EVEREST BASE CAMP - Part II
And the words of Don Cash from the memorial earlier that day lingered on our minds as we were taken by our dreams: ‘If your goals don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough!’
05 Oct 2024: Day 5: Dingboche to Dingboche Viewpoint – Rest Day (Nepali Version)
Start point: Dingboche (4410m)
End point: Dingboche Viewpoint (4910m)
Time Hiking: 3hrs hiking (3hrs in the morning)
So the rest day we had been looking forward to ended up involving a 500m ascent to a viewpoint in Dingboche. Rest days are atypical of these trips, giving trekkers the time needed to acclimatize to higher elevations. We had skipped our Namche rest day due to our delays in starting the trek, but at this altitude, we needed to take it easy and allow ourselves to get used to the lack of oxygen. Going too quickly would only be to our detriment.
So we ascended into the clouds with views of Ama Dablam, Nuptse and Lhotse all visible from the highest point. At one point, Dipak, who’d been dawdling, sprinted uphill to catch up with us. For us, that would be extremely unwise as we struggle to even walk slowly uphill at that altitude. For him, well, he also suffered a little for that unnecessary expenditure of energy.
The short yet challenging hike on this so-called day of rest probably did help us overall with acclimatization. We spent the majority of it taking photos of the majestic scenery around us and altering poses before heading back.
When we returned to the lodge, we all had to pay (500 NPR) to fully charge our phones as the solar power pack we brought had started to fail us. During dinner, Dipak also took our oxygen levels to see if we were in good shape to progress to the next attitude. The results were as follows:
· Shri: 93%
· Kimaya: 90%
· Firuza: 85%
At this altitude, Dipak was satisfied with us having anything above 70%, but that didn’t stop the jealous little looks Firuza started shooting at the others for beating her score.
We finished the day with a game of cards having enjoyed our rest-ish day. In hindsight, we’d needed that extra day of acclimatization. And it was just as well. Because the next day would involve the most challenging hike so far.
06 Oct 2024: Day 6: Dingboche to Lobuche – ‘Big Enough Goals’
Start point: Dingboche (4410m)
End point: Lobuche (4910m)
Time Hiking: 5.5hrs hiking (2.5hrs in the morning and 3hrs in the afternoon)
By 8:30am the next morning, we’d left our base that we’d become so accustomed to (when you constantly move from place to place, staying somewhere for 2 nights can indeed make one grow very attached to a place) and set off for Lobuche – the penultimate camp on our trail.
Ama Dablam dominated our views as we passed through a valley and we were joined by many a yak heading in the same direction. We even managed to spot a number of baby yaks. Approaching Thukla, we began to see scatterings of snow on the ground as the temperature cooled.
For lunch, we stopped at a place called Yak Lodge Thukla which was by far the busiest place to date for anywhere we’d had lunch. We were given the option of inside or out and with one small blow of the wind on our skin once we’d stopped walking, the decision was instant.
Once inside, a handful of Dhal Bhat orders were placed and Shri even noted a trekker who’d been on his original helicopter ride into Lukla. Speaking with him, it transpired that the other two people in his group had needed to go back down due to altitude sickness, leaving him as the sole remaining member of his party along with his guide. They had been a slightly older group, and even the remaining guy (who became known as Shri’s ‘helicopter friend’) was looking worse for wear.
He wasn’t the only one. Kimaya was battling a fever which took it’s toll on her as we attempted the steep ascent after lunch. This was perhaps one of the toughest stretches of the hike from an uphill and increased elevations perspective and felt like an age before we reached the top. When we did finally reach the top of that section, we’d arrived in a graveyard. Well, a memorial to put it more accurately.
The Thukla Pass Memorial (also known as the Everest Memorials), located above Thukla is a tribute to climbers who perished while attempting to summit Mount Everest and other peaks in the Khumbu region. One of the memorials that stood out was that of Babu Chiri Sherpa who had ascended to Mount Everest’s summit 10 times and had even spent 21 hours at the summit without oxygen on one occasion. He tragically passed away when falling into a crevice when leading another expedition.
We spent some time looking at the many memorials in the area and snapping some photos of the views all around us. The rest of the journey to Lobuche had us trudging through snow and ice. The tea house (New EBC Guest House) at Lobuche was extremely cold except for the heated eating area and Shri and Firuza’s downstairs bedroom window was even blocked by a foot of snow.
That night we went to sleep, knowing that next day would be the one we’d come here for. Everest Base Camp beckoned. And the words of Don Cash from the memorial earlier that day lingered on our minds as we were taken by our dreams:
‘If your goals don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough!’
07 Oct 2024: Day 7: Lobuche to Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp – The Big Day
Start point: Lobuche (4910m)
Middle point: Gorak Shep (5140m)
End point: Everest Base Camp (5364m)
Time Hiking: 7hrs hiking (3hrs in the morning and 4hrs in the afternoon)
The big day had finally arrived. Now some people will of course have fond memories of the morning they reached Base Camp – perhaps experiencing a feeling of anticipation or pride at how far they’d come. In our case, we woke to the sound of some poor chap retching in one of the adjacent rooms.
We set off for Gorak Shep which is the highest inhabited camp in the region (excluding higher camps with tents for summitters in the summer season). On possibly one of the most dangerous stretches of path, with a sharp fall to one side, and a chunk of ice on the other, a German couple decided to overtake everyone, deciding that the careful and cautious approach was too boring and slow for them.
It was one of the slower days given how icy the conditions were, although we made sure to stay away from that group of Brits who’d been following us for several days who were breaking the silence with their sound system. Because of course, nothing quite compliments the serene, snow-covered landscape of the Himalayas quite like Ja Rule’s voice.
It was a quick pitstop at Gorak Shep for lunch and to refill our water bottles (we would of course stay here the night once we returned from Base Camp) before heading right back out again, not wanting to get to Base Camp too late.
You know when you reach Base Camp, as you basically come to a parking area in the mountains. Except it isn’t parking for cars. It’s for horses. This is the preferred mode of transport for those who couldn’t make it by foot at this elevation (cheats!). We of course, predicted that Shri’s helicopter friend would have been among the horse-goers had he managed to make it this far.
At last, we had reached our desired destination. That’s right, over 7 days of trekking, 3 weeks of sacrificed annual leave, hundreds of dollars spent getting here and 2 unplanned helicopter trips, all to take a photo on a lousy rock that we could have had photoshopped into a picture with us, just to prove we reached Base Camp. Was it worth it? Yeah, it probably was.
A large queue had formed leading up to the rock and was being managed (loosely) by some of the guides). When we got to the front, we proceeded to take our obligatory pictures atop the Everest Base Camp rock, followed thereafter by more photos by the flags. A tourist hijacked one of Kimaya’s photos by the flags but we quickly took over the area for our 2-minute slot.
Looking across the Khumbu Icefall and up towards the summit of Everest, Kimaya quickly decided that to summit that one day was no longer for her, given what it had taken to get to Base Camp alone. Firuza had never wanted to summit to the peak of Everest in the first place and Shri – well he was also cold and tired at this point, and additional months of climbing at altitude and also sleeping in tents in the frozen wilderness just didn’t seem appealing in the moment. But, never say never…
As we made to leave, the queue for photos at the rock had more than doubled with all the latecomers arriving. Tensions were high as people began to push in or photobomb other people’s photos. A group of Brits (not our ones) arrived and started shouting at the perpetrators, telling the rest of the queue not to worry as “The Brits are ‘ere now.” We’re not quite sure how familiar they were with the history of the British Empire, but it remains a debatable topic as to whether anyone in that line for the Base Camp rock felt more at ease after that comment…
We made a swift exit, noting that more mules and horses were arriving, with local opportunists no doubt banking on a higher likelihood of less people being able to make it back on foot from this point. On the way, we witnessed a small avalanche on Nuptse which was quite interesting to watch from afar (but likely terrifying if you’re underneath it).
We got back prior to sunset (thankfully! Many people returned well after dark to Gorak Shep, likely having stayed at Base Camp to get their photos) and had a relaxing rest of the evening. Shri and Kimaya had achieved their goal of surpassing their dad’s trek (although that had probably been a few days ago) and Firuza – well she was just glad to have been able to get out into nature. She’d have been just as happy walking around a national park without the world’s highest mountain making a cameo appearance.
Nevertheless, we went to bed satisfied, albeit tired, cold, and staying at the camp with the most basic (absolute worst) facilities so far. The next day would bring the start of a new chapter however. The descent.
08 Oct 2024: Day 8: Gorak Shep to Kala Patthar to Pangboche – Down From a High
Start point: Gorak Shep (5140m)
End point: Pangboche (3930m)
Time Hiking: 9hrs hiking (5.5hrs in the morning and 3.5hrs in the afternoon)
Having fought against a fever a good portion of the way up, Kimaya had a lie in while Firuza and Shri woke up at 5am to ascend to the highest altitude of the entire trek – Kala Patthar (5530m). Well, that’s an exaggeration. We were going to hike part way up towards Kala Patthar, but we didn’t really have enough time to go all the way there and back down to where we intended to sleep that night. Plus we didn’t want to have to wake up at 3am!
Instead we settled for somewhere high enough to get the best possible view of Everest. It was a cold, breathless walk, with very thin air and started in what felt like a greyscale scenery before the sun arose. If you stopped at any point, stilling the sound of your crinkling down jacket and the swaying of your trousers, you would hear pure silence. Silence so unbroken and profound because there is nothing else in that region. It is a lifeless place, void of people, yet brimming with elegance and grandeur.
We arrived back at the tea house around 7:30am, ate our breakfast, packed our bags and were on our way. And then we just belted it. Every meter down was like another breath of fresh, oxygenated air. We kept a good pace as we descended, eager to get as far down as possible to have a warmer night and possibly a nice shower (up until this point, only Kimaya had braved a shower on the trek at Namche).
We lunched at Thukla again (and this time were audacious enough to eat outside) before eventually getting to tea house Pangboche (we don’t remember its name, sorry!). Here we were delighted to find that we had our own bathrooms in our rooms again. Although we couldn’t celebrate just yet. The toilet seat was only half there. Yes, it’s written correctly – there was only half a toilet seat there. And the curtains didn’t cover the entirety of the window. Half in fact (a tea house of halves!).
But you take the wins you can get on these types of treks and just laugh at the bizarre!
09 Oct 2024: Day 9: Pangboche to Namche Bazar – Cosy At Last
Start point: Pangboche (3930m)
End point: Namche Bazar (3440m)
Time Hiking: 9hrs hiking (5.5hrs in the morning and 3.5hrs in the afternoon)
Similar to the previous day, we passed many places we’d passed or stopped at on the way up. There’s just something nostalgic about returning to places you’ve been to before, even if it was only a matter of days prior.
As we crested the top of a hill that brought us back to Tengboche and the monastery, we took a moment to admire the last proper of view Everest in the distance back in the direction we’d just come from. The moment was interrupted by a herd of jopa heading in the opposite direction to us, bells jingling as they descended down the hill. Again, the sound of these jingling bells, giving us an auditory signal of oncoming jopa, yaks or mules had also become a nostalgic sound on this trek.
Curiously, it turns out that jopa prefer going uphill as opposed to downhill due to a number of reasons such as their physiology (including the way their bodyweight is distributed) and their hoof structure which is better adapted for climbing up.
As we progressed, the sound of helicopters became more prevalent, a constant buzz in the skies above. The many flights that dominate this region can be attributed to various types of trips; rescue flights in the high mountains, supply drop-offs to higher camps such as Gorak Shep, transporting people back to Lukla who’ve run out of time on their trek and need a quick solution (at no small cost!) and also, tourist expeditions to see Everest up close from the comfort of a helicopter. There are possibly even more types of flight that we’re just unaware of.
Unlike the peaceful serenity of the Annapurna range at this time of year, one quickly becomes accustomed to the constant drone of rotor blades in the Everest region which probably has the highest helicopter activity in the world outside of military bases (also excluding urban areas like Rio De Janeiro and New York City). Now imagine how intense it is during summit season in the summer months when you add up all the additional mountain rescues needed!
After a long, gruelling day of trekking, we finally made it back down to the comfort of Namche (we definitely had the most nostalgia for this place). After jostling with practically every other guest at the tea house, we each managed to secure a hot shower for ourselves (at 500 NPR each). There are not many better treats in life that compare with the feeling of a hot shower after 9 days of trekking in a cold climate where your skin has almost forgotten what the touch of water feels like.
We settled in for a game of Dumble and some tea and then all had the best sleep of the entire trek
10 Oct 2024: Namche Bazar to Lukla – Day of the Mule
Start point: Namche Bazar (3440m)
End point: Lukla (2840m)
Time Hiking: 8hrs hiking (5hrs in the morning and 3hrs in the afternoon)
The final day of the trek had arrived. The actually hike was relatively uneventful as a whole as we trudged back past familiar ground (this was not a circular trek but instead a ‘there and back’ route, meaning we saw everything twice.
We caught our ‘final’ final glimpse of Everest shortly after leaving Namche, obscured partially by trees.
A little while later, we came across a bridge, which
directly overlooked a lower bridge for bungee jumps. We’d seen this on our way
up, but nobody had been jumping on that day. On this day however, someone was
bravely getting strapped in. Firuza asked Shri if he’d be interested, but he
pointed at the sign which read ‘Bungy.’ The typo didn’t feel him with much
confidence so he decided to skip this. In any case, we watched someone jump off
and it all appeared to go perfectly fine, which goes to show – don’t judge a
bungee by its sign.
The rest of the day was dominated by jopa and mules. So many mules! A flurry of tourists had apparently entered Lukla the previous day and in anticipation for this flood of people arriving in the region, more supplies were being taken uphill early. But one does wonder where all these mules were being kept – there was barely space to walk amongst the constant throng of mules, jopa and all of their combined excrement.
We celebrated as we reached the final checkpoint at Lukla, realization sinking in that we’d done it – we’d made it to Base Camp and back (without cheating on helicopters or horses) and would be leaving the next day.
We stayed that night at a place called Buddha Lodge which was practically in Lukla airport (it was just outside). Dipak told us that the owner of this hotel had good connections with the airport and so should be able to get us onto a flight the next day – which is a bizarre thing to have to consider when you have a scheduled flight that you’re booked onto which was arranged over a week ago. Nevertheless, this is Lukla we’re talking about here…
We finished the evening playing cards (Dumble of course) and giving Dipak and Ram their customary tips. We did a section on tipping in last year’s blog for Annapurna so check it out for more information on how to tip – many websites will give varying amounts of what is acceptable so you’ll just have to pick which one you agree with and make sure it feels like the right amount at the time.
So, to bed then. For one final night in the Everest region. Or was it?
11 Oct 2024: Lukla Prison
Everybody who’s returned from their trek to Lukla, wants to get out of Lukla as quickly as possible. One day in Lukla is enough, after that you just want to leave. But it’s one of the most difficult places to get out of. For any governments experiencing issues with prison breaks, perhaps consider sending your prisoners to Lukla. They may never leave!
We awoke the next morning, had breakfast and waited on the roof of the hotel, looking down at the runway which practically felt like the hotel’s backyard. A swirl of clouds engulfed the surrounding area, obscuring visibility as it encroached on Lukla. No planes arrived that day. We were stranded.
Once it had been confirmed that we wouldn’t be catching a flight, we realized that we’d ended up in the same situation as we’d been in on the way here in the first place. Only we’d lost a few days of our trip in the process at the beginning and we were now only 2 days away from our international flight. We decided to go into town (much to the hotel owner’s annoyance – they don’t seem to like it if you don’t eat at the place you’re staying) and think about what to do.
We went to a Café full of tourists and discovered that some of these people had been here for days waiting for a flight out. A group of Aussies even decided that they were going to walk it back from Lukla to Kathmandu which can take days and was supposedly quite dangerous following the floods and landslides in the country.
We had lunch in a different Café and discovered even more stranded tourists here. A lot of them seemed to be resorting to helicopter rides to guarantee their departures. Several even asked us if we’d be willing to make up the numbers to share a helicopter ride but we said we would be staying together and not splitting up again (if they only knew what we’d already been through!).
After a day of moving between various Café’s and restaurants (we didn’t want to go back to the Buddha Lodge which wasn’t the most pleasant of places) we made a decision that we’d try to book a helicopter for the next day through our tour company as it seemed the bad weather was projected to last several days more and getting a flight back on a plane was seeming less likely by the second. However, it seemed the helicopter companies were aware of the predicament all tourists were facing in Lukla and so had upped the price since our maiden voyage a week ago. As if to add insult to injury, the price was increased one more time before we’d even finished dinner. But what choice did we have?
We went to bed, wondering how many more nights we would have to stay in this place and if we’d make it back in time to catch our flight home.
12 Oct 2024: Fleeing Lukla
Firuza stood on the roof of the Buddha Lodge, watching as the early morning sun burned through the clouds and as the first plane landed. She watched as another plane landed shortly after. And then another. And another.
Furious at the influx of planes coming in after the helicopter companies had held us to ransom the previous night with their price escalation, Firuza refused to get on a helicopter out of principle. The timing couldn’t have been more awkward as Dipak had literally just heard from the helicopter pilot that he was ready for us and had just arrived from Kathmandu. Our helicopter flight was subsequently cancelled. We now put all of our hopes on Dipak being able to book us a plane flight out for that day, with competition from all the other stranded tourists on a flight we weren’t already booked for. We sure hoped the airport connection with this hotel would finally come in use!
We waited for what felt like an age in the dining area of the hotel. Dipak told us that the hotel owner would call us to go to the airport once we’d been booked onto a flight. Several painstaking hours later, after watching numerous passengers embark and disembark from the now-frequent planes, we got the call.
We got through security at the airport quickly and piled into a small waiting area with the rest of the stranded tourists of Lukla. And there we waited for what felt like an eternity. An hour passed since the last plane had left. Clouds began to loom overhead. The skies were silent.
There were murmurings starting to go around the airport – rumours were spreading that there were no more planes coming. This notion was consistent with things we’d heard before – that the planes don’t often fly in the afternoons due to the challenging visibility. And we were now past 1pm.
And then we heard it. That glorious, monstrous sound of a plane engine as it drowns out nature before landing. Everyone hurried to line up, not knowing if it was their plane or not. It wasn’t ours. We watched, painfully as others boarded and flew off. Dejected, we wondered if it was time to start rescheduling our flight back to the UK.
Then two more planes landed. We found out that one was ours, but apparently the pilot hadn’t had his lunch yet, so we were all made to wait apprehensively while he tucked into his meal. It was excruciating. Even knowing it was our plane, we almost couldn’t allow ourselves to believe it until we were on it and flying into the mountains. When we eventually boarded, we couldn’t help but feel there would be another spanner in the works, another obstacle that would rear its head at the last moment and prevent us getting away. We were almost surprised when we finally seated ourselves, one person on either side of the aisle on the small aircraft.
We imagine the process of taking off in Lukla can be quite unnerving for many. You feel the plane bounce as the pilot prepares to take off down this tiny runway before you fly into a mountain opposite as you leave the tarmac and zoom off the edge of a cliff. But we didn’t care! We were just relieved to be airborne, on a plane that cost almost five times less than the price of a helicopter (post-ransom price that is). We’d now have just under a day to spend in Kathmandu doing whatever we wanted, with an abundance of amenities until our international flight.
On reflection, it was an epic adventure and one that we can now look back on and laugh at all the tough moments we faced along the way as is so often the case with these treks. But Everest is a special region, and to get there and deal with all the challenges you face, you have to really want to do it.
We sailed off into the sky, watching the swirl of clouds dance with the snowy peaks of the mountains as we began our journey home. We’d left the Himalayas, but the Himalayas will never truly leave us.
