Reaching Everest Base Camp - October 7th, 2010

Mt. Everest Base Camp (5360m) –

October 7, 2010

“… if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to this challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that this struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.”

- Gregory Leigh Mallory

Everest Base Camp. Getting there is something that is difficult, strenuous and, above all, rewarding. Most that choose to venture to Base Camp to do so because it is a huge feat that only the strong and committed can achieve. Since the ultimate feat of summiting the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest, proves an almost impossible, extremely dangerous and expensive task, most people settle for something that will result in a similar sense of achievement for a lower cost – Everest Base Camp. Why do people do this? Why do people book weeks off work, hike for eleven days through snow and rock, put their body through hell, and climb and climb to only reach an empty, dirty and desolate place called Base Camp? Because it is in adventure. Because it is something that not everyone can do. Because the scenery is breathtaking. Because it is their life-time goal. Because you get to see a unique side of a beautiful country. Because the adventure is just sheer joy.

To climb to Everest Base Camp there are a few things one must do to prepare, the main step of which is to figure out how to get there. Many people opt to do the trip the easier and less stressful way and book with a tour. The tour includes two or three guides, several porters and a fully mapped out step-by-step route. The industry for such tours is huge. Thousands of people flock to Kathmandu each year in hopes of achieving their Base Camp goal in this way. A tour is easy – they arrange your accommodations and food, carry all your gear, lead you by the hand up the well-beaten path, and stay with you if you fall behind. It is the easy way to get to Base Camp. It was not the way Ali and I wanted to get there. Our original plan was to hike up most of the way without a guide or a group or any help at all. We figured maybe we would hire a guide partway up, when the air got thin and we wanted someone else there in case things went wrong. This was our plan the whole time – until we flew into Lukla, got our bags and realized we were not well prepared, that there we no signs marking the way, and that we really had no idea where to go. Thus, in Lukla, we hired a guide. In the end it was just the three of us – Ali, our guide (Yjamjo), and me. We didn’t hire a porter to carry our gear (we each carried our own 45L pack) and we didn’t go in a big group. We did it this way so we could do what we wanted and make the experience less touristy and more natural. It was just a more “us” way to do it.

In total the trek to Base Camp takes anywhere from 8 to 16 days (there and back, Lukla to Base Camp). Our trek took 11 days (for a more detailed outline of the trip, see additional post). For anyone attempting it, I would not recommend trying to complete it in anything less than 11 days. People who do this trek in less than 11 days do not spend the proper amount of time acclimatizing or more often than not are unable to reach Base Camp all at because they have ascended too quickly. A quick ascent can result in a myriad of problems for a climber. Low oxygen levels can leave one feeling tired, result in severe headaches, dizziness, and in extreme cases can result in nausea and vomiting. At this point a person would need to be evacuated quickly and returned to a lower altitude as soon as possible. Altitude sickness is not a rare occurrence. When we were up there several people had to be evacuated and many people in our lodges were suffering from altitude sickness in various extremes. Sometimes you can get altitude sickness even when you take all the necessary steps to acclimitize, but more often than not it is due to people rushing the ascent. Luckily for us, we took the time to properly acclimatize and as a result we did not have any huge issues with altitude sickness and we were able to achieve our goal of reaching Base Camp.

October 7^th 2010 was the day we finally reached Everest Base Camp. The night before was spent in the small town of Lebouche. We rose very early the morning of the 7^th as we had a big day ahead of us and needed an early start to reach base camp in time. We got up at 5:00am, ate a quick breakfast of eggs and tibetan bread, and then headed on our way. The first stop was to be in Gorak Shep about a 3-hour hike away. Gorak Shep is the final village before Base Camp and was to be the place we would sleep that night. The morning climb was fairly easy with only a few sections that were steep and rocky. We arrived in Gorak Shep around 9:30am, dropped off our bags in our room, ate some food, and then departed for Base Camp. The final stretch was relatively easy in terms of the terrain. The path weaved between boulders and was fairly thin. There were some ups and downs but there we no huge hills to conquer. The path was located to the left-side of the Khumbu Glacier, about 50m above it. Looking down one could see ice, snow, and deep blue crevasses. In some sections, the ice had parted ways to reveal some of the icy water that ran beneath the glacier. Looking up on both sides one could see mountains. From where we walked Everest itself was obscured from view behind Lhotse, but the rest of the mountains were visible and they loomed above us as we climbed higher and higher. At several points along the 3-hour walk, we would hear rumbling and look up to see a huge avalanche on the side of a mountain. Or, we would look up just in time to see part of the Khumbu glacier break off and flow down the river below.

At about 1:00pm that afternoon we reached the “Old Everest Base Camp”. This was the original location of Base Camp years ago. Many people only climb to this Base Camp and not the actual current one, and then return down because of the altitude. The current Base Camp is a little higher in altitude and is situated a little closer to Everest itself. At the old Base Camp all that is left is rocks, prayer flags and a couple small stupas. Ali and I spent about 15 minutes snapping photos and catching our breath. Soon we continued on our way. Thirty minutes later we arrived at Everest Base Camp!

I think that when most people think of Base Camp they picture this huge area, full of tents and people, a place bustling with life even though it is so high. Maybe people may even picture small buildings or huts. And of course, many think the best views of Everest must be from here. Unfortunately, all of these things do not exist at base camp in real life. Base Camp is actually a desolate, empty, cold place with very little to see or do. There is no real reason to stay at Base Camp for very long, and all hikers return to Gorak Shep shortly after arriving.

Everest Base Camp is located on top of the Khumbu Glacier. The ground is thus bits of small rocks, little dirt and mostly ice. On October 7^th 2010, there was no one actually staying at Base Camp. Two teams of tents were there (one team going to Everest, the other to Lhotse), but both teams had moved up the mountains and all the tents were empty. Until recently, Base Camp was covered in garbage. People staying there would leave their garbage instead of packing it out and thus it would just accumulate and accumulate. Because it is so high in altitude garbage takes years upon years to decompose. In the last decade environmentalists have really been pushing to clean up Base Camp and as a result there is far less garbage there than I was expecting. Another shock is that views from Base Camp are actually not the greatest. You cannot see Everest at all from Base Camp. Instead you can see the Khumbu icefall (one of the most difficult areas to ascend if you are going to summit Everest) as well as other surrounding mountains. Base Camp is very near to the Tibet border, so it was interesting to see some mountains that were in Nepal and some that were in Tibet. So, to conclude, all you really experience at Base Camp is a barren icy place with some tents, some garbage, some prayer flags, some small stupas and not a lot of people.

In total we spent about 40 minutes at Base Camp. We grabbed some soil and rocks as souvenirs, took some pictures and videos, and ate some snacks. We then said goodbye to Base Camp because we were cold and the low oxygen was starting to get to us, and we began our descent back to Gorak Shep.

By 3:00pm we were back in our lodge, happy that we had achieved our goal of reaching Mt. Everest Base Camp and excited for our next challenge the following morning: summitting Kala Patthar!