This report is about the tour: Everest Base Camp Trek 🗓 October 2019
Why do people go to the mountains? What about the highest mountains on the planet? I don’t understand how I came up with the idea of visiting Everest Base Camp. After all, I am an ordinary person, not a climber. I also don’t have an irresistible desire to climb unknown peaks, tick the “this height has been taken” box, backing it all up with a couple of photos. However, I am in Nepal. And on the way to Base Camp Everest.
Why? There probably comes a time in everyone’s life when you don’t understand where you’re going, whether you’re following the right guidelines, and whether your path has reached a dead end? Haven’t you wasted yourself on those who don’t care about you, who too willingly accepted a lot from you, but alas, were not at all ready to give... Haven’t you become a hostage to your work, obligations; Did your responsibility obscure your “I” to such an extent that you stopped hearing your desires?
Or you want to drown out the mental pain, so strong that all the difficulties of the campaign seem insignificant and are accepted as a desired medicine. Everest seemed quite suitable to me.
Difficulties began almost immediately.
Late departure around 1 am from Kathmandu (and this is right after a long flight and a sleepless night!), a nightmare road along the mountain serpentine road to Ramechap, flight to Lukla, landing on that famous 500-meter strip that is over the abyss! But what fabulous views!!!
Mandatory repacking of things (extra load is carried by Sherpas, 1 dollar per 1 kg + tip) and off to the start.
The track has begun.
Cold. You go just to warm up. And gradually the amazing beauty of the Himalayas penetrates your soul. These mountains are like nothing else. And at the same time, you constantly note the similarities either with the Carpathians (what is not our smereki!), or with the Crimea. And it no longer seems that you are 5,000 km from home, because you see something dear and close.
Our most important task is proper acclimatization. We go up long and slowly, stretching it for 9 days. The first night in a wonderful place: a waterfall, mountains around, a river of amazing blue... A room with a toilet and a shower (I was pleased), but without heating. It's only warm in the kitchen. We don't cook; we order food from our guest house. We eat like slaughter, three times a day, plus snacks at rest stops. The menu in the guesthouses is decent: rice, potato dishes, various soups, spaghetti. My favorites were dal baht (rice with various seasonings + lentil soup), mo-mo (similar to our dumplings with various fillings), sherpa styu soup (vegetables, pasta, potatoes), spaghetti and local Tibetan bread. The higher the prices in the mountains, the more expensive. For comparison: 1 liter of water at the beginning of the trek costs 50 rupees, at an altitude of 5000 m it is already 400, a liter of boiling water is the same. Food costs 350-400 rupees per dish at the beginning, 700-1200 rupees later. 1 dollar - 111 rupees at the exchange rate. According to my calculations, about $40 a day was spent on food and water.
We get up early, have breakfast at 6.30, and hit the road at 8.00. We often arrive at our overnight stay around 4 p.m. and still have time to go to the radial trail (climb to an even higher altitude, then descend for the night).
While the height of 3000 m is walking and breathing easily and freely, the landscapes around are closely studied and photographed.
I liked Namche (the unofficial capital of the Sherpas) right away. Although the climb to this village is by no means easy! Endless steps up, at every turn of the path you hope for a flat platform, but instead there is another steep climb, followed by another... And when you are completely exhausted, a village suddenly appears and you get a second wind.
In the morning again to the radio. Our goal is a restaurant with a gorgeous terrace and a view of Everest (about 3800 m), with insanely expensive coffee. Well, and a Yeti scalp along the way. And this is where you first begin to feel the lack of oxygen during a sharp climb up the mountain. You breathe like an experienced asthmatic, your legs don’t obey at all, your body doesn’t want to climb anywhere. Plus it gets dark in the eyes with sudden movements. And what optimism is added by our instructor’s stories about tourists who were called for a helicopter from Namche! Altitude sickness is serious. Everyone has their own symptoms, there is only one cure - down. There is no other. The main thing is to be on time.
I decided for myself: no helicopter! I started taking the recommended medications right here. The whole morning and evening ritual worked out. 6-8 tablets in the morning, 2-3 at lunch, and 6-7 at night. But I got there. Here for the first time we walked onto a beautiful path and saw Everest. What can I say? Not the most beautiful mountain. Ordinary. A very powerful, massive, solid pyramid. There are handsome men standing next to her! I just fell in love with Ama Dablam!
In this radial cell for the first time I felt unwell; so much so that the instructor took me off the path to the next hill and lowered me down, accompanied by a Sherpa, even though I proved that I could walk on my own.
The next day I just had time to close my mouth in admiration. On this day we overcame a 600-meter climb. I only remember how we walked along it for an endlessly long time. I was blown away already on the way back, when I was going down. How was I even able to climb it?! With difficulty we crawled to Tengboche. Lord, I have never seen such beauty in my life!
We got to serve in the famous monastery. Again we climbed up numerous steps. And why do they rank monasteries so highly? It’s cold, the monks are chanting some mantras. The people around are enlightened. I'm surprised. I didn’t get into Buddhism, no way. The guys, however, were inspired by the meditation that took place. Well, to each his own.
The most beautiful day. And a hike to the Ama Dablam base camp. It's hard to believe that all this is real. Already at an altitude of 4500 m. While everyone is alive and well, they are walking. In the basic one you really start to feel the cold.
And again a beautiful, relaxed route surrounded by mountains of fabulous beauty. And crowds of tourists on the trail, like on a holiday on Khreshchatyk. Queues, traffic jams... Not the Himalayas - just an oriental bazaar. There is not enough oxygen for everyone, they crawl as best they can.
The relief is gradually changing: instead of green pines, stones appear more and more often.
The road from Dingboche to Lobuche is smooth and beautiful, except for the steep and long monotonous climb. He was the hardest for me. My strength was running low and I had to stop every few meters to catch my breath. My heart was just jumping out of my chest, my pulse was frantic. I tried not to even look up, I just crawled stupidly. One step, another, again... I came to my senses when Kirill, our instructor, stopped me: “Are you going too far? We've got a rest stop."
I no longer allowed myself to relax: I had to get there.
It’s strange, but I didn’t have a headache, like most guys, and my appetite was also normal. I felt great. While she stood in one place. As soon as I had to move, I got the impression that 16-kilogram weights were tied to my legs, my heart was generally unclear where it pumped blood, my pulse was 100 at rest; It’s scary to think what he’s like when he walks, his lungs are just burning.
Lobuche. 4930 m. There was no longer enough strength for the radial. In addition, I carelessly did not insulate myself (the temperature had already dropped below zero), for which I paid. Halfway up the mountain, I started to pound so much that I had to urgently go down and warm up. I climbed into my sleeping bag and pulled on everything I could; I began to admire the formidable beauty of the cold mountains right from the window. The main thing is not to fall asleep. At best, you'll wake up with guaranteed altitude sickness.
I don’t remember how we went to the Everest base camp. This part of the path is like in a fog. Yes, of course, we were in the village of Gorak Shep (5170 m), spent the night here, climbed Kala Pattar...
Cold, endless cold... The body has to be constantly persuaded to take another step... Such indifference has set in that you don’t want anything at all. With your eyes you take in the beauty of the Khumbu glacier along which you are walking, your brain notes the scale and impressiveness of what you see, even in poor visibility, like ours. And I don’t have enough strength to admire what I see. The road is constantly jumping up and down; Both the ascent and the descent do not cause any emotions. You're just crawling. Although in a normal situation such a beautiful path would cause extraordinary delight.
You can’t stop either: the next minute you’ll sit down on the nearest pebble and start crying. Feel sorry for yourself, poor thing. And why did you get stuck? Who knew it would be so bad at altitude? I bargain with my body and explain to it that it has no choice: we definitely won’t spend the night on a rock, it’s cold to sit on a rock. There is only one thing left to do - go. And she promised to bring stones from Everest. So please do it.
For the fact that I finally visited the basic one, I want to thank Kirill, the instructor. The last part of the way he just walked very slowly behind me (you can’t walk along the ridge together). He didn’t say anything, but I just felt his support with my skin (if I can say so, given that I’m dressed like a cabbage in a bunch of layers); as if he was sharing his energy so that she could get there.
The camp is currently closed, there are no climbs; there is only a volunteer tent with hot drinks, cheap, by the way! Tea, coffee for 100 rupees. Well, and a lot of tourists, naturally. Who was able to get there?
It's beautiful here! The glacier is incomparable, this is understandable even with such poor visibility as ours. And the stones are beautiful! I was so carried away by collecting them that I forgot about both fatigue and the miner)
It's time to head back. The road back will be easy. For some reason it is very easy to go down, where does the strength come from?
Everyone has their own Everest. Mine is passed. What's next?
Evgenia Yatsychenko