Most people who think about Nepal only really associate it with Everest and the Himalayas, although the reason for our visit wasn’t trekking we couldn’t leave without being able to say we basked in the shadow of the worlds tallest mountain.
Most people who do the trek to EBC take the easy route and fly into the mountain town of Lukla. The airport there is known as the most dangerous airport in the world because the little 20 seater planes that shuttle people into the Himalayas have a tendency to fly straight into the mountain. After a relievingly incident free flight on a plane patched up with duct tape we arrived ready for our first day of trekking. Already we could see huge snow capped mountains surrounded by the lush green foothills.
Day 1: Lukla – Phakding
Our first day of hiking was only about 3hrs to the home village of our Sherpa, Phakding. It was a gorgeous walk, passing farms with rice paddies, cows grazing in fields, small local shops, stupphas and prayer wheels. I had been worried about my fitness level as we had decided to carry our own packs but after the day I was feeling like a trekking goddess… 2 weeks on a treadmill was toooootally enough to get to the base of the top of the world ( Note for future self: pride cometh before the fall). After the walk we checked into a simple lodge and spent the rest of the day napping, reading and exploring the village.
Phakding- Namche Bazaar
I started out with the confidence yesterday’s walk ( which was pretty much all down hill, not that I realized that!) had imbued in me. It may have lasted an hour, although that’s probably overestimating it. It became apparent pretty quickly that the minute I tried walking uphill the 20 pound bag I was carrying and the McDonalds I’d been eating in Hong Kong were going to come back to haunt me. The walk was TOUGH, not only was it longer than usual (7hrs) but a majority of it was uphill. It was still really beautiful, reminding me of the forests in Canada. We crossed lots of swinging suspension bridges covered in prayer flags, which can seem both comforting that they’re there or scary that someone thought there was the need for them. When we finlly got to Namche I felt like I was about to collapse, we’d run out of water by this time and all I wanted was to sit down and never get up. However Namche is situated on a hill and our lodge, by some happy twist of fate, was located riiiiggggght at the top… By the time we reached it Everest could have walked right up to me and smacked me in the face and I wouldn’t have noticed. Luckily the next day we had an acclimatization stop, where we stayed in Namche to make sure we didn’t get altitude sickness. We walked up to a little plateau where we got our first view of Everest peaking up from behind some other mountains.
Namche- Diboche
In Namche I’d ditched most of my belongings so was carrying only a small backpack with a few essential outfits as I’d realized I physically wouldn’t be able to drag that bag up 5000meters of mountain. The walk was beautiful, along the side of a mountain overlooking a valley and river, we passed more stupphas framed by mountains and got into traffic jams with the cow/ yak hybrids that help bring goods up to the towns. Everything that is used in these mountain towns has to be flown into Lukla from Kathmandu then carried up the mountain by either yaks or Sherpas who make their money trekking up and down with humongous loads on their backs.
Diboche – Dingboche
After Diboche the landscape became more barren, still incredibly beautiful but much more rocky. In Dingboche we had another rest day where we climbed up to a stupa where everyone had made inukshuks. My stomach really started hurting that night so we took another day so I could recover. When we were there we met some older Northern Italian men who were attempting to summit, the weather had been bad so thy had come down to a lower altitude to rest for a few days before going back up and trying to summit. In the following few days when most climbers tried to get to the top 12 people died, I always hoped those two men were among the lucky ones who made it back unscathed.
Dingboche – Laboche
This was the day I was most grateful to have a guide, we were walking over deserted plains and if he hadn’t directed us we would have ended up completely off track. I had a minor run in with a group of yaks but emerged with only a few scrapes and bruises, I felt luckier than some of he tourists our guide told us about who are pushed off the side of mountains by them. We passed lots of stupas, including ones in memory of the Sherpas who had died climbing Everest.
Laboche – Gagorakshape
This was the day we finally got to our destination, leaving really early in the morning we got to Gorakshape in time for lunch, ditched our remaining bags then FINALLY headed to Everest Base Camp! The trek there was rocky, icy and snowy; our guide even made us hurry up at one poit because he was worried about rockfalls or mini avalanches. The whole way there we could hear helicopters flying back and forth from base camp, and some even higher up Everest. It was quite disconcerting because we thought they were all taking injured climbers down to a safer altitude but the Sherpa said it was just supplies. We later learned that lots of people had died that day and we were right in our original assumption, a scary thought. At base camp we could see all the tents for the expeditions and the ice fall all the mountaineers have to climb over to get to the summit. The next morning we were up for sunrise to climb up Kala Pathar, a steep hill from which you can get a good view or Everest and the surrounding mountains. It was HARD, but made better because I knew it was my final real incline, after this it was all downhill… SUCCESS! Finally! Now if I could only get my hands on some barbecue ribs life would be perfect…