Better Late Than Never - Our Blog About Everest Base Camp (and Some Porter Nonsense)

Its now been just about a month since we got back from our trek to Everest base camp. Since then we've done alot of things and been alot of places, but if I close my eyes I can still feel the cold winds up on the rocks and the satisfaction of sitting down on the Khumbu glacier, at the site of Everest base camp, with Matt and our fellow trekkers after 10 hard days of walking. Most of the walking, as Matt had wrote about, was through green valleys, rocky river beds, and mountain edges with stunning views of the Everest range in the Himalayas. Some of it was difficult uphill hiking (locally called "Nepali flat"), some of it was steep downhill that makes your knees ache, and a tiny bit of it was flat. (what I call "actually flat") Whatever we were doing for the first 8 days was in beautiful terrain, with a relaxed timeframe, with plenty of water and photography breaks. Other than a group-wide pandemic of a sinus plague (complete with hacking coughs AND runny noses), the trek was enjoyably doable. I even thought to myself at one point "this is pretty easy. why do people think this is so hard"?

As most things history have told us, dont EVER say things like this until you finish the task at hand.

The morning broke on Day 9 of the trek. The day's hike included about 4-5 hours of hiking from Dingboche (4280m) to Lobuche (4939m). One of the two most difficult parts of the trek was on this leg (The Thukla Pass) but that part was only 45 mins of the walk. The journey began on a really cold and windy morning. Oh yes, foreshadowing.


As our hike progressed, the team started to feel the altitude more and more. My Canadian friend Christina nearly coughed out a lung on the way through the riverbed, and I began to feel an exhaustion through my body like nothing I've ever experienced. It was getting harder to take deep breaths and harder to move our legs from step to step. After 2 hours of gradual movement, we reached the bottom of the pass and a water break.

It was nice to take a rest, that is until one of our guides came running to us with bad news. After setting out on the same walk at 6am in hopes of securing rooms in Lobuche, he ran all the way back to meet us on the trail and to let us know there was no vacancy in Lobuche. Great. So now the choice was a) Stay in the water break town over night. A 3 hour day, leaving us with an extra 3 hours on top of an 8 hour day for tomorrow. Or b) eat an early lunch and hike clear through to Gorak Shep, the last stop before EBC, a mere 6 hours away. Upon hearing the choices, my body collapsed in a heap on a rock. My choice was either a 3 hour and 11 hour day or a 9 hour and 8 hour day. Both vile choices at the time. With both body and mind contesting, we decided to hike through the Gorak Shep that day. After being force fed a few potatoes by Matt, I started up the pass with the team, through another riverbed, up another smaller pass, and finally up into the high mountain terrain which was much like I imagine the moon to be like: no plants, no animals, no heat, and no air.
top of the Tukla pass
The only thing that got me through the hike that day were heaving deep breaths, Matt walking right behind me, and some very much needed music on my ipod. I do believe without the ipod, my body might have gone on strike and left me sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere. After 6 hours of unbelievable scenery and intense willpower, we arrived at Gorak Shep for some black tea and a seat. The air was now filled with only 50% of the oxygen found at sea level and our sinuses filled with god knows what. Shortly after arriving, I did what only champions do: I ran outside by the front door to the teahouse and threw up every drop of water I drank on the hike. Great success.

me, ready to puke all over my team

matt, lookin a little crazy, but feeling just fine.
With all that nastiness behind, we woke up at 5am the next morning and set out in our puffy jackets and headlamps on a 2 hour climb to EBC. Finally. Once the sun rose over the Himalayas and the cold wind died down, we arrived at Everest Base Camp. 17,500 feet. We sat on the Khumbu glacier, ate Snickers bars (except for matt - pringles, please), took photos, and marveled at the views. It was truly one of the most rewarding feelings I've ever felt. We struggled through exhaustion, sinus plagues, thin air, 23 degree teahouse bedrooms to get here. We hiked through the most beautiful mountain terrrain I think exists on the planet to get here. We didnt shower for 9 days to get here. And now we are here.

Sitting on the khumbu glacier can u see how im still wearing an eye-cover under my headlamp? i was a mess. photo cred to Canada.
Most of the team continued on to the nearby peak of Kala Pattar, 18,200 feet, but I had to get down the mountain as quickly as possible since apparently such exhaustion and throwing up is a sign of possible acute mountain sickness. I left shortly after returning to Gorak Shep from EBC and arrived at the next stop, 5 hours down the mountain, at around 430pm for some mint tea and a good yak dung fire. Matt and crew hiked 2 hours to the top of KP for probably the best view of Everest and its peers that exists in the Himalayas. After returning to Gorak Shep again, they also headed down the mountain, 5 hours, and arrived in the dark to the next stop at around 7pm. Needless to say, all of them were cold, tired, and hungry, and none of them were amused by me, sitting by the fire and my fleece with a good book.

The view from Kala Patar...and Matt

From Matt:
Where We're Going...There are No Roads
Yes, that's what life is actually like in the Khumbu region of Everest. We flew into Lukla airport because there are literally no roads. No, i don't mean like no "real" roads. I mean no dirt path rocky, anything roads. Lukla itself is a FIVE DAY walk from the nearest roads itself.

Now how does that effect life? Well every single object consumed, worn, used in this part of the world must be flown in by plane (extremely expensive), or a carried up by a porter. Every single pringle i ate, toilet paper used, beer I drank was brought in by a porter. At first, I had some misgivings about this, but after learning this is how life has been for the locals for many years (they eat pringles, drink beer, and need TP too), plus this provides much needed jobs to a very poor area, and with all of the porters treated reasonaly well we continued on our merry way.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the porters doing their har , but extremely important and vital jobs.

Porters loads lined up as a group took a smoke break (yes they smoke while carrying like 200 pounds on their back. Amazing!)


Porters include not only people, but Yaks.





Little porter (likely just carrying his family's vegetables)

****Bonus shot of a man in Kathmandu carrying a refrigerator on his back just because it is so ridiculous. You think you are tough? Try being a 135 pound man carrying a refrigerator on your back through the streets of Kathmandu. ****

Some Himalayan Trekking and "How to Heat Your House with Yak Shit"

"Your plane is delayed!"

"My plane was canceled for 4 days!"

"Board now!"

"Get off the bus and go back to the airport!"

"Now, you! go and board now! (again)"

ok, so before our Everest Base Camp trek even started we heard or experienced all of the above quotes. Our plane was delayed 6 hours and apparently that made us the lucky ones. Flying to Lukla airport where the Everest region trek begins is one of the most difficult in the world to find open weather windows to land in.

Perched on a hillside with an upward sloping very short runway (read that again - the runway isn't flat! its on a fuckin hill with an upslope of 20 degrees) at about 9,000 feet. The weather opens and closes landing windows very quickly leading to some of the absurd quotes from above as flights are routinely delayed, canceled, and even turned around right before landing.



So as some background our trek was guided by a local 27 year old Nepali, two assistant guides, and several porters.


Overall the trek was 15 days, covered something like 125 miles, and gained and (then lost) about 9,300 feet in elevation (not counting the up and then down, and then up again type trails). Our trekking mates included, a young couple from Canada, another from Boston, and a retired British Airways Englishman.



So we eventually got to Lukla and enjoyed a late lunch and started a relatively easy 3.5 hour first day walk. Unfortunately, because we landed so late in the day, the 2nd half of the trek was in the dark utilizing our newly purchased headlamps (btw Kathmandu is the KING of knockoff outdoor gear - every single store merchant, taxi driver, etc wears "North Face" clothes for example- We bought 2 pairs of knockoff trekking poles, two fake North Face pants, a quick dry towel, two headlamps, and socks in one of the numerous outdoors stores.

After the first day's walk to Phakding, we traveled uphill approximately 1300 meters the next day to the trading center of Namche Bazar. We enjoyed an acclimatization day the next day in Namche and then continued again our routine of hiking about 3-4 hours after breakfast, and several after to the next village, or to a stop at a Buddhist monasteries where we were staying. Incidentally, Nepal is actually a majority Hindi country, but the Khumbu region by Everest is 98% Buddhist.

As much as you all love reading my rambling, I'll avoid detailing the first 7 or so days of the trek and share some of the amazing scenery we encountered which began with much greenery almost like a much steeper and larger Yosemite and gradually increased to massive 20,000+ mountains with Buddhist sites scattered along the trail:
















....Ok now onto the important business. How to heat your house with yak shit. The sherpas are an incredibly resourceful bunch and have refined over hundreds of years an entirely cheap, odorless, and easy (if you aren't the preparer) way to heat your house with yak dung.

Step 1. Locate a yak. Easy. Yaks are everywhere. They walk throughout towns and paths like the own the joint. Yaks poo throughout the day like all animals, but chasing one around waiting for it to crap seems hardly efficient. However, almost like clockwork Yaks take a crap during the night. They space themselves out maybe 10 feet from each other to go to sleep and in the morning nearly each one has relieved himself.


Step 2. Gather the dung. I think this task was typically given to a child in the family. So easy enough then, you send your kids out to collect the dung in the morning.


Step 3. Place the gathered dung on the roof of your house to dry. (see neatly pressed dung here on the right hand side on this woman's roof).



Step 4. Once dry, gather dung and stack next to house like typical firewood.

Step 5. Put dung in stove and place feet up and relax in your new heat. Its literally odorless, slowburning, 100% reusable green, and a fun party topic.

Another Catch-Up.

(BTW, if you are having issues with the blog, its b/c you are using Internet Explorer. It works in Firefox better)

The last few weeks have probably been the most fast paced days of the whole trip so far. October has involved 5 flights, 4 countries, and countless hotel rooms. We've seen a lot of good friends, some new ones, and been in the presence of the most amazing scenery we've both ever seen.

Matt's last post was about Mount Olympus, which was almost a month ago and seems like forever ago in travel-time. After leaving Litochoro, we spent about a week living in Athens in an apartment. Given we had a lot of time in the city, we managed to see some movies, visit a few museums, hang out with our friends Stratos and Niki, as well as visit the Acropolis, twice. We ate some amazing food, as well as were able to cook good Greek breakfasts and master an authentic tzatziki recipe.

Matt with the acropolis in the background
Parthenon
my homemade tzatziki
Matt's favorite Greek dish: Mousaka
Nighttime in Athens

Our next stop was Dubai, which we reached after flying through Amman, Jordan for a few hours. We both wished we had had time to stop and spend time in Jordan, but being able to stop in the airport was definitely still a treat. We somehow still managed to things at the Duty Free shop even though only passing through.

By the end of our long weekend on the Arabian Peninsula, we both were really sad about leaving. Though super modern and sterile in certain places, Dubai was full of surprises. The city has both the uber-modern parts and old Arabian parts which gave us a deeper feel for what the UAE is really about. Dubai, as an Emirate, is very focused on being cutting edge and at the forefront of business, which is extremely apparent when visiting The Palm Jumeriah and The Burj Kalifa. But, just across the river/highway, Dubai is full of forts, souqs, sand dunes, and old world minarets.

We were also lucky enough to spend some time with a few more friends. We met our fellow traveling Brooklynites, Kim and Alex, for a day at the mall and the beach. Yes yes, we went to the mall. But it wasnt just any mall - the Emirates Mall has an indoor ski resort, like 9 food courts, as well as alot of couture clothing that travelers cant afford. We also we able to spend some time with Matt's coworker from Merrill Lynch, Greg, and his wife Jo. We drove around Dubai's sandy landscape as well as riding into the Kingdom of Oman to see some very grand and intimidating Arabian mountains.

The Burj Kalifa

Matt and Greg ATVing on the sand dunes

The Mountains of Oman

sand dunes as far as the eye could see

indoor snowboarding: so tempting.
Dubai Spice Souq

After our quick jaunt in the middle east, we boarded a plane (Fly Dubai - the JetBlue of the middle east) to Kathmandu to begin the Asian portion of our journey. Coming from a city like Dubai, arriving in Kathmandu was a bit overwhelming. From the land of skyscrapers, cleanliness, and restraint, we arrived in a town where cows are the king of the roads, there are no traffic rules, and the smog will turn your lungs into garbage bags. We only had a brief time in Kathmandu before our trek to Everest Base Camp started, but we did get a chance to get out into the city and see some important places like Durbar Square and its numerous Hindu temples, Swayambhunath Stoupa (aka the Monkey Temple), and Buddha Stoupa. All three places were so unique alive, and intriguing. We also purchased enough faux North Face outdoor gear (for the trek) to put the real company out of business.

Buddha Stoupa

prayer flags at the monkey temple


monkeys at the monkey temple
marigold garlands at Durbar Square

Durbar Square

bright colored powders

I won't write about the trek here, as it deserves its own post/posts, but I will say that it was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience. After hiking around in the thin air, we've decided hanging out by a lake and viewing the Annapurna Himalayas( from a distance) while we drink Everest beer/sip tea/practice yoga was the right move post-trek. We'll be here in Pokhara until our knees and sinuses have decided to forgive us.

More to come.