Some Himalayan Trekking and "How to Heat Your House with Yak Shit"

"Your plane is delayed!"

"My plane was canceled for 4 days!"

"Board now!"

"Get off the bus and go back to the airport!"

"Now, you! go and board now! (again)"

ok, so before our Everest Base Camp trek even started we heard or experienced all of the above quotes. Our plane was delayed 6 hours and apparently that made us the lucky ones. Flying to Lukla airport where the Everest region trek begins is one of the most difficult in the world to find open weather windows to land in.

Perched on a hillside with an upward sloping very short runway (read that again - the runway isn't flat! its on a fuckin hill with an upslope of 20 degrees) at about 9,000 feet. The weather opens and closes landing windows very quickly leading to some of the absurd quotes from above as flights are routinely delayed, canceled, and even turned around right before landing.



So as some background our trek was guided by a local 27 year old Nepali, two assistant guides, and several porters.


Overall the trek was 15 days, covered something like 125 miles, and gained and (then lost) about 9,300 feet in elevation (not counting the up and then down, and then up again type trails). Our trekking mates included, a young couple from Canada, another from Boston, and a retired British Airways Englishman.



So we eventually got to Lukla and enjoyed a late lunch and started a relatively easy 3.5 hour first day walk. Unfortunately, because we landed so late in the day, the 2nd half of the trek was in the dark utilizing our newly purchased headlamps (btw Kathmandu is the KING of knockoff outdoor gear - every single store merchant, taxi driver, etc wears "North Face" clothes for example- We bought 2 pairs of knockoff trekking poles, two fake North Face pants, a quick dry towel, two headlamps, and socks in one of the numerous outdoors stores.

After the first day's walk to Phakding, we traveled uphill approximately 1300 meters the next day to the trading center of Namche Bazar. We enjoyed an acclimatization day the next day in Namche and then continued again our routine of hiking about 3-4 hours after breakfast, and several after to the next village, or to a stop at a Buddhist monasteries where we were staying. Incidentally, Nepal is actually a majority Hindi country, but the Khumbu region by Everest is 98% Buddhist.

As much as you all love reading my rambling, I'll avoid detailing the first 7 or so days of the trek and share some of the amazing scenery we encountered which began with much greenery almost like a much steeper and larger Yosemite and gradually increased to massive 20,000+ mountains with Buddhist sites scattered along the trail:
















....Ok now onto the important business. How to heat your house with yak shit. The sherpas are an incredibly resourceful bunch and have refined over hundreds of years an entirely cheap, odorless, and easy (if you aren't the preparer) way to heat your house with yak dung.

Step 1. Locate a yak. Easy. Yaks are everywhere. They walk throughout towns and paths like the own the joint. Yaks poo throughout the day like all animals, but chasing one around waiting for it to crap seems hardly efficient. However, almost like clockwork Yaks take a crap during the night. They space themselves out maybe 10 feet from each other to go to sleep and in the morning nearly each one has relieved himself.


Step 2. Gather the dung. I think this task was typically given to a child in the family. So easy enough then, you send your kids out to collect the dung in the morning.


Step 3. Place the gathered dung on the roof of your house to dry. (see neatly pressed dung here on the right hand side on this woman's roof).



Step 4. Once dry, gather dung and stack next to house like typical firewood.

Step 5. Put dung in stove and place feet up and relax in your new heat. Its literally odorless, slowburning, 100% reusable green, and a fun party topic.