Home » Nepal » PART1 - Everest Base Camp - Journey to the bottom of the top of the World

Nepal has the largest altitude range of any country - 200m in the Terai up to 8850m on Everest. Over the next two weeks I'll be ascending quite a part of this as I attempt to hike to Everest Base Camp…alone, which itself is 1000m higher than the highest point in Europe. Eeek. Please forgive me for this blog being long, in 2 parts even - I felt a day-by-day account was the only way to do this trek justice, even if it means 3 reading sessions from you and 10 hour typing in Internet cafes for me (in fact, I read it through and it 'only' takes 20minutes, haha). This will be the longest they get; so anyone with a real dislike for reading (Sam), or an attention disorder (Sam) might just want to skip to the end to see if I made it, and look at the photos. After all, it's not a trek to take lightly - altitude sickness can kick in as low as 2500m, and I'll be climbing 3km above that, with a rucksack that weighs more than I would like it to, thanks to my peanut butter, chocolate and 20 packets of super-noodles; food I'm
sure will become luxuries in the wilderness. I could just not take any food and buy it all while trekking, but I estimate by 'coping' I'll save myself around $100. Bonus! Especially when the 40 minute flight to Lukla costs a whopping $190.

PART1 - Everest Base Camp - Journey to the bottom of the top of the World

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 14:04:21

Displayed times (last time: )

ice carries you back down the slippery wet path. This happened twice, to much grunting and swearing. Through the snowstorm I trudged on and on, up the seemingly endless 400m moraine, to Tengboche, and with no argument, followed the first 'lodge' sign I saw, went inside, found the central iron stove, sat down and stayed pretty much in that seat for the next 5 hours, staying warm and drying all my clothes. There's a good crowd here to keep everyone amused, though the joke man of the night is me with my dark-blue next - thanks to the running dye from my newly bought scarf in Namche, nothing some trusty wetwipes can't fix. Now things start getting 'interesting - a tough, tough day, but that only makes the end, if it comes, that little bit sweeter.

Day 5: Tengboche/Thyangboche to Pheriche (4200m)
A brief geography lesson for you. The monsoon rains over Nepal occur because during the summer, the Indian subcontinent and Tibetan Plateau heat up causing the air to ascend, and low pressure to thus generate at surface level. As a result, moisture collected over the oceans [of relatively low pressure] wants to play and swoops in dumping masses of snow on the Himalaya. This is not meant to happen until June. It's mid-April now. The snow that has fallen in the Upper Khumbu is of an amount that hasn't been seen in April since 1956, 50 years!

The same occurred in March, while last year's monsoon was relatively dry. Typical - I do pick 'em. Consequently, I left Tengboche/Thyangboche (every town has a multitude of spellings), without getting so much as a glimpse of 'one of the world's best 360o panoramics' - a slight disappointment I feel, and the walk didn't brighten the mind either. Just as tough and just as long as yesterday's, I resorted to cumbersomely walking in 2ft deep snow rather than slipping on the icy path most of the way. Furthermore, anyone who's been skiing will know the difficulty in seeing the detail of the snowy ground on an overcast day (Dad!), and as such, my bum and the snow connected on more than one occasion. Ok, you get the idea, it was bloody hard work, cold, tiring and uncomfortable.

But at 4200m, I'm here, in fact at the highest point I've ever been on land, and it's another 'rest day' tomorrow. Altitude-wise, I'm feeling good. I have an open-ended ticket, so if it takes a month to acclimatize, a month I can have. A slightly mild headache, a more restless sleep, and a higher tendency to fart - but I've been assured by the doctors at the Health Clinic here in Pheriche, this is all perfectly normal (and they've pretty much written the book on AMS). They had an informative presentation in a warmer 'sun room' (temptation enough to stay and listen), covering everything altitude related including the use of Viagra to treat HAPE! I wonder how many trekers have tried faking the symptoms?... I also volunteered to have my oxygen level measured (I feel groovy), and to partake in a study on the effect of altitude on brain swelling (don't get any ideas), by applying ultrasound through my eyes. Well, gives the day some variety I suppose.

CLICK 'NEXT BLOG' AT THE TOP TO READ THE FINAL 9 DAYS, WHICH IN TOTAL IS SHORTER THAN THIS BLOG :D haha - some people will think I don't have a life typing all this...