Everest Adventure in Two Parts - Part Do (Two)

Late in the afternoon on our seventh day on the trail we finally dragged ourselves into Gorak Shep, the last settlement on the trail up to the Mt. Everest base camp. Gorak Shep consists of three or four guest houses clustered together in a sandy valley, perhaps the former site of a glacial lake. Unlike most of the other settlements we'd passed through on the way up, this place's only purpose was catering to trekkers. Other villages support agriculture or yak-ranching or craft production, but Gorak Shep is exclusively a base for trekkers and climbers.

At 5,140m (16,864 ft) the air was ever-so thin and cold. This is how it must feel to be very old, we thought. You can never catch your breath and every step is an effort. The landscape was extreme, more so than anything I've seen outside of Antarctica. Nothing but blue sky, black rock, and snow and ice.



After an uncomfortable night in our Gorak Shep guest house, we rose early and headed up the last 3 hours of trail to the base camp itself. Surrounded by high mountains as we were, the valley was in shadow until nearly 10:30am. By that time we were trekking on the Khumbu glacier, a flow of ice descending off Mt. Everest, channeled into a stream between Nuptse and Khumbutse Mountains. About 2/3rds of the climbing trail up Mt. Everest itself is up the Khumbu ice fall, an extremely treacherous landscape of crevasses and shifting ice.

There was not much to mark the site of the base camp itself. There are no permanent buildings there, and outside of the climbing season (March-May) the only man-made structures are patches of flat stones used as tent platforms and a few crudely made stone wind barriers and roofless huts. The main attraction of the base camp is the spectacular views of the Khumbu ice fall, winding up between the mountains to the towering bulk of Mt. Everest, just out of site behind the nearer mountains (see picture above). At 5364m, the base camp is just a bit higher than Gorak Shep.



By the time we started our return journey back to Gorak Shep, the sun had finally made it above the towering mountains and into the valley. Within minutes of the sun hitting it, the dirty ice we were walking on came alive, creaking and cracking and suddenly sprouting rivulets of melt water. It was a little intimidating, and made us remember we were wandering around on a very active glacial flow.

Back at Gorak Shep we ate a quick lunch and then rolled right back out the door for our assent of Kala Pattar, a stony hill right near the village, from the top of which there is a good view of the Mt. Everest summit. Lemme tell you, this hill is *steep*. It would be a pain in the butt at sea-level, let alone at five and a half thousand meters. But our perseverance was rewarded, and as the sun started to set we stood on the top at 5,550m in a stiff wind, treated to an amazing view of the mountain, the glacier and the mountain-ringed valley at the top of the world.

Mt. Everest in the center




Mt. Everest in the center, looking a little smaller than the nearer Mt. Nuptse on the right.

After one more night at Gorak Shep (our eight night on the trail) it was time to walk down-hill for a change. We'd made such good time on the way up, we got a little ambitious and decided to take the long way home. Rather than decending the way we'd come, we only retraced our steps as far as Lobuche and then cut away to the east, following the trail over the Cho La Pass and decending the neihboring valley. So much for going downhill - the Cho La Pass tops out at 5,330m, almost as high as the base camp. Our ninth night was spent at Dzonglha, the crummiest and most expensive guest house yet, and then on the tenth day we tackled the pass. After a sharp slog up switchbacks and a 2-hour boulder scramble, we made it into the glaciated pass. This was probably the sketchiest part of the entire trail, crossing the icy and steep snow pack with nothing but one trekking pole to check my decent if I'd fallen and slid. The trail across the snow was not well marked, and we were worried about straying into areas of unstable ice.


The glacier in the Cho La pass


But we lived, and after slipping and sliding down a scree slope and dodging falling rocks on the far side, we had 2 days to make it back to Lukla to catch my flight to Kathmandu. During the day we rolled down the river valley as the terrain got greener and the air palatably thicker. On nights ten and eleven we slept at Dragnag and Mong. And finally, after an epic 12 hour hike on the twelfth day, we arrived back in Lukla a little foot sore but contented and amazed by our experiences.

Everest Adventure in Two Parts - Part Ek (One)

According to the terms of the Fulbright grant, during my year in India I'm only allowed to be out of the country for a total of three weeks. R. and I decided to use two of those weeks to travel to Nepal and attempt one of the better known treks in the world, the Mt. Everest base camp trek, in which one hikes about 60km and climbs from 2,800m at Lukla to 5,545m at the summit of Kala Pattar, a mountain near the base of Mt. Everest. It's traditionally done in about 13 days, which include two acclimation days and a straight up-and-back route.

We arrived in Kathmandu from Delhi in the morning and spent the rest of the day organizing our domestic flight to Lukla for the next morning and seeing some of the sights in the Kathmandu city center. The next morning we arrived at the airport to find chaos - it was the 4th day in a row that fog had encased the city, and for 4 days no flights had made it to Lukla. Trekkers, hippies with nappy dreads and Nepalis alike cluttered the departure lounge. We spent all day in the airport, hoping for good news, but by 3:00pm our flight had been officially canceled. The next day we were luckier, and our 6am flight finally left the ground at 9:30am. The short half-hour flight to Lukla was spectacular, with terraced hillsides to the right and views into the snow-capped Himalayas to the left. We flew low, sometimes clearing forested ridges by only a few hundred feet.

Stepping off the plane in Lukla at the Tenzing-Hillary Airport (see first picture), I was surprised at 1) how cold it was, and 2) how precipitous the landscape was. The Lukla airport clings to the side of the hill, and must be one of the more difficult landing strips to get into in the world. It kind of resembles a ski-jump. When landing, don't overshoot, or the plane will end up as a flaming smear on the hillside. While taking off, better get those engines cranked up, because if you're not flying by the time the runway ends, off the cliff you go!

Our first few days of hiking was through forested valleys, crossing back and forth over the Dudh Kosi river. We spent our first night in Phakding, our second in Namche Bazaar, and the third in Tengboche at a guesthouse near the Buddhist monastery.






Namche Bazaar through the mist


The monastery at Tengboche

As we climbed, the temperature got colder and the air thinner. Despite this, during the day the weather was gorgeous, sunny and bright and warm enough in the sun or when hiking. Night time was downright chilly however. None of the rooms in any of the guest houses where heated in any way, and in the mornings there was ice in our water bottles. Getting out of bed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night was quite an ordeal! The focal point of all the guest houses was the dining room, in which there was always a wood or yak-dung-burning stove. Every evening hikers and staff would gather around the stove to drink chai and eat dinner, creating a very convivial atmosphere. During our 13 days on the trail we met all manner of people from all over the world.


Stupa near Pangboche



Nights four, five and six were spent in Pangboche, Dingboche, and Dughla. On our fifth day, we actually hiked right past Dughla and made it another 2 hours up the trail to Lobuche. This may not have been the smartest thing, however, as we were aware that we were pushing ourselves, acclimation-wise. When we developed slight headaches, we decided to descend to Dughla for the night. Headaches are the first symptom of altitude sickness. Once you've got it, you have to descend or you are running the risk of seriously damaging yourself, requiring a helicopter evacuation or worse. We listened to our bodies very carefully for signs of altitude sickness, but even so, our accent to Gorak Shep, the settlement at the top, was a day quicker than is recommended. I chalk up our fortitude to the months we spend at altitude in Mussourie, which is at almost 2,000m and provided good preparation.


The next morning we quickly reached Lobuche again, right adjacent to the bottom of the Khumbu glacier. A quick investigation of the glacier revealed a crystaline glacial lake (picture left). We were tempted to go for a swim, but then decided against it on the grounds of 1) sketchiness and 2) flippin' freezing-ness! On we went, through the now tree-less valley, to our last stop - Gorak Shep, the final guest house on the Everest trail at a height of 5,160m. Next post - Kala Pattar and the base camp!