The Adventures of Jess and Nick: April 2017

Our first Nepali trekking journey took us all the way to Everest base camp, the launching point for all the summit expeditions. There were so many things that made the trek special that wouldn't be caught in just a day by day account so we decided to try something a little different and focus on different sections.

The Trail

Our route

Our trek started in the city of Lukla. From there we set off to the village of Phakding. After an overnight we made our way up towards the largest village we encountered, Namche Bazar. Because of the altitude, we spent two nights here, spending a full day acclimatizing to our new altitude. From Namche Bazar, we headed up to Debuche for a evening before making it to Dingboche. That hike was another big altitude gain so we had another acclimatization day here. From Dingboche, another big gain was made on our trek to Lobuche. And finally from Lobuche we made our way to Goraksep and on to base camp before returning down to Goraksep for the evening. In all, it took us eight days to make the ascent to base camp. On the return, we took off from Goraksep and made it all the way to Pangboche (which lies between Dingboche and Deboche). The next morning we made it all the way back to Namche Bazar and finally back to Lukla on the third day. Overall the trek was ~120km (75 miles) round trip with an altitude gain of 3500m (11500 ft) with a peak altitude of 5,364m (17,598 ft).

Entrance to the national park in Lukla, the bust is of the first female sherpa to summit Everest. Sadly, she died on the way down

The altitude was a very big factor on this trek. At the elevation we were at, altitude sickness was very real. We encountered a few people that had to take extra rest days or move very slowly because their bodies were having a hard time adjusting. We also heard plenty of stories about evacuations and even some folks that passed away from either pushing too hard or bad adjustments. We had to remain very in touch with how we were feeling so that we could address any issues as early as possible. We were both fortunate that we were able to acclimatize successfully (mainly due to our drinking so much water each day that we'd go to the bathroom three times during the night!!) and complete the trek with no more than an occasional headache.

Getting There

Our tiny plane!

Hand written boarding pass

Despite the traffic we encountered upon our arrival, Kathmandu is quiet at 5 AM when you're off to the airport. There is also quite a difference between the domestic and international terminals. This was the first time ever I've had a hand written boarding pass!! Flights just happen around a rough schedule. You just sit there and hope you plane shows up to depart. While we were waiting for our flight we saw many flights taking off with the destination "mountain". These were flights that were for sightseeing and just flying around the mountains and returning. It was finally time for our flight to depart. When the bus approached our plane, it was definitely the smallest plane I've ever flown in. It sat less than 20 people and the seats reminded me of a school bus, yet we still had a flight attendant! It was only a 30 minute flight but it kept Jess on the edge of her seat! The landing was smooth but only after we got off the plane did we get to see what was just accomplished. The Lukla runway is only 527m/1,729ft long and is sloped so you land going uphill and take off going downhill.

Standing at the end of the runway

A plane taking off

When it was time to leave, we were actually quite lucky. With the location, equipment and infrastructure (the runway), Lukla is very susceptible to weather. It is not uncommon for flights to be cancelled for multiple days in a row. Lucky for us, we only had to wait about four hours for the morning moisture to burn off before we could leave. Just as we were about to get on the plane, there was congestion at the Kathmandu airport so we were just standing out next to our plane hoping we would leave before any clouds could roll in. We were able to finally take off which was very exciting for me given the runway. Our downside was that the congestion in Kathmandu hadn't cleared so our 30 minute flight ended up being 75 minutes as we flew around in circles. We were lucky though as we had heard stories (including from our guide's experience) of planes landing at other airports, waiting to refuel and then try again to land at Kathmandu. All in all, the flights were an experience in and of themselves and we probably lucked out with no major issues.

Scenery

This was by far the reason for the trek and it certainly did not disappoint. It was also a very nice variety. From Lukla up to Namche, we were hiking through beautiful pine firsts as we followed the Dhudh Kosi river which ran a beautiful turquoise blue as it was glacially fed. We also had lovely views of the mountains especially Thamserku and Kongde. Namche Bazar was an amazing location. A terraced village that dropped off into the Bhote Koshi river valley which sharply rose up into Kongde. The forests started to yield to flat plains as the elevation rose. The wind picked up so the you started to see more stone walls in the villages to break the wind and protect the crops and livestock. The trek to Dingboche continued along the Dhudh Kosi with Ama Dablam dominating our view on the right. Once in Dingboche, we were able to enjoy amazing views of Lohtse and Nuptse, the two peaks whose range hides almost all of Everest from our view. Climbing up into Lobuche there were remnants of past glacial activity with dry lake beds as the flat terrain grew quite a bit rockier until you reach Gorak Shep, which itself was a dry lake bed with some sand. It made it a very good place to have a volleyball net! From Gorak Shep, it was an up and down rocky hike into the Khumbu glacier at the back of the valley to reach base camp where we were then enclosed by the mountains. The hike in would provide the clearest views we had of Everest itself. The weather also played a huge role in the scenery we saw. On our critical days leading into Everest, we had nothing but blue skies with no clouds, but the few days we woke to snow provided for some great contrast. We also had the pleasure of being able to watch the clouds roll in and out of the valleys as well. Overall the scenery was absolutely stunning and unfortunately no picture or video we could take would ever do the views justice.

A beautiful morning

One of the many bridges

the view from top of Namche Bazaar

View from our room in Namche Bazaar

Ama Dablam

Lohtse

the terrain gets rockier

Everest makes an appearance

Base Camp - we made it!

Accommodations

tea houses - some look sturdier in the pictures than they were in real life!

The main source of accommodations on this trek were tea houses. These simple lodges were often family run, though the signs of commercialization and chains were starting to creep in. Every place we stayed used the same accounting system. Each room has a ledger recording everything and our guide would close it out each morning after breakfast. Almost all of the lodges had a restaurant attached. To encourage people to eat there, the room rates were very high no if food was ordered. Only a few places along the way actually had standalone places to eat and these were small bakeries or coffee shops.

A typical menu - spot the typos!

While the places were small, their menus were quite large. It was the cheesecake factory of trekking. Most all had some sort of amusing translation typos as well. Some of our favorites were "Pope corn", "braked beans" and "has browns". Despite that, the food was quite good and very filling after a day of trekking. Our local favorite was dal bhat. It consisted of rice, lentil soup, and some form of curried veggies and occasionally spinach. You'd pour the soup over the rice and it eat it all together. It was the staple of our guide's diet which led to his favorite phrase, "dal bhat power, 24 hour". The restaurant was the social place of each of the lodges. It was also the only place with heat, mainly from a wood burning stove in the middle. At higher elevations, they burned dried out dung for warmth. This meant the rooms had no heat at all. This led to them being quite cold at night!!!

Interesting decor and ice on the inside of the window

We were often bundled in multiple layers inside our sleeping bag under blankets. We didn't bring sleeping bags that were rated for freezing temperatures!! The rooms themselves were very simple with just one or two beds and a few shelves. Typically they were only insulated by the plywood that kept us from feeling the night breeze and there was definitely no sound insulation. If you snored, the whole lodge knew! Luckily, that only happened once in the first night. The decorations were simple though one room stood out for it's green carpet all over the floor, walls, and ceiling which felt like we were sleeping on a pool (snooker) table!! While most all of these places actually offered wifi, running water was a bit of an issue. A lower elevations, it was fairly common to get an ensuite bathroom, but as you went higher, shared facilities became more common. Also gone were toilets you could sit on, replaced by holes in the ground you'd just squat over. With the lack of insulation, these were very cold at night and became quite slippery when the water froze! That also prevented you from "flushing" or grabbing a pitcher of water from the barrel to pour down the toilet. This made showers very rare as well. Only in Namche we we able to have a hot shower. Our only other "shower" came from two bowls of hot water where we had to hand bathe and wash each other's hair. Despite all this, I enjoyed our accommodations. There was always a hot cup of tea and meal ready for you when you needed it and a decent enough place to rest your head at night.

People

Our guide Rup and porter Dinesh

The people always seem to influence the experience. In our case, we had a great guide for our trek which helped make it even more enjoyable. Rup met us at the airport when we first flew in and would be our guide not only for EBC but Annapurna as well. He knew the route very well and by extension, a lot of people along the way!! He seemed to be Mr. Popular at all the lodges. He gave us an introduction into Nepali culture which heavily influenced the spirituality section. Many are astrologically influenced. Rup and I were both Sagittarius, so we got along fine as he warned me about the claws of Jess' Leo trying to sink in! He taught us some of his favorite card games and we spent most of the latter half of the trek playing crazy eights after dinner, though his variant was a combination of crazy eights and Uno. We also spent a good majority of the trek with our porter, Dinesh. He carried our large bag the whole way from Lukla. He didn't say much but we saw him every morning with a smile on his face (probably because our bag was light relative to what other porters had).

You also share the trail with some interesting characters. Just like the W trek, you figure out who else is on the same schedule as you. We had the chatty Brit for a few days before he took off. We then saw him a couple days later on the our way to base camp, while he was heading down. There was a grumpy Frenchman lamenting the commercialization of the villages. We met an Australian couple that had been high altitude training in a pressurized room at their gym though it didn't help as the last we saw them was in Namche. It was also a good mix between solo/couples with a guide and the large tour groups. The big groups made for a lively atmosphere at the lodge, but were kind of a pain to deal with on the trail as the made quite a nice blockade from time to time.

The locals were also amazing. From the ones running the lodges to other guides and porters that we met, everyone always had a smile on their face despite the tough conditions.

Some of the many different backbreaking loads we saw carried along the way

A mule jam

A yak jam!

The trail was also full of porters carrying just about everything. There are no roads to base camp so all the supplies for the villages and expeditions are either shipped by helicopter or carried by porter. The porters move quite steadily for the amount of stuff the can carry. From large wooden beams to a generator, they carried it all. And if the human porter didn't take it, the animal porters did. The trail was also congested at points with animal porters. They were typically carrying kerosene or bags of cement, but were also used by the larger groups to carry their bags. At the lower altitudes, it was mainly donkeys and dzos (a cross between a yak and bull). At the higher elevations, it was all yaks. You could always hear them coming as they wore large bells. They didn't have special trails and covered the same ground we did, including the suspension bridges!!

Spirituality

The trek to Everest base camp was much more than just a trek. Given the Buddhist and Hindu influences, it gave it quite a spiritual element as well. Along the trail, we encountered many prayer wheels, Mani stones and Mani carvings into giant rocks. The route also contained many stupa. The spiritual influence is also very superstitious so we had to learn from our guide which way to walk around the stupa and Mani (clockwise). Prayer flags were everywhere. In trees, in bridges. It made the route very colorful. They were composed of five colors representing Earth, fire, sky, air, and water. (I did not see Captain Planet appear). Each flag then had different prayers and images printed on them. These mountains are sacred to the people so there was a huge memorial to fallen climbers on the way to Lobuche. All of this added a calming, peaceful element to the hike that just added another level to the overall experience.