Thursday May 12, 2011
6:24PM
Another 7 days since my last entry - I suppose I should start some of the social commentary to fill in the gaps between more interesting topics, but the motivation for such writing has been low. Life here in Pheriche hasn’t really been too exciting. The volume in the clinic has dropped off substantially leaving more time to make my way through Stieg Larson’s “Girl Who ...” series. I’m not sure why I put these books off, perhaps due the mainstream frenzy that seemed to surround them for a while, but I’m finding the story quite intriguing - A worth read for sure.
Currently, I’m sitting in our kitchen (the coldest room in the building) watching Ang Rita and Jeet play some sort of Nepali card game, the rules of which I don’t understand. It appears to involve placing series of ascending cards in singles, doubles, or triples until one player runs out. I can’t seem to figure out when one has to play a single card instead of a pair or triple. Regardless, if you play cards in Nepal, you have to forcefully throw your cards down onto the table with some sort of concurrent exclamation. Ang Rita is particularly animated and rarely does his arm reach short of full extension before bringing his hand down to the table.
That really sums up the last couple of days - reading and playing cards. I’ve spent the remaining time daydreaming about climbing again. One of the base camp managers who passed through the village last week had done a lot of climbing in the south and I couldn’t help but reminisce about the many good days, before medical school and residency, spent at Foster Falls, T-Wall, Little River Canyon and many others. That reminded that it’s been over 2 years since I last climbed on rock and around a year since my last ice climbing venture. Pretty pitiful. It didn’t help my sense of self-loathing over neglecting the climbing world when I looked in a mirror for the first time in a while the other day and noticed how skinny my arms have gotten. Between the lack of climbing and the altitude related muscle atrophy, I think I’m approaching early high school levels of scrawniness. Needless to say, I feel the climbing bug coming back and I suspect that “Climbing Doug” will be on the rampage to get back some resemblance of previous fitness.
Along those lines, I’m still trying to find a partner to do one more climb. I thought about hiring a guide but what I really need is a partner with some gear. It would be really nice to do Lobuje in a more alpine style without all of the fixed ropes, and even better would be to do it via the Lowe/Kendal Couloir, a classic 4 pitch ice route up to the summit ridge. It’s a line I’ve been eyeing in a guide book and looks to be within my skill level assuming I can get my sally arms to pull me up there. I’m going to have a look at the conditions of the ice next week and if it seems good, and if I can find a partner with the right skills and gear it could pan out to be a super sweet climb. It would also be hundreds of dollars cheaper to avoid the guide. If the stars don’t align I’ll likely spend my few extra days camped out on the Kong Ma La Pass, and may try to climb Pokalde or some other less technically demanding peak.
We’re down to less than 10 days until closing here in Pheriche and I think I’m ready to be done here. Actually, I know I’m ready. We’re running low on medicine and I’m getting pretty tired of treating coughs and colds. The number of trekkers has slowed down dramatically and, thus, so have the interesting cases of altitude illness. On the research front, it’s dead. The Nepal Health Research Council has essentially squashed my project through shuffling feet and asking the dumbest questions humanly possible. It’s no wonder this country fails to progress, the government doesn’t do anything. I take that back. The government sends its officials, who have no mountaineering experience, to attempt to climb the highest mountain in the world. Smart ..... real smart. I shouldn’t be so cynical, but when you see the numerous other issues that plague Nepal one has to wonder whether government workers’ time is better spent on Everest or working on basic sanitation, food sources, health care, etc.
I didn’t get very much sleep last night due to a patient’s arrival shortly after I went to bed. Even though the visit was short, I just couldn’t get back to sleep. Subsequently, my writing is starting to ramble a little so I’ll wrap things up.
A few final updates:
I think most of my clothes are beyond dirty. It’s going to take A LOT of cycles through the washer to make things remotely clean. In fact I might just leave some of it here.
The weather has gotten significantly warmer (nights just above freezing) and I can actually run in shorts in the morning. This is helpful as it greatly reduces the number of local people staring at me due to running in tights. In hindsight I probably should have brought sweat pants for cold weather running.
Long run last weekend was 1:45 with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. I’m aiming for 3 hours and over 3000 feet of gain before I leave. I’m skeptical but it might happen. At least the running has kept my legs from shrinking down to toothpicks like my arms. Of course, if you have hung out with my wife at all you probably will have heard her make reference to my “chicken legs”, meaning that there probably wasn’t much to lose anyway.
I can’t decide what I want to do first when I get home. Right now the top 3 is: 1) Haircut 2)Shower 3)Go to Novare Res and drink really good beer. The list is constantly evolving but I suspect that it will come down to either the beer or shower.
Books: Lost count - more non-medical reading than I have done in the last decade.
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