April 24 - Phortse to Pheriche

Hello everyone, and yes you've read that right.  I'm in Pheriche tonight.  We woke up to another beautiful day, and after taking pictures of Dawa's tea house it was time to say good bye to Yangzeen.  

Since I was so tired yesterday, we didn't know how far we would get today.  Our first objective was Pangboche which is where I received the blessing from Llama Geshi when I went to climb Everest.  It was a special ceremony, but now Llama Geshi has passed on.  The town is very special, it doesn't the have a big monastery like Tengboche but it's special.  That only took us 2 1/2 hours so we continued on to a very small town called Somare where we had lunch.  I had momos again.....my favourite.  These are little dumplings that are sometimes round, sometimes crescent shaped.  They are fried then steamed and are served with hot sauce.  Very similar to dumplings that we can get in Canada.  Very tasty and its a change from Dal Bhat.

When we were getting ready to head out to our real objective of Pheriche we noticed a young porter almost carrying in a young woman.  She had been with a large group of 15, and had just come down from Dingboche....about 90 minutes walk if you're walking normally, but she wasn't.  She had gotten sick yesterday, long before reaching Dingboche, but her guide told her to keep on going despite the fact that she had a headache, was vomiting, and needed to be helped to walk.  Last night she was worse so the guide instructed the young inexperienced porter to bring her down.  She made it as far as where we were when she couldn't go any farther.  She only speaks Chinese so communication was difficult.  The porter was instructed to bring her down, but she couldn't walk.

So I sprang into action...I gave her Dexamethasone 4mg, Diamox 250 mg and Maxeran 10 mg.  After 30 min she had perked up a bit but still couldn't walk.  I didn't want to give her any more Dex until I knew that there would be a helicopter rescue.  It took over three hours to get confirmation.  I so hate being on the ground waiting for the helicopter....I much prefer it the other way!!!!  Well we had to get her to walk about 20 min to where the helicopter would land.  I gave her another 8mg of Dex and away we went.  Still ataxic, but with a strong man on either side she made it.  Now to wait for the helicopter.  We still had another hour to walk to Pheriche and it was getting late, so we left her there.  About 30 min later we watched the helicopter land.  I was so happy to see that, as she will be taken directly to Kathmandu. 

I'm so upset with their company, their guide and her friends.  Without the Dex I don't think she would have been able to walk up to where the helicopter could land.  Without my guide who kept insisting and pushing the young porter to keep calling for the rescue, I don't think she would have survived the night.  A tough situation with a happy ending. 

Because we arrived late in Pheriche it wasn't easy to find a room.  We checked at 5 different lodges until we found this one.  Tucked in the back....all the rooms are named after mountains and guess what....they gave me the Everest room!!!!  Hahaha.  A nice quiet little lodge.  I went to the shower room....only cold water available and washed up, washed my hair and a few clothes.  Now I'm heading down for dinner and to warm up a bit.  Then an early night.  New plan is Lobuche tomorrow, Gorak Shep the next day and then base camp on April 27.

Thanks for following along!

Pheriche 4,371m (14,340 ft)