Thursday 1st April 2010 - Gorak Shep to Orsho, the long walk down

Thursday 1st April 2010 - Gorak Shep to Orsho, the long walk down

Waking up today I feel the same as I did yesterday with one major difference. I know I will be heading lower soon, 1000m lower to be precise and that can only be good for my headaches. I take two Ibuprofen after waking up and hope these two will be my last for this trip. We have quite a long walk to go today. Normally we would take four days to come back down the mountain, however we lost one of those days at the start due to bad weather so we must cover thirty eight miles in three days. An average of twelve and a half miles a day or twenty kilometres. We are walking from Gorak Shep at 5170m to Orsho at 4130m. Four of the group get up this morning at 04.30am to go to Kala Patthar, Scott decides to go again in order to get a picture of himself with a bag (dont ask), German, Claire and Corinne are the others to go. The rest of us fall out of bed around 07.00am but naturally I am awake since 06.00am. I have another baby wipes shower before getting dressed, I am hoping it will be my last as tomorrow we get back to Namche Bazaar, back to relative civilisation and back to hot running water. Some of us leave Gorak Shep at 09.30am heading for Orsho, Another group left at 08.30am but we said we would wait for the Kala Patthar people to come back before setting off. We are all in great spirits as all bar one of us made it to Base Camp and ten out of sixteen made it to Kala Patthar, above average we are told. Team morale is high.

Group one as we are now collectively known head off with Chewang at a good pace and soon we catch up to the people that left at 08.30am, we make it to Orsho for 14.30pm including a quick thirty minute lunch stop near Dughla where we stopped on the way up. I took the time to check out the memorials to fallen climbers as I promised myself I would once we were on the way down, there is a memorial to an Irish man called Sean Egan who died on his way to Base Camp on an Everest expedition. Also there is a memorial to a US guide called Scott Fischer of the Mountain Madness adventure group, made famous by the tragedy of 1996 high on Everest. I have read so many books about the 1996 disaster and feel like I know Scott personally. I take the opportunity to have my picture taken at the memorial. It is a sombre reminder for me that even the best mountaineers in the world can die on Everest. The walk today was fairly easy. I didn't find it difficult at all and by the time we get to Orsho I am a new man. The temperature is not quite summer weather but positively roasting in comparison to Gorak Shep from that morning.

I can feel my strength is back and I am eager to push on, feeling like I am right now I could go all the way to Lukla. The boost gained by the additional oxygen is amazing, 1000m lower in a short space of time and the air seems thick with it. Of course the main benefit for me now is that I no longer have any headaches. I cannot explain the relief of having a headache free evening. A silly thing to notice but with the lower altitude there are a lot more flies and they are really starting to annoy me. Roll on Namche, the internet and a shower.