My sister flew out to Nepal so we could hike to Everest Base Camp with a group she found on the Internet. We did consider doing it independently, finding a guide in Kathmandu or Lukla and cracking on, but Nat is a lot fitter than me, I’d have held her back, and she would have probably kicked me in front of a yak train on day three.
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 1
Lukla is probably the world’s most dangerous airport. The runway is 527 metres long which is essentially two tenths of fuck all in actual real life runway terms and it slopes at a 12% gradient because if it didn’t, shit would crash. There’s no margin for error, you can’t just decide halfway through landing that…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 2
After yesterday’s relatively chilled stroll downhill, today was pretty much when we were somewhat brutally reminded that the majority of this trek would be of the upwards persuasion as we made our way from 2640 to 3440 metres. To be fair though our general pace could be described as more of a shuffle than an…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 3
It was cloudy when we rocked up to Namche Bazaar and you do kinda forget where you are when it’s cloudy then this morning we woke up to this view. Oh hello, gorgeous tiny mountain town! Namche is pretty much the last place you can get cash out, change money, or eat meat without the…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 4
Now we were all suitably acclimatised to being at altitudes our blood oxygen levels generally wouldn’t approve of we clambered back up the steps to the prayer wheel and carried on going before descending into the valley. Yep. Descending. Oh man, there are few things more soul destroying walking downwards when you know your ultimate…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 5
It’s not often you get to watch the sunrise over Mount Everest without getting out of bed. Actually I did get out of bed. I wormed my way out of my epic -20°C rented down sleeping bag, wiped the condensation off the window and once I’d picked my jaw up off the floor I pissed…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 6
I woke up this morning, wriggled partially out of my sleeping bag, pulled back the curtain and wiped at the condensation. It didn’t fucking move. The condensation was frozen in place. I braced myself and slid the rest of the way out of my bag, went in search of a toilet and met Melissa on…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 7
Everything was frozen this morning. Condensation hadn’t even bothered forming, the window was just covered in frost which I grudgingly admitted was pretty and took photos of it against the better judgment of my fingers which weren’t enjoying being outside of my mittens. People not used to using bucket flushes tend to miss a lot…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 8
This morning some of the group got up at 4.30am to try and climb Kala Patthar, the 5554 metre mountain that Gorakshep sits at the foot of. It was a two hour climb but here’s the thing; it was before breakfast. I can’t function before breakfast. But I was going to try anyway. Katherine, Sin…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 9
I woke up this morning and my immune system basically went, “Nope. Fuck you. Have some mucus.” I couldn’t even talk, my voice was trapped beneath layers of crap that I proceeded to get rid of Nepali style, hocking and spitting until I’d gotten as much of it off my chest and out of my…
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 10
A few people this morning got up early to head to a museum in the town but the thought of walking up more steps than I had to, and before food at that, made all of my muscles recoil in horror, so I politely declined in favour of breakfast. They did learn some cool stuff…
End Of The Big Adventure
That thing when you’re shovelling your breakfast into your chops, unsure as to whether you’ll be flying back to Kathmandu today or if you’ll end up spending the next 24 hours trying to find some manner of entertainment in Lukla which would more than likely involve the slow annihilation of your liver. Me and Nat…
Travel & Shit 