Hike to Everest Base Camp

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Its now been a few months since I was at Base Camp but due to popular demand ive decided to type some parts of my diary and my experiences at Base Camp.

We started walking on 30th March 2008. A rather scary flight (pretty close to the surronding mountains at times and a bit jumpy during the flight!) took us to Lukla and we began walking Kellie, myself, Jim and our guide Dawa. The first day was quite short but good to get to know each others paces (mine and Kellies is a lot faster then Jims!) We spent the night in Phading and met some very interesting trekers: Johnny the fireman from Las Vegas who loved to talk politics, Darshan the French Canadian guy, Stefan the funny Swiss guy, Giles English guy who works on Milford Track in NZ and Peter the Welsh horse farmer living in Andora.

Following day we did a lot of uphill walking - luckily my guiding on the Routeburn track well prepared me for this. Kellie and I were well ahead of Jim, Dawa and our new friends but we still had the odd chat. Kellie is very friendly- she is a guide on the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire and has many interesting stories and a good sense of humour.

I felt rather sorry for our porters and the porters we saw along the way. Such heavy loads and them being quite small people. Awful thing is that some of them dont even have proper shoes! Lovely friendly people though always smiling and singing.

We spent 2 nights in Namche Bazaar (3480m high) to aclimitise. Namche Bazaar is a small village with lots of small shops selling tramping gear, and lots of scarfs and trinkets. On our alimitisation day we went for a walk up to a museum and viewpoint of Everest. Bit cloudy and no Everest but the museum was interesting. Although the walk was only half an hour it felt difficult and long. Our breathing was shorter and felt puffed easily.

I spent the afternoon buying a scarf for my sister and posting some postcards. I also exchanged my hideously massive down jacket for a nice one that fits me properly 😊

Next stop was Tengboche at 3870m. Really beginning to feel the altitude - breathless and easily tired. Ive started taking diamox but its really annoying and makes you want to pee alot! We visited the Tengboche Monestry were Ming Ma the lovely monk there was so helpful and enthuisatic telling us about Buddha. Loved the fact I was a Kiwi - Nepalese are very proud of Sir Edmond Hilliary.

Following Tengboche we walked to Dingboch 4260m. Getting colder but walking wasnt as difficult as previous days. I ate steamed momos (kind of like dumplings) and my new favourite food!

Lots of yaks on the track - so fluffy and cute. I like yaks!
And amazing scenery - I took so many pictures. You get to walk through forests, beside streams, on the sides of mountains...

We had 2 nights at Dingboche and then had a massive day of walking. Usually people stop in Dugla or Lobuje but we continued onto Gorak Shep only a few hours from Base Camp and 5160m high. I had a massive headache towards the end of that day, was absolutly exhausted and very breathless. I called my sister and she was worrying so much about my breathing!

Jim decided to have 2 more rest nights in Gorak Shep but Kellie and I had had enough so continued onto Base Camp. Finally made it - 5th April 08 😊 And what a place. Its really not meant her humans to live here - its really just lots of rocks on a glacier. We are lucky - our camp is at the far side of Base Camp and away from all the people. You have to be so carefull walking around - crevices and loose rocks to watch our for. Our camp site has a dining tent, kitchen tent, communication tent for our NASA research, toilet tent, and of course tents for us, the climbers and the Sherpas. Going to be a fun time...

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