Blogs from Gorak Shep, Nepal, Asia

As we trekked deeper and deeper into the heart of the Himalayas, up above the snow line to a barren land of ice and snow where temperatures plummeted to minus 20, the views grew ever dramatic and breathing and trekking became ever more difficult due to the lack of oxygen in the air. Our itinerary was as follows: Day 12 - Namche Bazaar to Tengboche (6 hours - 350m descent 750m ascent) Day 13 - Acclimatization day at Tengboche Day 14 (Chris's Birthday) - Tengboche to Pheriche (6 hours - 70m descent 450m ascent) Day 15 - Acclimatization day at Pheriche Day 16 - Pheriche to Leboche (5.5 hours - 700m ascent) Day 17 - Leboche to Gorak Shep (2.5 hours - 250m ascent) including trek to Mount Everest Base Camp (4 hours - 5364m) Day ... read more

Day 6 - Goyem to Junbesi The storm finished at first light, just after 5 am. Neither of us slept particularly well and so we had a couple of hours extra in bed and finally left Goyam around 9. The cloud was still hanging around and it made the morning pretty cold, we reached the pass over the mountain ridge at around 11am and had our first glimpses of the peaks of the Himalayas. The snowy peaks poking over the cloudline to give us a view of what was to come. Coming down the ridge we passed through thick forest, and eventually found a place to have lunch. Our Dutch friend, Gert, was already there and we decided after lunch that we'd all walk down to Junbesi together, though he's normally a bit slower than us, ... read more

Day 11 - Lukla to Jorsale The plan was to get to Namche Bazaar today. But five hours into the day, it all fell apart. Neither of us were completely recovered from yesterday, and a few towns from Namche we had some lunch and decided we'd get to the last town and get to the next town and make te climb in the morning. At our lunch stop we saw the local news and that there were riots in Kathmandu, it looked pretty violent and we were glad to be in the mountains away from it all. Day 12 - Jorsale to Namche Bazaar Finally we made it to Namche, the Sherpa Capital ad once a part of Tibet. In reality it is a soulless place that is making a tourist dollar as much as La ... read more

Day 16 - Deboche to Shomare and back to Pangboche We left just before 9. A relatively easy day planned that take us just over the 4,000metre mark. Rhi felt better so we set off. By Pangboche (3,890) though, Rhi was starting to get headaches gain. We carried on as far as Shomare and had lunch there, but Rhi's breathing was extremely laboured and the headache wouldn't budge. So we came back down to Pangboche which is about halfway between Deboche and Shomare. We're starting to worry that if the AMS doesn't pass soon we'll run out of time, money or both, so for now, we're just hoping it'll click into place. Day 17 - Pangboche Rhi is still feeling bad and the headache was still there this morning so we wait another day. The owner ... read more

Day 8- Lobuche to Gorak Shep (5140m) to Everest Base Camp (5364m) We got up at a very unsociable time at 5:15am as there way a long day ahead of us. A quick breakfast before departure but were surprised when we went to brush our teeth that there was no water coming from the taps as the pipes had frozen solid. It was still -10 when we set off as the sun had yet to rise. We broke out the recently acquired down jackets and bundled up for a very cold start to the day. I'd left a litre bottle of water outside overnight as a test and sure enough upon examination it was completely solid. After a few minutes walking my fingers and toes were starting to get pretty cold and it wasn't long before ... read more

Fortuna war uns wieder hold: Als wir aufwachten und die beschlagene Fensterscheibe mit dem unsaeglich haesslichen Vorhang saubergewischt hatten, leuchtete uns ueber dem maechtigen Nuptse (7861 Meter) der Gipfel des Everest entgegen. Mit Kokosnusskeksen, Wasser und Diamox bewaffnet und gestaerkt durch ein schmackhaftes Porridge (Hindi verweigert diese Nahrung) starteten wir bei strahlendem Sonnenschein unsere "Expedition" zum Everest Base Camp. Das Base Camp in Nepal ist kein fixer Ort, sondern ein Gebiet suedlich des Everest auf dem Khumbu-Gletscher. Der Pfad fuehrt von Gorak Shep (5180 Meter) durch eine Senke mit feinem weissen Sand vorbei am wohl am hoechsten gelegenen Volleyball-Feld der Welt. Anschliessend wird die Route haariger; wir gingen zunaechst der Gletschermoraene entlang und sollten dann oestlich auf den Gletscher abbiegen. Hier begann das Problem: Da sich der Khumbu ste... read more

Firstly, apologies for more blogs so soon, but I'm off again in 3 days time, and so want to get this done before I disappear. Feel free to ignore them :) So Gorak Shep (5100m) is a grotty little place which I would never dream of going to if it weren't for its spectacular location. Right next to the Western face of Nuptse - truly one of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. What this place is famous for is the small hill behind town (Kala Pattar, 5500 metres) - from where you get killer views of Everest - including Base Camp, the South Col, the Khumbu Ice Fall and of course the summit. A semi-interesting fact is that at 5500 metres there's only 50% the amount of oxygen that you get at sea level. ... read more