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Australian Professional Cyclist

Archive for October, 2019

Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

Day Five Trekking: Thursday 31st October. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dole to Machhermo: 5.2km.
Starting Altitude: 4110m
Finishing Altitude: 4470m.
Elevation Gain (Not Difference): 453m.
Moving/Trekking Time: 1hr40min
Average Heart Rate: 93bpm.
Max Heart Rate: 150bpm.
Blood Saturation 1hr Pre Trek: 83%
Blood Saturation 1hr Post Trek: 78%

We’ve all calibrated our Garmin watches so we should have more accurate data from now on.

I’ve been trying not to nap in the afternoon’s as it’s always difficult to sleep at altitude so, I want to be really sure I can fall asleep after dinner and have a long deep sleep! I’m falling asleep ok but I’ve not yet had a ‘deep’ sleep and I’m waking up before 6am!

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Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

Khumjung to Dole (9km. Starting at 3940, finishing at 4110m. Elevation Gain (Not Difference): 740m. (Moving time: 2hr50min) – Everyone’s Strava is giving different data!

Today’s trek was tough but not as demanding as I expected…. the real challenge will simply be that day by day we’ll have less oxygen! Oh…. and it’s getting COLD!

My biggest challenge today was the stopping/resting & waiting for our group to come back together…. not because I want to race but simply because I get so hot walking & then absolutely freezing when we stop!! I could throw layers on at the stops but that doesn’t help too much with a soaking wet sports bra & singlet underneath. Tomorrow I’ll have to take all the undershirts & T-shirts I have with me in my backpack!

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Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

AM: Namche to Khumjung (4km. Starting at 3440m, finishing at 3940m. Elevation gain: 483m. (Moving time: 1hr27min)

PM: Top Hill Lodge Khumjung – Monestry – School – Top Hill Lodge Khumjung.

2.1km. Elevation Gain: 47m. (Moving time: 36min)

I felt a lot better today after the diarrhea meds kicked in…. actually. I was full of energy! I got a little bit of sleep last night too however it wasn’t a deep sleep. Our beds are very hard, the rooms are dusty (stuffy noses) and it’s freezing!

I also wanted to keep checking my blood saturation levels during the night as it had dropped below 80% before nodding off – it’s not dangerously low but given we were still under 3500m, I wanted to keep an eye on it. Now we’re up at 4000m and it has stabilised around 85% – which is good at this level of altitude.

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Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

Phakding to Namche (10.5km. Starting at 2610m, finishing at 3440m. 900m elevation gain)

Well as you’ll already know from my social media posts, I fell ill with diarrhea 30 minutes into day one of our trek to Mount Everest Base Camp! We originally thought I was just dehydrated however after 24hrs of rehydrating – things have not slowed down or hardened up!

Considering I was up all night – on the loo, shivering and shaking I didn’t feel too bad/weak today however, I spent a lot of time ‘going bush’ and used a lot of baby wipes! Can you believe I travelled to Nepal without Imodium? Rookie mistake!! Many of our group had brought Imodium to Nepal however they had all left it in their duffle bags which were with the Sherpa’s so, I just had to deal with it until arriving in Namche. I’ve now been to the pharmacy here and got myself some medications to manage this additional challenge.

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Mount Everest Base Camp: Day by Day…..

Lukla to Phakding (9km. Starting at 2800m, finishing at 2600m. -200m drop)

The most exciting part of today was taking the small plane from Kathmandu to Lukla! The flight is only 25 minutes but wow, it was exciting! We had a rough patch just as I stood up to take a photo from the other side of the plane…. I handled it pretty well but was fast back into my seat – the very back seat of the tiny plane. Flying through the middle of the mountains and approaching a very short runway with spectators and buildings at the end of it was thrilling! All of our duffle bags didn’t fit on our plane with us (due to weight restrictions) so our plane took a quick trip back to Kathmandu to collect the remaining bags while we took a look around Lukla, and then I enjoyed a hot chocolate and biscuits in the sun!

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