Day 4 Hope and relaxation

Khoburtse to Urdukas, 3 miles (total 36 miles), 13.6k elevation

I did not wake up the way I was hoping to. I had a mild headache, and I was still nauseous. I had cereal that turned mushy instantly when the hot water hit it, and something magical called “fun cake” that I was actually able to eat and not throw up. Andy saw some guys trying to find their mules high up in the mountains. Since Andy brought his binoculars, he let them use them to spot the mules. Since I was going to take my time hiking, Azam and I started off and we knew Andy would catch up quickly. They did find all the donkeys.

We got a little bit of a later start today since the hike was a short one. We left just before seven, and since we were trekking on the side of the mountain, we were able to be out of the sun for 30 minutes. We had a couple of big ups onto the glacier, and then we started to see the first part of the icy glacier itself. The ice was melting quickly in the hot day sun. The melting gave away to some nice flowing streams of water I was able to refill my water bottle. There was no water at our camp as it was all frozen solid. Bringing a quick water filtering system has been key on this trip. I purchased the Grayl bottle filter right before we left on our vacation. It’s not light because it has a filter in the self-contained bottle, but it has allowed us to drink non-boiling water throughout the day. And most importantly, we haven’t gotten sick drinking the water here yet.

I walked as slow as possible, as I was still feeling pretty nauseous. My goal was to walk so slow that I would only breathe through my nose and not my mouth. We came across the German woman who was feeling very sick the other day, and she was still really determined to make it. She was partially writing on a mule and then walking some of the way as well.

We were surrounded by more glaciers running between the towering mountains, which meant more water which meant more plant life and flowers, which was nice to finally see. The hike was all good news, though. At one point on the glacier I started to notice a lot of flies buzzing around me. I came across another mule who likely broke his leg.

I finally made it into camp three hours later where Andy had been waiting for the last hour for me to arrive. He knew I was not in great shape so he asked our crew to set up mats in the tent so I could lay down. He took off my shoes and socks and got me some water so I could recover. Ali brought out some biscuits for us to snack on. That was just what I needed to have some food in my stomach. Between the biscuits and the green tea, I actually started to feel better, which gave me hope for the first time in 24 hours. I couldn’t get rid of this headache, so Andy got a towel and soaked it in the glacial water spout down the hill, and put it on the back of my neck, after several runs, it took care of my headache and made me realize that is what I needed to get through the next day.

The tent was able to provide enough shade, and the wind blew just enough to create a breeze for us to relax. We sat in the tent and looked at the magnificent mountains in front of our eyes. We ate lunch that consisted of egg drop noodle soup, fried potatoes and onions, rice, and spicy noodles. I was able to eat the soup and the fried potatoes, which was actually delicious with the ketchup and vinegar that they had handy. I finally could think of something besides feeling ill and start to appreciate the beauty around me. I thought I actually have a chance at making it over the pass.

Since today was a relatively easy hike, we decided to bypass the rest day tomorrow and go to Goro II camp. We figure that we should reserve rest days for when we really need it, and we were both feeling pretty good at this point. We relaxed the rest of the day, we found a rock with some shade as we admired the view in the valley. Our goat trekking partner met his last stop today as we saw the boys butchering it and portioning it out amongst the groups. We got the liver, heart, and a sizable portion of prized meat.

I wasn’t feeling totally back to normal for dinner, but of course it was time to eat the freshly butchered goat. They brought us the heart covered in a barbecue sauce, cucumbers and onion salad, goat stew, a vegetable dish, and of course, chapati. I did my damnedest to eat a couple bites of the heart, but it definitely wasn’t the butter noodles I was hoping to be able to easily eat. I definitely could not go for the goats stew, luckily Andy was ready to accept the challenge and did a good job eating a little of everything. All the remaining food goes to the porters so zero guilt at all the leftovers we leave. The grand finale was the flan, or egg pudding as they call it. It was delicious, and Ali continues to amaze us on his culinary skills on the mountain. Early to bed for our 4:30 AM wake up call.