We made it! Everest Base Camp and back! The entire trek was pretty unreal. I mean...we were trekking the exact same paths as all those people who summit the mountain have trekked. We were staying in the same teahouses, and passing the same sherpas. The first day of the trek we went from Lukla (where we'd flown in from Kathmandu) to Phakding. This was our first taste of mountain accomodations. The food was pretty good...but it was absolutely FREEZING. Charlotte and i were like hoolllyyyyy crap if it is this cold on day one what are we going to do at 17 000ft?? Charlotte and I decided to continue our orphanage diet and both ordered Dal Bhat (rice, lentils, and vegetables). We figured it was our safest bet, since ALL of the food on the mountain is carried up the mountain by sherpas, and therefore anything that can spoil is really out of the picture. The trek itself was not really what I was expecting, but then again, I didn't really know WHAT to expect. The boggled my mind to see the weight that some of these sherpa people were carrying on their backs. Tiny men carrying cases and cases of beer, or kilos of rice, or even butchered yak meat (so gross...i steered clear of those sherpas). Some of the porters (aka sherpas) were probably still boys and they were carrying twice or three times their own weight...it was insane! It's hard to describe the scenery because it literally was so different each day. I kinda felt like i was "taking thehobbits to isengard" for the first couple days because of the rolling hills, trees, and such strange farm land. But as we got higher, the vegetation changed before our eyes until we reached the point where the trees simply stopped growing. Since we were dealing with altitude, our ascent was slow, and included 2 acclimitization days. The golden rule for acclimitization is to hike high and sleep low. So this is what we did on our days off. the group of us (there were 6 of us in total, all RCDP volunteers) would trek up a couple hundred vertical metres to give our red blood cells a nice little work out, and then we would return back down to a lower elevation to sleep. It wa because of the high elevation that this trek was so difficult. On average, we hiked 4-5 hours a day and some days we could have up to 3 of these hours uphill. The lower altitudes weren't bad, but you could really feel the lack of oxygen as we got higher. It would get to a point where we'd be hiking uphill and my legs would just start burning from the lactic acid simply because there wasn't enough oxygen. Some of the tea houses had ladder-like staircases up to the bedrooms, and I would actually get winded going up the stairs. It made me feel obese haha and i had to remind myself that i was indeed 4000m above the sea.
The other thing that shocked me on the trek was the demographic of people. I had expected that a trek like this...ie a physically demanding 14 day trek...would attract people like myself...the younger, just out of school age. Was I wrong. Joel, the 18 year old from our group, was probably the youngest person we saw on the mountain (youngest tourist i mean) by several decades. Even Mao and Betina (also both from our trek...both aroudn 30) were way younger than most people we saw. The average age of the people trekking was 45-50 years old! It boggled my mind. A week later during our decent, I learned one of the keys to success of getting up the mountain. Trekking poles! Nobody in our group used them because...well...I did it out of pride haha. On the second last day thought I took some out (I'd been given a pair before we left kathmandu by a friend) and they worked WONDERS. They literally made climbing the uphills 30% easier. I was like THIS IS HOW THE OLD PEOPLE DO IT! Now - just to clarify - there were a lot of very fit, middle aged people on the trek so it wasn't these people that shocked me. I saw a lot of people and actually thought I could picture my mom and her crazy group of friends she went kayaking with doing this trek. It was the middle aged people with the massive beer bellies, or the people who looked like they'd been plucked from the palace in Japan...it was THESE people that really made me wonder how they were going to complete the trek. But alas - the trekking poles saved the day apparently.
As we got further and further up the mountain, the amount of people trekking started to dwindle (i guess not everyone goes all the way). We also started to see more people being carried down on horseback or flown out on helicopters. The sound of the helicopter was a bitter reminder that even the fittest of people can get sick from alititude, and the only way to beat it is to stay hydrated and go slow. We actually went to a lecture when we were in Periche about AMS (altitude mountain sickness). There is a clinic there called the Himalayan Rescue Association and doctors from all over the world volunteer their time and dedicate themselves to saving the lives of people on the mountain. Neither charlotte nor i suffered from AMS, but unfortunately Nadine (the girl from england) got sick at 5000m in Gorak Shep and wasn't able to make it to base camp. She was taken back to a lower alititude by one of our porters where she was able to get rid of her symptoms.
It was for this reason that we decided to do something that most base camp expeditions don't recommned haha. There are two goals of the trek. The first is Everest Base Camp, which is 5300m and more of a novelty than a spectacular view. Then there is Kala Pathar (5500m) a peak that looks out onto the glacier that base camp rests upon. We decided that we wanted to do these both on the same day, so that we could get back to nadine and start our decent earlier. Our guide agreed with us, and since he didn't really voice any worry we decided to go. We woke up at 3am so that we would be in Gorak Shep by 6, and so that we'd be able to see the sun rise from Kala Pathar at 8. HOLY CRAP WAS IT COLD. I am no stranger to frostbitten toes, and within half an hour I felt like I was in my ski boots with my toes frozen to my socks. We made it to Gorak Shep, and then pressed on to hike 400 vertical metres up to Kala Pathar. This was probably one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. Panting like a dog it took 2.5hour to hike up. The last 100m felt so surreal because the altitude was starting to hit me. It felt like I'd been drinking for hours. Charlotte was like...I can't stop walking because i might topple over if i do. We finally made it to the top and were able to sit for a bit and enjoy the view. IT was UNREAL. We were looking down onto Base Camp, with the everest peak in the background. it was pretty surreal. I managed to snap a couple pictures (after i thawed my fingers) and i'm hoping to get them uploaded soon. Joel, our 18 year old from Australia, came stumbling up after us looking like death....but as soon as he realized he'd done it he was able to rest and also felt much better! We didn't stay up there for long, because we hadn't eaten breakfast and were freezing. So an ascent that took us 2.5 hours, took us 40 minutes to decend. Nuts eh! That afternoon we made our way to base camp, which wasn't as high btu we did have to trek across a glacier to get there. There were no expeditions (people summit between march-may i believe) but it was still cool to be there. The entire trek was cool because Id just read Into Thin Air and I was able to related to almost everything in his book! There were even some tea houses along the way that had posters and flags signed by people who'd summited everest. Oh, i forgot!! Our guide, Dorjee, actually summitted everest last year so it was really cool hearing his stories.
We made it back down to Lukla in 3 days, where we were able to take our first shower of the trek, and nurse our dry skin and blistered feet back to health. We're back in Kathmandu now, and Charlotte and I are leaving for Bangkok tomorrow. We went to our orphanage to say bye to our kids today and it was really quite sad. I really hope i'll be able to come back and visit. They were such little muffins.
Apparently the Maoists (the opposition party here in Nepal) are holding all of these protests and what not (something to do with re-writing the consititution? i'm not really sure). Anywho, we're hoping they steer clear of the airport, but there are talks that they might hold up international flihts. they've already set up road blockades preventing anyone from leaving the kathmandu valley by car. Charlotte and i are HOPING that we get out tomorrow because we need some sun and BEACHES in our lives!
Im hoping to post pictures soon. So stay tuned!
Ready to thaw & de-freeze,
Jen and Charlotte
Charlotte, at the start of our class...rather overwhelmed.
