Home Sweet Home....Sort of, and Another Year Gone By

Tuesday March 15, 2011

3:01PM

So...32. Today is, indeed, my birthday, and I have to say that it is, at least, the most unique birthday I can recall. We made it into Pheriche from Tangboche yesterday and have set up residence at approximately 14, 137 ft depending on which map or altimeter you believe. After several hours of sweeping, dusting, unpacking and reorganizing we enjoyed a delicious dinner of dahl-baat courtesy of our in-house chefs, Ang Rita and Jeet. I was happy to find most everything intact with the exception of my sunscreen which I know I left on my bedside table in Tangboche and more disappointingly my favorite running tights, which I thought I had packed in the yak-transported bag.

During the night the winds really picked up, to the point I honestly thought that the roof might require repair this morning. Between the constant rattling of the tin roof, shaking of the windows, constant whumping of the windmill outside and the wind literally whipping through my room it was an endurable but restless night from 3AM onward. Today the wind has continued and has recoated everything we cleaned yesterday with a fresh layer of dust and dirt. Those things that were clean upon arrival were also quickly browned by the constantly blowing sediment. 

Probably the thing with which we are most disappointed is the water or lack thereof. There is a decent plumbing system with running water and a solar heated shower, but we arrived to find multiple pipes broken and those not broken, frozen solid - frustrating to our group who passed up paying for a hot shower yesterday after 6 days of hiking in the same clothes. It appears, however, that the heating system is working, since we can see steam coming out of the pop-off valve on the roof-top tank attached to the solar panels. The good news is Govi, our clinic manager/translator, has contacted the plumber. The bad news is the plumber comes from Kathmandu and must repeat the 6 day trek we just made. When I asked Ang Rita which lodge in town might have a hot shower he said to just wait for the plumber. I hope he just didn’t understand what I was asking. Besides the shower issue, using an outhouse at 4AM when it’s 15 degrees and 50mph winds is a major bummer.

So for now, it’s more cleaning as soon as the wind dies down and tomorrow we will officially open for business. It’s probably ok that I don’t have my tights right now because I can’t stand up without getting short of breath. Hopefully, that will improve over the next few days/weeks as acclimatization progresses. I feel sure one of the lodges has to have a beer, although cold beverages don’t really appeal when it’s below freezing inside. Despite all of this, when you look around at the scenery it doesn’t seem too bad.......at least for now. Am I just getting soft? Here’s hoping 32 yr and 1 day is a slight improvement over today.