"Everyday It's A-Gettin' Closer"

Everest Base Camp Trek

After coming back from the tedious Around Annapurna trek, we had serious doubts whether another long trek as the Everest Base Camp would fit in. It took us some time to decide, back in Kathmandu, time we spent eating like hogs, filling our empty stomaches. Lily, having read many crazy books about mountain climbers and their fatalities on the Everest, was keen to go, but we both wondered wouldn't it be better to just relax on a sunny beach instead. Goa and Andaman Islands both sounded like tempting options... Eventually, we decided not to give up to ourselves and took a plane to Lukla, the starting point for the trek.

Nepal has some of the world's greatest mountain views to which you cannot stay indifferent. The country also offers great facilities for trekkers as good guest houses and food at cheap prices. The treks are indeed long, and sometimes a bit difficult, but unlike camping treks, sleeping under a solid roof, not in tents, makes even long treks seem easier.

The flight to Lukla takes only 35 mintues, but it's quite an experience. The small plane, 17 seats only, takes you above remote Himalayan settlements and then lands dramarically onto the narrow airstrip located in the deep valley, evoking the first adrenaline rush. A hour later we unfolded our walking poles and started heading towards Base Camp.

The base camp is the last point trekkers are allowed to reach. To continue onwards, one must be a professional climber and be willing to pay $65,000 for the pleasure. Only then he may try the world's highest summit. We were told that till today more than 1000 people already made it to the top, but about 170 got killed on the way. Creepy...

As we gained altitude, our pace became slower and slower. At heights above 5000m our steps were heavier and our breath shorter. We found ourselves humming a song from "Stand By Me" that we just watched in Kathmandu, which goes like "Everyday it's a gettin' closer, goin' faster than a roller coaster...". Funny, cause we walked really slowly, but it encourged us to move on.

Nights were especially cold with sub-zero tempratures. We covered our sleeping bags with two extra blankets and still they were not warm enough, so we started using hot bottles as another heat source. The effect was tremendeous and we could then sleep pretty well. Moreover, we could use the boiled water for drinking the morning after.

We arrived at Gorak Shep, the last village, after 9 days of tedious walking. The next day we took a 6-hour round-trip to base camp in a stormy weather. It was snowing that morning as we started walking but as we approached base camp it cleared out and we could see the amazing Kumbhu Ice Fall, which killed many climbers in the past, and the crashed russian helicopter, a remanent from a 1997's accident. To our disspointment, no expeditions were present at the camp at that time. We could only witness several Sherpas (local helpers) cleaning up what was left behind.

We started the way downhill and got back to Lukla in 3 days only. Descending was much faster due to the altitude loss and our physical shape which became pretty good by then.

It is difficult to explain our feelings once returning from such a strenous trek. Back in Kathmandu we "walked on air" for few days, feeling vivid and euphoric. It was truly a rewarding trek. We were done with a strong feeling that one day we will get back to Nepal.


The Title is taken from Buddy Holly's song "Everyday" (Lyrics) which encourged us all the way up.

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