My 2024 Everest Trek | + 35 Tips & 1 BIG Problem
Have you ever wanted to quit your job? In 2018, I quit my corporate job of 15 years. I'm a Physical Therapist now and only work 9 months of the year It wasn't easy, but I love to help people, and the freedom. This video we'll explore Nepal, cinematically.
Walk with us through the Khumbu for 12 days. The Monkey Temple The Old Palace Hindu Cremation Ceremonies Thamel at Night Ramechhap Airport to Lukla Very rough flight Short runway! We'll head to Phakding. Mostly downhill today. Spin left, for building karma. Trees I have never seen before. Buddhist Script Our first Tea House A new friend The mattresses are nice and firm Listen to these birds and the river. A great start to the morning.
The Dhudh Kosi River It's Spring and blossoms are out. Famous Dal Bhat These french fries blew our minds This mans skill! Sakura Hotel This chef was so good. I love Nepali food. A lodge stove, always welcome. The climb to Namche Bazaar was difficult. We're tired. A family of three dogs joined us.
Yaks are sweet It snowed over night! but quickly melted. Nepal's sun is intense! it's rivers are frequent. it's rain weathers the tablets it's winds blow hard through the valley and it's puppies are tired. Hot water for the lodge. Stoves are powered by Yak dung now. No more wood.
I film to remember, Sarah writes to remember. That's a good combo. Light snow again and high mountains begin to appear more frequently The worlds highest bakery. Honey Latte and carrot cake. No more talking. Just watch these last moments. It's magic up here. okay so that was definitely a trip of a lifetime I will never forget that trip Sarah won't either so if you're traveling uh to Nepal and looking to make it your trip of the lifetime there's some things you need to know first so we're going to go over key tips we're going to go over gear and clothing which is what I usually cover on this channel and then we're going to talk about the one thing that I think everybody that travels NE to Nepal needs to be aware of so the very first tip I think is that you should use a trekking company so a lot of people say hey I can walk I can walk up to a hotel I can get my own food but really what guides are there for and porters are there for it's really to make the experience better in several key ways first is organizing the bus trip you know you're not leaving usually in 2024 from Catman do anymore you're leaving from ramach chop so you have to take a bus from Catman do to ramach chop they set all that up for you they also handle plane tickets I will tell you at ramach chop the plane situation was kind of chaotic and also if you end your trip early they will do all the organizing of changing the plane tickets and most importantly if something goes wrong and I'm not even saying that that's a high likely Hood but if something does go wrong they're there to make the difference they've got all the language ability all the mountain skills they know where everything's at that's kind of why you use a trekking company beyond that carrying only just a little bit of weight on your back for 12 days straight is much better than carrying the full weight on on your back it just makes the experience way better as you may have seen we used Discovery World trekking which I actually found through another YouTuber uh our guide was sonum our Porter was Roshan and they both absolutely made the trip better next tip is when you're flying to Luca try to sit on the leftand side of the plane because that's where the better views will be once you get to Luca don't eat any meat beyond that since everything is carried up the refrigeration of meat cannot be trusted so pretty much everybody past Luca turns into a vegetarian when staying in catm do you'll likely stay in THL we thought that Apple Maps did a little bit better than Google Maps when trying to navigate walking on about 30% of the place we were trying to find Google Maps did not do a good job but Apple Maps always did do a good job always be sure to take a photo of your passport and your visas in case they get lost if you're buying puffy Lodge shoes so warm shoes that you'll wear in a lodge be sure to get a rubberized bottom on them you don't want to walk into some of these bathrooms with just fabric on your feet definitely one of the highlights of the trip that I didn't expect at all was the sherpa Museum and Nam Bazaar dedicate two maybe even 3 hours to this place it's big big there's tons of photos it costs a little bit but it's definitely worth the money to get into the see this thing next you need to assume that over 4,500 M of altitude that you're going to have difficulty sleeping in goric Shep I had the only problem of the trip I woke up at midnight I think I was a little apnic I think I was breathing a little shallow I woke up with a splitting headache just so you guys know Sarah and I are physical therapists and a technique that I knew of coming into this was pursed lip breathing we use it for various patients and COPD but it there's evidence that it helps in these situations and I used it to a good effect I got rid of that headache within I would say five minutes so pit breathing is just a deep breath in and then you exhale like you're blowing out a birthday CLE like just do that over and over again without getting into the science of it it helps get oxygen in it helps get Co2 out and it should help you if you're in that situation at altitude okay speaking of oxygen your guide will likely have one of these finger things these pulse oximeters it measures your oxygen what I saw a lot of guides doing was putting this on the finger getting the first numbers and then immediately taking off without considering how good of a signal they were getting on it so when a guide puts this on your finger to get the blood oxygen give it a little second look for a nice little steady bump on the line on the side that goes up and down up and down that means it's getting a good s signal if you're seeing like stuttering on the line it's not a good signal so just wait and get a good signal by the way I think the lowest in goric Shep for my blood oxygen and Sarah's blood oxygen was 84% another tip is that a lot of times the beds in these rooms at the tea houses they'll be right by a window so don't sleep with your head by the window turn around and put your feet by the window it's much warmer also when you arrive at catm do stay in the hotel and book ahead to the hotel that you're going to stay at the end of the trip so you you can keep your luggage there these hotels are aware that you may not show up on time but they're okay with that they'll still take your luggage so book the same one at the front and the same one at the back also you always hear that you need to take smaller bills as you go up by Because by the time you're at goric Shep or luch they just don't have the money to break a thousand rupe bill I really didn't experience that everywhere we went they could pretty much break anything next s and I both took diox I actually took prophylactic ibuprofen as well and it worked really well I told you I had that one problem midnight at goric Shep but it pretty quickly went away I think the strategy of Diamox and ibuprofen is a pretty good strategy I only took 200 milligram of ibuprofen and it worked well the entire trip next if you have long hair that takes a long time to dry don't take a shower right before going to bed because your hair will be wet and in those colder rooms that's not such a good thing also and we didn't really realize this when you're passing a Hindu or Buddhist Monument always pass it on the left if you happen to pass it on the right no one's going to bat an eye you're not going to get yelled at or anything but it's just common practice to pass on the left another tip is if the water isn't working in your room just check the water at the wall whether it's a sink or the toilet a lot of times the people that reset the rooms they'll turn the water off so it's just a simple matter of turning the water back on at the wall if you don't want to buy water the simplest way to get water is to fill up a bladder at a hotel sink and then just filter from there the next tip that I have have is don't overpack it's very easy to do you start to think of all scenarios I'm actually a very experienced hiker so I'm very used to planning out what I'll bring and what is needed I actually have a link below that shows my entire system we're going to go over it further in detail but to avoid overpacking check that link Out Below all right so the next is a little personal but I knew I would be peeing up to one or two times a night one because it's cold and from cold camping I know that's kind of me too but also the diox diuretics make you pee so I brought a pea bottle a 16 oz or 500ml one and it was super useful to use instead of waking up walking all the way to the bathroom walking all the way back you could just stand up pee then go right back to bed the next I think is a huge one it's bring non-waterproof Trail Runners so everybody brings boots I like a trail Runner style boot that is waterproof but I knew going into this trip from research and just looking at the temperatures that you don't need need a boot always the trip is warmer than you think and boots are heavy the US Army did a study one time every pound that's on your feet is like having five lbs on your back it is a much more comfortable experience to hike uphill in light Trail Runners than big heavy boots ankle wise like I said I'm a physical therapist unless you have some sort of pathology some sort of known ankle issue you don't really need boots you know boots for me kind of started around 17 lbs of pack weight and above well you're not carrying that you're only carrying 5 lbs again I know this is personal choice definitely do what you want to do but to me you don't need heavy boots for the entire way up especially ones that are waterproof waterproof boots in in warm temperatures are just a recipe for sweaty feet because the membranes don't breathe they always say that it's breathable but it's not breathable in the way you think it's breathable it's just minuscule breathable so again bring something that breathes and is light a Runner okay so the absolute star of gear was this little light right here I I just on a whim I thought I would bring it cuz I thought it might be useful it was definitely useful not so much for power outages although those can happen mostly in Catman do oddly enough but a lot of the rooms don't have light bulbs that are working so instead of like going to get the The Tea House management or whatever and looking for a light bulb This little light will see you through so many things you need to do next SAR and I brought those little electric wall adapters for us to Nepal but we never really needed them every outlet that was available to us was like one of those Universal types that fit all of them so we never even used those adapters also for the lady Sarah used uh I brought these things called dude wipes they're just like wipes for crevices I use those about every 3 days Sarah also discovered that you can shave your legs with those so check out dude wipes next I would bring earplugs and backup earplugs There's Something About Dogs they love to sleep all day but then they there's like one represent ative or two that bark at each other all night so bring earplugs to kind of block that out the next bit of advice that I have is bring your favorite medicines from home especially cold medicines Nepali pharmacies are great they're absolutely wonderful especially in price and variety they have everything you need to a degree but I was really at one point looking for DayQuil um so if you have something at home that's kind of a combo of drugs that hits several different symptoms bring that uh Nepali pharmacies usually had things that hit one or two symptoms uh so yeah just plan plan accordingly for that and on top of that I would absolutely assume that you will get a little bit under the weather whether it's cold symptoms or upper respiratory or lower respiratory we'll go over a little bit more on that later and just have enough with you to get through the trip you've just flown around the world likely to do this awesome trip be sure you're ready on the medicines front speaking of you and being able to do the trail I would bring electrolytes you'll likely be underweight for the porters so bring from home some nice electrolytes that you're used to I'm telling you Nepal is warmer than you think that's why I was talking about the trail Runners that's why you'll see in my gear guide below that I have really lightweight stuff and I brought shorts Nepal everybody thinks of snow they think of ice they think of huge mountains and those are there but Nepal is basically on the same latitude as Miami in the United States so it's very Southern latitudes it's not very far north at all so while you do have cold you do have sow snow the latitude is not that high the sun is intense because you're at that kind of lower latitude and you're at higher altitude so just be sure to have some electrolytes with you they definitely help Sarah and I we also brought audio books to listen to not because books paper books are heavy but it's just kind of nicer to listen to a book when you're kind of brain dead now the days aren't too long but at altitude especially higher up you're kind of brain dead it's just nicer to listen to a book than to try to flip through and read a book next when you go to ding you're definitely going to hear about Cafe 4410 definitely hit that up all of the services they had there were really nice their coffees were nice their Bakery was nice definitely hit that one up next once we got to goric SHP we were told that there was no running water there so no Taps so be prepared to buy water there at goric Shep okay that's it for tips now let's go over clothing and gear like I said I'm kind of a gear guy that's what my Channel's known for I looked and I have 1.5 million views just
over gear so I've put a lighter pack link below and that's just a way to list all the stuff the key thing is a lot of you are planning for this trip and you're looking for individual pieces of gear but check in on this system I really hit a really good gear system straight off the bat because I looked at the temperatures I looked at the weather I looked at the time of year and by the way we went from April 10th to April 26th and this gear system really worked well it's dialed in it's a little spendy but that's just me that's just what I want to do but check in on my system versus what you have and just kind of compare ask why I'm bringing stuff why you're bringing stuff I always like to look at people's systems like how all the gear works together and kind of wonder why are they bringing that and not bringing this if you have a question about why I'm bringing something or why I'm not bringing something comment below and I'll answer that I love getting gear questions but yeah check that out key in especially on this lamp cuz it was awesome and really the sleeping bag that those were kind of the two stars of the show uh the Western mountaineering alpen light sleeping bag it was for 20° Fahrenheit and it was perfect um Sarah had a similar bag we both slept in our shorts the entire trip up the entire way up to goric SHP and there were some really chilly nights now it's going to be different because there were two of us in a room and two people in a in those small Tea House rooms can really kind of warm it up more than if you're a one person uh that if you're one person I'm also going to put if you need a little bit more warmth than 20° an alternative to the alpen light uh in the in the lighter pack link so it'll be right below it'll be right below the the alpen light that I use I'll put an alternative that's even warmer than that one of course one of the biggest things about sleeping bags is make sure it's cut well roomy enough there's so many mummy type bags that are just made for just seriously skinny people unless you're seriously skinny get the wider bags it just we better for rolling it'll still be warm and plus it leaves room if you want to wear more clothes to bed and it's just a better system than these very common types of just super mummy super tight you can't move in them at all sleeping bags okay lastly let's go over what I describe as the one large problem about visiting Nepal now Nepal unfortunately in 2024 and 2021 had what were the worst wildfires ever recorded and in 2024 when we got there we landed in Nepal uh in April and it was very smoky and very hazy and we just chocked it up to um a developing country Catman do is also in a bowl and a lot of mopeds uh every every year Nepali are getting more money they're developing and so there was just a lot of pollution in fact we looked it up and the day we landed was about 250 aqi now to put that in context where I live a normal Day in the United States where I live is about 25 aqi so on the day we landed it was 10 times the amount of pollution that kind of we get hit with on a normal day um it's kind of a lot it's a bit like living under under kind of a forest fire in the United States if you live near a forest and it kind of affected the trip so we we started looking we started noticing that a aqi was really bad really poor all over the country did some more research there were ton of wildfires okay um it affected me in nam Bazar so it's lla fating Nam Bazar I really wasn't climbing as well as I know I could have I'm an experienced hiker we were actually going to go do the the three passes track well we took a left went towards thy and I could just tell I was not hiking as well I had symptoms without getting in the medical side of it side but I could tell it was something bronchial so I knew I couldn't do three passes so we backed out I went to a Nepali Pharmacy got a Bronco dilator and a mucolytic and almost immediately the symptoms decreased and I was walking and climbing the way that I was used to at that point we had kind of run out of time to do three passes track so we went up and did the EBC which I'm totally thankful for that was an awesome trip but you need to be aware that fire wildfires in April March April and May are a thing Monsoon is usually June July August you're not going to be there then but Monsoon also is going to put out all of those wildfires and then you have September October November Wildfire free it's something to consider but remember 2024 was an off year A bad year so I don't want to shade it any way for you I would still go in March April May but be prepared for haziness I mean look at these shots there's this shot this shot this shot all of that is fire smoke Wildfire smoke um so it's something to be aware of in you're planning okay if you made it this far we're in the deep in together please like this video apparently it lets that YouTube algorithm know that it's liked and it should be pushed to others and also speaking of others if you're going to Nepal with someone else share this video with him send it to him right now but yeah I hope you're planning for it if you weren't planning for for it I hope you can do this trip uh it really is a trip of a lifetime we will never forget this trip and we want to go back so bad Anna Perna Mana slooh um Lang Tang Valley they're definitely on the list now okay thanks for watching
2024-06-28 02:35
