Nepal 2019 - Day 13 & 14 - Chukung to Lobuche via Kongma La Pt 2

 Kongma La to Lobuche

After enjoying my moment in the sun, it was now time to descend and head to Lobuche. What started as nice trail quickly turned into a boulder scramble from cairn to cairn which eventually gave way to steep loose-gravel switchbacks before descending along a more reasonable downhill slope to Kumbhu glacier. On this trail, I was probably one of the last to come down from the top. There was this old hiker who crossed me a couple of times and vice-versa. He looked a little lethargic, however, gave me a thumbs up when I checked on him. He barely spoke any English and both of us were slow but he was much better at going down the steep sections. 

Ideally, one should get to Lobuche before 15.00 as the light faded very fast and crossing the glacier wasn't a joke as people mentioned in the previous days. I was a little behind, however, I was confident of getting to the destination well in time. About 30 mins later, I saw this man frantically rubbing his eyes and breathing heavily. I checked on him again but he could barely speak. I gave him some water and offered to walk together. After a few mins, we reached the glacier and saw the enormous task in front of us.

He was panting but still soldiered on. I ensured I didn't cross him and was behind him at every step. After a few mins, he lost all his strength and just sat down and started to wave his hands frantically saying ''No, No''. I tried to motivate him to take baby steps as sitting down would hamper progress more with the chilling winds and fading light. There was no other person around for help as well. I checked his oxygen pulse and as I feared, it was in the low 70s with a high pulse. These were early signs of AMS and I got really worried for him. I started to panic a little as I didn't know about next steps. I couldn't leave him there as well because Lobuche was still 40-50 mins away. I layered him up, gave him some electrolytes, carried his backpack and just urged him to move on. All I asked him was to cross the glacier as the first step. We were in the  middle of it and you could hear the ice cracking and falling rocks so sitting there was getting us anywhere.

To his credit, he moved slowly with one hand across my shoulder and we laboured on. The light began to fade very quickly and so did his energy. Thankfully, he had enough of it left to tumble, slid an slide across the Kumbh glacier with a lot of struggle. Eventually, we saw Lobuche in the distance and that really motivated us to push on. There were a couple of climbs that we had to make before we got within walking distance of the village. Unfortunately, he just collapsed and again, signaled No with his hands. It got pretty dark in a few mins and we had to turn on our headlamps to figure the trail. It was all about how I could motivate him to make small steps. This went on for at least 20 mins before he really stopped and just laid down on the rocks. He was exhausted and wasn't even drinking water anymore. I literally had to drag him over a few areas as staying there wasn't feasible for both of us. In all of this, my ankle pain become secondary and my focus was just to get to the top of the hill. I had thoughts about leaving him there and quickly scramble to Lobuche to get help but leaving him there was tough as he was really breathing heavily and panting a lot. It was past 18.00 now and it got really cold which was sapping the rest of my energy. He held my hand very firmly and I felt very miserable and helpless at our situation. As a last ditch effort, I decided to turn on the hazard lights on our headlamps and started to blow the distress whistle on my backpack like a madman. We were very close to the top of the hill so I hoped for someone to hear or spot us. After a few mins, I saw two headlamps coming towards us. I gleefully informed him about this but I wasn't sure he understood until I saw a smile and a glow of hope on his face. Two Sherpas came to our rescue and I told him about our situation. I asked them to attend to the old man as I could still manage on my own. They carried him to the village and was given treatment and eventually heli-rescued to the nearest medical center. I reached the village in about 30 mins as I was really sapped of any energy. I was limping when I reached the teahouse where there were a couple of people ready to help me out. I was given a round of applause by a fellow hikers and staff at the lodge after they came to know about our ordeal. I was very overwhelmed and I barely had any energy and just raised my hand in acceptance. The generous teahouse staff didn't even charge me for the stay or food. Very quickly, I crashed in my room and slept almost immediately. The following morning, I was informed that he was going into a HAPE/HACE state and any further delay could have been fatal. I couldn't believe what had transpired the previous day and decided to just spend the day relaxing and reminiscing of the events passed. 

Now I knew why people trekking in Nepal always come back with great stories. This one will serve me well in life!