EBC Trek Part 3 - Mt Everest Basecamp & Kala Pattar

We left Lobuche for good!!! We were to reach Gorakshep and trek to EBC and reach back Gorakshep. This was not going to be easy at all; we did reach Gorakshep on time, and stayed for some hot chocolate and left to EBC at 11.30 am. I knew we were starting late and that’s not good at all. The trek to EBC is the most strenuous one; we trekked up and down the ridge parallel to the deadly Khumba Glacier. Nuptse has 2 avalanches, the sound of the wind so scary and loud. After 1.30 hours of trek on the ridge we got into the moraine. Walking on the moraine can be quite depressing; debris over the blocks of ice only can rip your skin of if one had a slip. Many of the other trekkers were returning back, but very few actually went to EBC rest were either returning just before the moraine start or half way down.

Subbu and I were together the rest of the 3 were quite behind with Maila. We had to reach EBC and return as quickly as possible ad even 5 pm would mean we had to use our troches to find the way back. Subbu and I reached EBC at 2.20 pm; we just had 2 more groups who had trekked with us. I was not sure if the rest of our team would make it hence I asked the guide for one of the group if we could join them on way back as we could get lost with out his help. Bit to my delight Sri, Keyur, Ajit and Maila were close, they reached EBC too.

EBC had some 3 expedition teams who were attempting Mt Everest, the unforgiving Khumba ice fall and the entire glacier made me wonder if camp 1 is going to be tougher than the actual summit!!! We had a good picture session and smiles as we left. Weather was getting colder and it was only going to get worst. We got out of the moraine as quickly as possible, it was getting darker, and we took out our torches and started to move together. At one stop we almost walked into a lake, Maila called us change direction; we were really tired weather was not helping at all. We reached the hotel at 6.30 pm and just wanted top have dinner and hit the bed as we had to go up to Kala Pattar early and trek back to Pheriche.

Morning, only Subbu and I were ready to go to Kala Pattar the rest of the 3 decided to trek down towards Pheriche. So we left to Kala Pattar along with Maila, it looked like a steep climb so was it, really steep. Kala Pattar gives the best view of Mt Everest and it was worth the effort to fill my eyes with the Mt Everest. We were on the top of Kala Pattar i.e 5545 mts by 9 am and just clicked our cameras will the fingers started hurting it was beautiful and I did not wanted to come down, but we had to move quickly. We reached the hotel at 10.30 am, had breakfast and within no time we were back on the familiar trail. Not sure what got into us we were in Pheriche in 4 hours flat. We realized that Sri, Ajit, and Keyur had not reached yet, first though was if they had missed the route, Maila went looking and was back with the rest, we just had missed them in Dughla, as Ajit had a bad stomach they were inside a hotel and we left from outside after having some tea.

Pheriche is beautiful, as you entry into the valley, surrounded by green hill and the one covered with snow, it open’s up to the sky and it’s a great view. The place is very silent, it not as big as Namche but has facilities like hospital, heli service. Now that the mission was completed we were more relaxed and went to bed early, as we had a long trek to Namche.

As we reached Namche I looked back for one final view of Mt Everest and truly was not happy to leave, but we are travelers we leave only to come back. We also met the team from Pune finally and was glad to chat with the. Later we also bumped into those three people from West Bengal, they were worn out completely. Stay in Namche was very comfortably, may be all the pressure was gone and the trekking was going to end in just a day. Many of the other trekkers were also reaching Namche, some were staying over for an extra day too.

Next morning we were ready for the grand finale, reaching Lukla from Namche was going to take a lot of time and energy, but we were going down on the altitude and weather would get better. We walked as if there was no tomorrow, and reached Lukla just in time for dinner. Our fight to Katmandu was the next day morning and we had one last sleep amidst the mountains.

It was all over, we reached Katmandu!!! A great trek and for many it was once in a lifetime!!!

We at BASECAMP will continue doing these treks, bringing together many of you how would dream to do these treks.

- BASECAMPer, 6th Oct to 17th Oct

EBC Trek Part 2 - “Lukla to Lobuche”

Trek route: Lukla – Monjo – Namche – Deboche – Dingboche – Lobuche – Gorakshep – Everest Basecamp (EBC) – Gorakshep – Kala Pattar – Pheriche – Namche – Lukla

Number of days: 12 days, 6th Oct 08 to 17th Oct 08

Team: Ajit, Kavitha, Keyur, Shabna, Srikanth, Subbu, Maila (Guide), Adarsh +2 (Porters)

First taste of breakfast that we did not have for 3 days was at Anju Sherpa’s place in Lukla. Even though it took 40 minutes to get what we wanted, it was worth the wait.

What I like about Nepal and its people, is that they are extremely eco-friendly and the trek route is very clean, so are the hotels/lodges the entire route.

It was time to start the trek, our initial plan was to stay in Phigding/Fagding but since we had reached early and the fact that we had lost 3 days at the airport we decided to trek ahead to Monjo. The total trek time for the day was 8 hours, weather was excellent and very clear and we would be gaining an altitude of 2900 mts. The landscape was beautiful, hill covered with lush green carpet, pine trees, beds of high altitude flower, Dodh Koshi gushing between the valleys all was picture perfect. The trail went up and down the mountains, crossed over from one hill to another across the river, all looked like shots of Yash Chopra’s movies.

Good dinner and a long rest was all we wanted, and next day we were up by 6.30 am. The plan was to hike up to Namche in 4-6 hour duration, so we started of at 8.30 am. The hike to Namche is quite steep, and would be reaching an altitude of 3542 mts. The view en-route was only getting better, Dodh Koshi literally lives up to its name, gushing down aggressively, looking milky white. All through the trek we crossed hanging bridges across Dodh Koshi and its tributaries from hill to hill.

For the first few hours I was with the group, as they slowed due to the steep climb. I hiked further without stopping as I needed some exertion and reached the entrance of Namche, which is a tea stall by 12.45 pm. Richard and his dad joined me for tea, we started talking about the trek, Richard’s dad is 74 years old and it was his 3rd time to EBC. It was also amazing you know that Richard’s brother was leading an expedition to Mere Peak and Island Peak that is in the same region at the same time. They left after tea and I continued to wait for the group. As the rest of the group arrived, we moved to Hotel Tibet, a beautiful place that gives the best view of Namche. Since most of us were completely exhausted and climbing up 2 levels to our rooms did not make it easy.

Each of us were on the trek for a different reason, different objective and would see Mt Everest differently. But one thing we all believed in, was that it's the “Mother of all Treks”,

Namche is almost like a “Big Town”, with several travelers it at some point looked like Thamel. On the way to Namche we met people from many nationalities but not a single India yet!! We are so close to Nepal and do not even need a visa yet Nepal looks a distant place. I met a Sri Lankan who came up to Namche but ended up returning to Lukla on a horse back :)…..guess high altitude for a guy for the land of beached was….

At dinner time, the hall was filled with people, some returning from the trek, but majority would be trekking with us. I was sitting close to a table where a group leader was briefing the team about the trek ahead and the group was asking the most stupid questions. In the gang some of them had lost apatite, which is common in high altitude, but had to eat as much possible to gain energy that would be needed the most ahead.

Morning I woke up to the mist covered mountains and to a yet to awake Namche. I spotted a few foreigners doing yoga; it’s extremely helpful at high altitudes. The breathing technique in yoga comes in handy during steep climbs and faster gain in altitude. I tried thinking about something back home or work, nothing just seemed important at the moment. The fact that the mountains overwhelm me so much, my mind was oblivious to anything else.

It was a free day; it was around 8 degrees we trekked up to Everest View Hotel, 900 mts higher and gives a peek-a boo of Mt Everest, Lothse and rest in the range. After a steep climb, it got cloudy and we hoped it would clear by the time we reached the view point, but it got worst. We descended back to Namche just in time to miss the light showers. At dinner time Maila briefed us about the plan for the following day. We were to start off early at 7.30 am, right after breakfast.

Namche is very clean, it had internet services, Banking, Massage centers, and Printing services but quite expensive until one is really desperate. People of Nepal over a period of time have understood the requirement of the trekkers and mountaineers, and have build facilities to address every need. They have adapted to the global culture in the true sense. Hotels are well maintained; food not only freshly cooked but truly satisfies people from any part of the world. As a policy the prices for the rooms, shower or even food is standardized, this is extremely good as there is only a certain season they can earn money and a community based approach ensures that every one gets their share of the revenue. It’s a long term sustainable model and a win-win situation for the people, community and the travelers.

Morning the sky looked beautiful and clear than ever, the mountains very covered with fresh snow. Sun slowly showed up, and we hoped to have a good long trek. As per the initial plan we were to trek to Tengboche for the night but we were good to trek further to Pongboche. We started off as per last night plan; the first turn up from Namche gave the 1st view of Mt Everest and Lothse and one cannot miss that. The view was on and off as we trekked through the trail.

Shabna was not doing well and she was slowing down. To reach even the lunch point which was down hill we took 4 hours. I was worried about reaching Pongboche on time, rather before the weather gets colder. We reached Tengboche and stopped for an expensive hot chocolate. Tengboche had a large colorful monastery that stands out among the hills. We moved ahead hoping to reach Pangboche in the next 2 hours, but our porters had fond a place to stay at Deboche and it was great relief. It was a small place, but given the altitude a roof over the head and four walls around was all we wanted. We sat around “Chilok” (fire place) taking up all the heat we could and finished our dinner. We had only 2 rooms and the 3rd was a tent outside!! Since Subbu and Me have been in the mountains long enough to take the cold, we took the tent and no regrets, I feel asleep in no time.

Morning as I came out of the tent I saw the hump of Mt Everest clear from the clouds, it was beautiful, it was like a dream come true to wake up to Mt Everest. It was worth taking a zillion pictures, but I knew it will only get better from now on. We started to move at 8 am, and all of us needed a good warm-up from the still cold morning. The cliff of Amadablam was intimidating, a 7+k peak looked beautiful, tall and all white from top to bottom, it was following us on our right-hand side. On the way I met Ashok Srishista a guide for a little lady from Poland, he is a huge Hindi movie buff, and was more then thrilled to sing and dance to kai kay pan banaras wala….We trekked up to Pongboche in 2 hours and later to Shomare for lunch, it’s a small place with tons of trekkers both going up and those who are coming down.

I wish I would write more about each of the mountains, they simply overwhelm and make one speechless rather wordless. I had never seen the sky so blue; the pure white clouds were rising up behind us and the clear blue sky ahead of us. As we progressed to Dingboche the terrain got wilder, the mountains caved into the valley, Dodh Koshi was gushing stronger. The landscape was losing the green; the mountains looked closer, cold wind was unbearable even at 2 pm. Even though the trek was not tough the spiraling around the trek path getting rockier was making it difficult. We managed to reach Dingboche by 4 pm, and in no time the clouds settled down and made the place invisible.

All through the trek even with many trekkers the place was peaceful, serine. One very visible aspect was that there were a lot of women trekkers, some times they out numbered the men; one was as old as 62 years, I even met 3 moms with 3 daughters!!

The sutpas with Buddha eyes had got replaced with memorials, frequency of choppers for rescue increased. The obvious symptoms of the trek ahead and the tough days to come!!!

During dinner we sang few Hindi songs, the foreigners joined too and got one of them to sing a French song. Post dinner Sri and Ajit came up with the idea that we should trek to Dughla the next day instead of staying in Dingboche for acclimatization, I was complete against it given the problem we could face in case of any medical emergency, but they decided to risk it out anyways.

Morning Sri & Ajit left to Dughla, Shabna did not look good at all, and she started to trek with us but went back. Subbu, Keyur, Maila and me continued our long trek up for acclimatization. The plan was to go up to a small hill called Chgukhung (not the main peak) which is 5100 mts and reach back to spend the night at Dingboche. The gusty winds were blowing us up endlessly on a complete rocky terrain, when we were at the top of the hill I almost lost balance more than 5 times; the wind at the speed is scary. The hill was the closest we could get to Lothse, from tomorrow we will be turning away from Lothse and we would have Nuptse and Everest ahead of us. I was slightly worried, Shabna was not acclimatized, Sri and Ajit left to a higher altitude without proper acclimatization.

Next morning as we moved towards Dughla, Shabna looked really sick, she was very determined but her body would not take her any further, and decided to return. A hat off to this lady, she with asthma completing 70% of the trek is “something”. We made it to Dughla, Sri and Ajit joined us, they seemed ok and we trekked further towards Lobuche. I was slightly cut-off, Shabna was still on my mind, and the trek route was heaps and heaps of rocks and pebbles. The trek was getting tougher now, we heard stories of people moving down, rescues, sickness but we moved on with no fear. By lunch we were at Lobuche, it was a very difficult accommodation, may the only one we had to survive.

For the first time we met people from India, it was a family Wife, Husband and their 14 year old son had braved it to reach Lobuche. I was delighted to speak with them, and they told us that there was a group from Pune and 3 more people from Bengal. We ordered for food and played cards; spoke with many people, some of them who would be travelling to India. Subbu and I had got better rooms compared to Sri, Ajit and Keyur and I dozed off without trouble.

- BASECAMPer, 6th Oct to 17th Oct

EBC Trek Part 1 - "Restless till Lukla"

3rd Oct 08 the “D” day, we left the hotel early in the morning declaring “Everest here we come”…..en-route visited the Pashupatinath temple, with all the blessing the flight still did not take-off. No one can predict mountain weather, once you decide to go to EBC be prepared for all delays, plan-A, plan-B, plan-C is all we can propose and the mountain disposes at its will.

If 5 hrs waiting at the airport was not enough for day 1, Keyur collapsed, I guess due to the suffocation at the airport, ended up with a deep cut just above the right eye. On final confirmation that the flight is not going to take-off we headed back to the hotel, took Keyur to the hospital. He had few stitches and few lab tests; all came out normal for our delight, we was fit and we were glad.

Good long sleep, early breakfast and a hope that weather god will be on our side we once again reached the airport for the 2nd attempt to fly to Lukla. Murphy’s law, when some thing has to go wrong it will…applied again, the weather god was on our side but not the airlines. Feeling restless we spoke with the airlines only to get a response that people wait for more than 4-8 days to get on to a flight to Lukla and cancellations or delays are not unusual.

We returned to the hotel with a heavy heart, but I guess this time we had to come up with a plan to ensure we make it to EBC. So we worked backwards, decided we still can try for both 5th & 6th, if we do not reach Lukla by 6th we will look for other trek routes. But all of us knew we only wanted to the EBC and nothing less. We got Narayan (our agent) to book the earliest flight and the chance of take-off is more, we ensured that the tickets we fully endorsed and that we will reach the airport by 6.30 am on 5th and try to board the 1st flight in case of any cancellations instead of the 3rd flight.

3rd attempt to fly to Lukla, we walked in as good as any localites at 6.15 am, saying hello to all familiar faces. The airlines staff greeted us as Lukla flight regulars, passenger who were with us for the last 2 days were delighted to see us back, and all of us waited with our toes and fingers crossed. We sat in the departure area reading a book, or scribbling notes or just playing cards, but were close to the announcement area not to miss any updates of flight # AG-305.

Airport is a mess, its crowded, endless number of backpacks, parcels, stinking toilets, overly expensive snacks & beverages, flights never leave on time nor there is some thing called technology. Coming form a IT city it was appalling to see that a place which is a mini-world does not even have a computerized billing or boarding pass process. But that’s mountains, its one of the busiest airport, at one point I really admired the staff working there with very basic facilities and infrastructure. Nothing moves on time, we were re-assured the 3rd time in the last 3 days, not that it’s the inefficiency of the airlines or its staff, its just that mountains have their own mind and no soul can go against that.

Even after 3 days of waiting I cannot say that we were angry or frustrated, we stared to acknowledge the fact that mountains rules this land. We did not run out of patience as much as we were running out of time and options as the last day for us to reach back Katmandu (KTM) was 17th Oct 08. “We are boarding”, the flight was announced we rushed to take the shuttle, reached the flight, the luggage was getting loaded the airline staff asked us the stay in the bus, we were finally leaving, just about to get down the shuttle, there came the announcement that Lukla airstrip is closed due to bad weather.

We returned to the departure area, with our backpacks still on the aircraft, we hope that we may still make it, so the waiting continued; the only difference was that we almost boarded the flight. At 1.30 pm, the almost expected announcement came, the flight was officially cancelled, we were back at the hotel for the 3rd time.

Everest is Everest and we were not willing to let it go so easy, we decided to pursue it till 7th Oct, if its still not happening then it was going to be Annapurna Basecamp. CNN weather reported predicted bad weather till 10th Oct, but we had hope, strength and the will to try and please the weather god.

By now at Thamel we were know to every one, and ended up telling the story of cancelled flights. We also checked if we were in the right season, and to our little delight every one said that October is the BEST season for EBC. We had an additional plan, after sitting in the airport for 3 days we realized that the passengers of the cancelled flight do not get any priority, so we got Narayan to confirm the tickets for 6th and also book a flight for 7th early morning, this way we had a confirmed back-up flight for 7th.

More shopping, more going around Thamel followed, and we hope to sleep well and wake up early to reach the airport by 5 am, we knew we could sacrifice a lot of comfort to get to Lukla.

Day 4, as per the vehicle came to pick us up at 5 am, by the time all of us got up and were ready to leave it was 5.30 am. Keyur, Shabna & Ajit went to the hospital to get the dressing done for Keyur’s wound, I hoped they reach back on time. Maila, Sri, Subbu and me reached the airport. Weather was very clear, airport was full of life and so were the staff, I stood in front of the counter at 6.30 am, even though our actual flight was 9.00 am, requesting the staff to fly us out early, the staff were also feeling sorry for us. The lady in the counter counted some list and I knew we will fly early, in the next 10 minutes we were issued boarding pass for the early flight and we boarded AG-CHA in 15 minutes.

We all knew that till the rubber hits the Lukla runway we are still in KTM!!!!. The flight was a small 18 seater, basic aircraft like the rest. We were at the Tensing-Hillary Airport, Lukla in 24 minutes, and we were boldly delighted.

- BASECAMPer

6th - 17th Oct 08