Everest Base Camp & Gokyo Lake

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16 day hike, been to Everest Base Camp, Kalipatar, Cholo Pass, Gokyo Lake, Gokyo Ri...check check check. Longest hike I’ve done yet but definitely the most amazing. You haven't hiked until you've hiked the Himalayas.

The hike was done through a local tourist agency we found through our hostel here in Nepal. Turns out we got one of the best trips for the best price. I was really impressed.

The trip starts when you leave Kathmandu and take the twin prop plane to Lukla. This was one of the most interesting plane rides of my life and wasn't for the faint hearted. We were the first plane to leave in the morning. We take a bus out to the plane- which is very worn out on the inside but seems to operate ok. We all get on and Jason and I got the first two seats. We were thinking.. score! Well the pilots start the plane and start moving. I look ahead and I’m sure they can't see out the window for the condensation. Then I see one of the pilots use a Kleenex to wipe off the windshields. It's at this point when I’m thinking I’d prefer not to see the cockpit. We take off and the rest of the flight is pretty cool. At some points we're flying within a 100 feet of a mountain. Then as we approach Lukla we go up and over this mountain then almost nose dive down towards the airport. It's not the descent that makes you nervous though...it's the landing strip, which appears to be 1/3 of the length it should be. The runway is on a hill and they use the hill to be able to stop quicker and take off sooner. We landed without a hitch- phew! This is a reassurance as apparently there was a crash at this airport this year which killed 16 people.

The same day we arrive we meet our guide and start the hike. The hike starts out fairly easy and we get to go through many villages seeing all the locals. Immediately we are astonished by the local porters who carry the alarmingly large loads. I tried lifting one and I had had a neck ache for 2 days.

That night we get to our first guesthouse and unfortunately I have gotten sick. I ate something bad in Kathmandu and was very ill. The next day we could only go 2 hours which put us behind. I recovered quickly but due to the illness we were unable to take the scheduled rest day in Namche to acclimatize to the altitude. Thank- god for the altitude pills, we took these to help us adapt quicker. The next couple of days we slowly made our way up into the altitude. It was a frustrating accent as is with mountains as we were constantly hitting down hills along with the ups. At the end of most days we would also do a short hike up a local mountain to acclimatize to the new altitude and take in the new sights.

The tea houses where we stayed started getting smaller and we started to meet the same people from stop to stop. At one of the earlier stops we met a group of Canadians from Whistler, Ben, Angela and Walter. We ended up on the same route and completed many of the day hikes together. By the end our two groups had almost amalgamated into one. Our tour guides, who were from different companies, were even working together.

The first main stop was Gokyo, this was also our first "rest day." At Gokyo during our rest day we had some pretty amazing views. On our rest day we climbed up for sunrise (4am start up a two our climb- straight up!), where we had an amazing view of Everest and the surrounding mountains. We went back down to Gokyo then went out to fifth lake and the view point to get another prospective of Mt. Everest.

After Gokyo I was getting nervous. The next big feat was Cholo pass. In order to complete cholo pass in the one day we did a quick hike over to the base of the pass where we spent Halloween night, getting ready- mentally only. For Halloween we tried to do a dress up but we could only use what we had in our backpacks. We had varying costumes from a super hero (me) to a pregnant person, to a moose.

It snowed that day and night, which all of the guides were nervous about...which didn't make me feel any better. Cholo pass is not safe to complete if there is too much snow or if there is no visibility. Luckily in the morning the skies were clear but we had to do the pass in a foot of snow instead of none...if only we were a day earlier. The pass was defiantly the hardest thing I have ever done. The difficulty was amplified by the snow. We had to cross this boulder field right before the major uphill. The boulders all had the fresh snow on it which made them lethal to cross. I fell at the beginning and had a VERY close call. I still have the big bruise today from that fall. After successfully crossing the boulder field we had to make the steep ascent up to the top of the pass. Looking up you'd think that there has to be an easier way around as it looks almost impassable. After this day was complete we were all so tired that we could barely complete a conversation. Although somehow we decided that the next day we were going to do the big push and head on to Gorakship, the town where you get to base camp and Kalipatar from.

Kalipatar is 5500 m tall; walking on flat ground starts to wind you, and is a two hour uphill climb from Gorakship. We went for sunset and had an amazing view! We saw Everest and the paramount mountain! We also went to Base camp that day. Base camp was a neat experience. I can't imagine where you would set up a tent. It was so rocky! I think I want to climb Mt. Everest someday though now. I have heard so many amazing stories. Clearly I would need to do a lot of training before that was possible.

From here it was just the downward trek. Which we were grateful for as the high altitude brought very cold temperatures. On our way down a 5 day festival had started and we had good timing of being able to see many local dance shows in the villages on our way down. In Lukla on our last day this festival was still on. The locals were partying and dancing in the street. Jason and I had gone over to observe and they had pulled us in and insisted that we joined in the dancing and singing. It was a very neat experience.

We are now back in Kathmandu. Jason and I have had a rest day and tomorrow we are heading off to go Canyoning. We will be Canyoning only 16km south of Tibet, which is kind of neat. 2 of the people we met on the Trek, Ben and Ang will be going on this trip as well. It should be an adventure!

I'm shocked at how fast time is moving. I can't believe that in less than two weeks I will be a married woman. I can't even imagine Mexico right now as it will be so very different from how I’m living, I mean in Gorakship the toilet froze- and it's an indoor toilet. Will update again soon!

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