over to Dingboché.

A memorial to deceased Everest climbers, Pheriché

We checked out a memorial to climbers who have died on Everest, taking note of those names listed that were familiar thanks to our reading of Into Thin Air. The trial finished and grabbed a receipt for our $50 USD consultation in the hope we could claim it on our travel insurance. Thankfully Anando had money with him, and American Dollars at that, as Chris and I were horribly unprepared having not bought our wallet as the original plan had been acclimatisation not a diagnosis of AMS.

When Chris felt well enough to trek back to Dingboché we decided not to take any of the regular routes back over the ridge. One was too steep and the other too long so we forged our own way following Sherpa and yak paths up the hill. It was slow work but the diamox had Chris feeling worlds better than he had earlier in the day so we made it to Dingboché, via an ancient chorten, with little trouble.

Ancient chorten with Ama Dablam, above Dingboché

Chris remained feeling well into the evening. We had some momos, had a rest, read some of Into Thin Air and then played some cards before a dinner of more veg momos, Sherpa stew and veg noodles. We sat around the yak dung stove rugged up in blankets until 7pm rolled around and it was bed time. Fingers crossed for further improvement in Chris' condition tomorrow.

Sunset on Ama Dablam

 

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