Day 9-10 - It’s All Fun And Games Until Someone Has To Be Medevac-ed Off The Mountain
Aka: This is why you buy trip insurance
Aka: And then there was one
Aka: What’s that smell? Oh, never mind, it’s just me... Day 10 with no shower
So we made it to Everest Base Camp intact but we didn’t all leave that way. Not only had the journey taken a very hard physical toll on us all, Base Camp itself was a highly emotional place, particularly for Megan and Kendra who were saying goodbye to a dear loved one who was lost too soon, just over a month ago.
We’d already walked six hours that day and still had another two hours to go to get back to Gorak Shep, the closest village. By 3:00, we knew leaving Base Camp was imperative, but were moving pretty slowly since Kendra wasn’t feeling well.
Then she began to vomit everywhere.
So:
~ Middle of nowhere with no provisions. ~ Two hours walk. ~ Didn’t have the clothing to survive long in the darkness at 5 billion feet, or whatever altitude we were at. ~ Had a kid that obviously wasn’t going to make it back to town on her own.
Yeah, basically, every mom’s worst nightmare.
We had both our guide and one of our sherpas, Robbie, with us. By 4:00, I was pretty much telling our guide that he needed to send Robbie to get help.
Guide’s response: Robbie WAS the help.
I kid you not, they tied together a sling with the company banner and Robbie carted Kendra all the way back to town, no problem. He was a-maz-ing. We made it just as it got too dark to see.
Unfortunately, Kendra got more sick as the night went on (Bekah was also sick but not nearly as bad). In the morning it became obvious there was no way the girls were going to be able to walk back down the mountain. Decision was made to use trip insurance and charter a helicopter to get us to Kathmandu.
Except helicopter got there and could only take three people at that altitude.
Who’s got two thumbs and got to walk down the mountain by herself with the guide/Sherpas? This girl right here.
Bekah went with Megan and Kendra in the helicopter. Ambulance met them at Kathmandu Airport and took Kendra to the hospital. Long story short: Severe food poisoning. She’s doing much better now.
But yeah, instead of a helicopter ride and hot shower, I got to start walking eight hours back down the mountain. BUT, the next day, when it became apparent that Bekah was also sick in Kathmandu—seriously, y’all, our systems are like WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON—and no doctor would see her without me there, Hubby made the executive decision for me to charter myself a helicopter to Lukla (home of scary airport where we started our trek). So, I saved myself two days of hiking. My body is quite happy about that and I’ll be to Bekah in a couple of hours, God-willing.
And, unless she’s dying on the floor of the hotel room, she will need to wait until after I have a shower before we seek medical attention. But I imagine a lot of this will have all passed through her system by then.
I will say, I did get to have a day and a half of being a kickass solo female trekker, not afraid to explore on her own in a foreign land with just a guide. We had met a few of those ladies going up and had been quite impressed.
It was almost worth two more days of no shower and sleeping in the cold to be one.
Not really.
Tomorrow night (again, God-willing) we head home. I’m ready. All adventures must end. Some endings are just a little more exciting than others.
A big part of this trip was delivering Drake's flag. Rest in peace, buddy. Until we me again.
ROBBIE IS THE HELP.
Somebody get me off this mountain
Solo female trekker on her way back down. Just ignore the smell.