EBC - Day 9: Base Camp - Finally!

Day 9: Goruk Shep and Everest Base Camp (5364m / 17,500 feet)

To butcher the classic Etta James song goes... "at last... the top of the mountain has come along..."



NOTE: In the interests of family harmony, I should say that I meant it to say Mom AND Dad, but ran out of room. Sorry Dad! :)

Ya know - we never really figured that this day would come... we'd been hiking for about a week and a half now, that it just became sort of a routine. Wake up early, go for a long stunningly pretty walk, grab some variant of mo-mo's, soup, and rice, then bed...

Now that THE day was here - it was a bit difficult to wrap my head around it.

We had a bit of a surprise during the night - well, two actually. First, there was a dusting of snow that highlighted how lucky we were that the weather was cooperating. With the monsoon season about to start, we'd been very lucky to have only one day of rain, and anything significant at this point might close off the trails entirely.

The second was pretty random - as we all came out of our rooms in the morning, one of our guys had a surprise guest. Alas, no, no - not an attractive blond with conveniently loose morals. Nope, turns out there was a well-kept stray dog that somehow got into his room during the night looking for warmth.

So, a little nervous, we hit the trail. At this altitude, we had moved into an alpine desert - with lots and lots of rocks, and that's about it.

After our first major climb, we had a funny guest - the dog from last night turned up. We ended up calling him "Base Camp Dog" ended up following an American family (with three kids aged 10 to 15) all the way up from Lukla. He had a pretty good life - following a group up and down the trail, crashing in whatever cozy lodge was available and mooching food from trekkers as he went. He'd be a constant companion all the rest of the way:


The trail was (surprise, surprise) a bit steep again...


...with tiny glacial lakes and a bunch of waterfalls all about:



But finally... finally, we reached our last stop - Goruk Shep:


A quick bite to eat and then we were off - making the final stretch to Base Camp, which was about a 3 hour round trip hike away.

Now - EBC can be a bit of let down in the looks department. Basically, it's just a seriously rocky plain at the base of a massive icefall, where up to 500 climbers stay for up to 6 weeks getting used to the altitude, before moving on to the next stages of the Everest ascent. Even the mountain itself is pretty hidden by clouds, so there's very little to mark the place as special beyond just 'knowing' that you're at your final destination, especially since we were at the end of the climbing season and all of the expeditions had packed up for home.

So, we needed to mark the occasion with something a bit more unique than a group photo. What to do... what to do...


...turns out my well-travelled frisbee made an appearance, for the world's first frisbee throwaround at 17,500 feet. Some Brits had come up awhile back to play a game of cricket, and there were the rugby guys as well - but to our knowledge, we were the first frisbee geeks. :)

The trip back down went much faster - we even encountered Base Camp Dog again, just moseying up along after a nice Danish girl.

Plus, we had to do the standard photo op at the battered sign pointing the way up to Base Camp...


... and it was time to roll back to the lodge for a well-deserved dinner, to rest up for the early morning ascent on Kala Pathar - the nearby 'hill' looming over Goruk Shep that held the promise of unparalleled views of the whole Everest range. *sigh* Weather permitting. o' course!

EBC Days 7 & 8: Tukla and Luboche

Day 7 and 8 (Tukla and Lubuche - 4520m / 4910m)


Leaving Pheriche, we were heading into our penultimate leg of the ascent - and had to make some adjustments. The rain a few days back dumped a bunch of snow up high, and blocked the Cholo Pass. So instead of going up to Gokyo peak, and then over to Goruk Shep, we decided to just make a straight up and back trip up to EBC.

No problem - that made sense. However, I did get a little irritated at the next change. One of our group was feeling pretty bad from altitude sickness, which is understandable - it tends to be more of a genetic thing than a mark of any lack of fitness.

However, the #1 tip for preventing AMS is water, water, water... and drinking yet more water. She didn't follow this advice, as that would mean a bunch of pee stops in the bushes. Fair enough, but she now had to pay the price, with a really bad headache and nausea.

Because of this, Dawa decided to have us stop after a mere 2 hour hike to Tugla, wasting an extra day. We passed through the flat valley...

...and then up a slope and across a strong river via a not-so strong plywood bridge. Yikes.


It did work out for the best though - at Tugla we ended up meeting Stacy and John, two Yanks (NY/London and Hawaii) who were a lot of fun to hang out with. They joined us on our (you guessed it) afternoon acclimatization hike up the last slope. In yet another sign of a small world, she lives in South Kensington of all places and it was a bit odd, to be talking to Stacy about our lives in London, favorite pubs, etc. thousands of miles away.

The evening was pretty fun, especially where we tried to teach Yahtzee and Liar's Dice in basic English to some porters and guides. One porter in particular didn't really get the concept - and would continually up the bids into the realm of the ridiculous. He was roundly heckled by his buddies though - and it was still smiles all around.

The next day was an easy hike back up the last major climb - taking us past a number of rock memorials for lost climbers, including Scott Fisher (famous from Krakauer's Into Thin Air):


The Sherpas made their own row of memorials along a ridge - one for each Sherpa lost going up Everest. As you can see, there's enough of them. Sure, the mortality rate has decreased in recent years, but anywhere from 10% up to the 90's to 3% of all climbers in 2006 end up dying each year. Nuts.

Again, in the afternoon, we took another acclimitization hike - with John and I climbing a ridge to get our first view of EBC far in the distance, as well as a large glacier that seemed poised, half-ready to just crash down on the rest of the valley.


We went to bed super excited - because after such a long trek, tomorrow would be the day for our attempt at Everest Base Camp... weather, fate, and sore muscles permitting...