Trekking to Base Camp, Everest
After arriving in Kathmandu we began searching around for a good trekking company to provide flights, a guide, and porters for our trek. There is something like 400 trekking companies in the Thamel (tourist area) district, and many of these companies have touts/hawkers who roam the streets searching for unwitting and fresh looking tourists. They then convince you to visit the office of the company that they work for (they get commission for each tourist they recruit), and the smoooth talking businessman then assumes power over you as he goes on about all the wonderful things that his company will do for you! We went to a few different businesses and settled on "Himalayan Scenery Treks and Expedition" (I assume that either they have only done one expedition or that the full business name was already taken by one of the other 400 companies ) They introduced a guide by the name of Sivar (pronounced Sibar), and he has been our trusty knowledgeable Nepal ever since!
Day 1 Kathmandu - Lukla - Phakding
We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla with Sibar in the morning where we began our trek at 2400m. Our 6.30am flight was delayed from leaving Kathmandu for (only) 3 hours due to bad weather. (I'd prepared myself for up to a 2 day wait for a flight if the weather was bad!).
Lukla runway is quite steep (uphill) to land on, and the landing was reasonably unnerving. We approached quite quickly and as soon as we hit the runway the pilots began rapidly punching buttons and hitting switches as the engines and brakes strained to stop the plane as we approached the hill/wall at the end of the airstrip. After gathering our bags, negotiating our way past the military (the army provides security for the town of Lukla due to the apparent threat of Maoist activity in the area, and the airport is understandably an important piece of infrastructure), and meeting our porters (named Prim and Ram), we had breakfast and then began our trek!
Day 1 Lukla - Phakding was an easy 2 hour walk from roughly 2400 to 2600m. The scenery was forest and green terraced farmland. The valleys we crossed ranged from dry dusty trails to almost rainforest type plants.
The branches from trees have been stripped by local people to provide firewood for cooking and heating (mainly to meet the demands of tourists). Further up in the hills where trees do not grow as quickly and easily, entire hillsides are tree-less and lack much vegetation at all. Suchhills are vulnerable to erosion and land/rock slides.
Days 2 & 3 Phakding - Namche Bazaar
Day 2 was a much more demanding day than the previous one. Similar terrain to the walk from Lukla, until a brisk 600m ascent ("Nepali-uphill" as our guide put it) to 3400m knocked the wind out of us. The trail was very dry, busy with people and yaks, and hence dusty. Very fine red dust blocked my nose and made breathing a nasty experience.
We spent the next day resting at our lodge (Moonlight Lodge or something similar...) .a very nice place to stay, flushing toilets and all! A daytrip up the hill helped me acclimatize as I'd had a headache the previous evening due to the altitude. Headaches due to altitude are fine and normal, providing that they disappear by the following morning (apparently).
Days 4, 5, 6 Namche Bazaar - Deboche - Pheriche
We descended from Namche down to the rivers, had lunch and then climbed back up the other side of the valley to Tengboche (3900m) before descending again to Deboche for the night. The Buddhist monastery at Tengboche is the largest in the region and has been rebuilt twice after fires destroyed it. We went inside, but I didn't stay long as I did not find it a pleasant experience. I found the imagery on the walls a little disturbing to say the least, and the statues at the front of the hall were quite freakish (think eyes that follow you around the room...)
The next morning (day 6) we walked to Pheriche (4300m) and spent some of the afternoon at the Himalayan Rescue Association hearing about altitude sickness and the like. I woke up that morning with a sore throat and developed a cold during the day.
Day 7 Pheriche - Lobuche
Walked to Lobuche. Was tired. Felt sick. Ran out of energy. Bad food in Lobuche.
Day 8 - Lobuche - Gorak Shep - Everest Base Camp - Gorak Shep
Walking to Gorak Shep in the morning we then pushed on to Everest Base Camp after a quick lunch, attempting to make the 2 hour walk to EBC before 2pm. We were told by Sibar that we had to leave EBC before 3pm, and 3.30 was the absolute latest to leave if we were to avoid bad weather. Base Camp was a disappointment to say the least... There were only a few tents, 2 crashed helicopters, almost nobody there (about 5 Nepali people taking apart a crashed helicopter), and a single red flag which marked the 'location' of base camp. The walk to EBC was the most interesting part, with glacier crossings required - picking our way along icy and sandy trails, weaving our way back and forth across the deep crevaces that open up in the active glaciers from time to time.
I was completely stuffed by the time we left for Gorak Shep again. Ram (porter) got altitude sickness at EBC as soon as we got there, and begain throwing up soon after (a sign of HACE - High Altitude Cerebral Edema?? ) and had a really bad headache. He refused to take our Diamox tablets though, and also refused Panadol... Not much we could really do except leave ASAP for a lower altitude. I found a Nepali to translate for us and we explained what was going on. He told Ram to descent immediately as fast as he could, and to keep going down until he felt better. Ram then took off at almost a run across the glacier, heading back to Gorak Shep. Ram then continued down to Lobuche after sunset, and we found out later that even when he Lobuche he kept going! He came back up the next day though and appeared to have no more problems (which was a relief).
Day 9 - Gorak Shep - Kala Pathar - Gorak Shep - Lobuche - Dzhongla
We got up after sunrise and climbed Kala Pathar for a view of Everest. This too was a disappointment - this time due to cloud over Everest, which made the morning trip quite pointless! After waiting for a while until Ram turned up at about 11am, we hiked back to Lobuche (a very up-and-down trail across glaciers for about 2 hours), had lunch, and then packed to continue on to Dzhongla -- the first step to crossing the Cho La Pass.
Day 10 - Dzhongla - Cho La Pass - Dragnag
We got up early at 6.15am to begin the pass by 8am. Cho La Pass from the side we were attempting consists of an hour of uphill, followed by an hour of climbing up rocks, some uphill across an ice glacier, an hour of climbing down rocks, then a few hours downhill to Dragnag. All up it's a 500 meter ascent followed by a 500 meter descent, most of which is done over a couple of kilometers (hence ridiculously steep parts). Reaching the top of the pass was satisfying, and the weather was perfect during the day which made the view from the top very very good. The descent down the far side of the pass was insane! It was practically vertical in places, and the abundance of loose rocks added to the thrill of sliding down the hill with rocks/boulders chasing after us.
Day 11 - Dragnag - Gokyo - Gokyo Ri - Gokyo
The walk to Gokyo was a little taxing on this day... It involved crossing a large glacier, and the trail we took to cross it was not the main trail. We spent a few hours climbing up and sliding down huge piles of rocks.
The lakes that are near Gokyo are very beautiful. They appear as deep green/blue in colour and had begun freezing over during our trek.
We climbed Gokyo Ri in the afternoon, leaving at 3pm and aiming for a sunset view of Everest at about 5pm. I found the 500 meter ascent to Gokyo Ri difficult, possibly due to altitude, possibly due to lack of fitness, and possibly due to the cold that was still persisting. I was completely exhausted as I reached the top at 5pm, and had been feeling quite sick on the way up. I contemplated throwing up on the ascent... but managed to keep lunch down somehow .
Day 12 - Gokyo
After wearing myself out the previous day, I resolved to do absolutely nothing for an entire day. I didn't go outside once during the whole day -- and it was soooo good. Sat inside, read books & magazines, ate chocolate bars, had soup & bread, pancakes for breakfast etc.
The previous 9 days had been a rush to get all we wanted done in the other valley and get across Cho La Pass before the winter snow arrived - if it had begun snowing the pass would have been far more dangerous, so we'd been pushing ourselves & the trek timeline to get across as soon as possible.
Day 13 - Gokyo - Namche Bazaar (whoops -- bad idea to walk that far in one day)
We began our descent with the intention of stopping for the night between Gokyo and Namche, but decided after lunch that we could 'make it' to Namche 'easily'... or not. After lunch we basically legged it down 300m, then up 300m, then down 600m into Namche. It was the longest day of our trek and took something like 9 hours to complete. We arrived back after dark and were glad to get into a warm lodge and have a beer for the first time on the trek (we were on our descent so allowed ourselves some alcohol at altitude).
Day 14 - Namche Bazaar
Rest day again. We went into the town and looked at shops and ate too much at the bakeries (mmmmmm sooo good after 2 weeks of fried food that all tastes the same).
Day 15 - Namche Bazaar - Lukla
Did the whole hike from Namche back to Lukla in 1 day, arrived soon after 3pm and changed flights to a day earlier (we were supposed to fly back on the 17th day). Tried to have a hot" shower... but it failed dismally. cold, smelly, no light. not a nice shower. I nearly froze trying to get dressed afterward!
Day 16 - Lukla - Kathmandu
We got up at 6.30am as our flight left (weather permitting) at 7.30. We were on the second flight, and our lodge overlooked the runway so we got all our bags ready and sat in the dining room waiting for the first plane to arrive, after which time we had to get up and walk to the airport. The airport sounded a siren each time a plane took off from Kathmandu, you knew that you had 30 minutes after each siren before the next plane arrived.
We left at about 9am and got back to Kathmandu before lunch. Sibar booked us into a better hotel than the Kathmandu Guest House (albeit with a little less character than the old palace), but on holiday money is everything!
Written by Richie Barnes, Wellington, New Zealand
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