Everest Base Camp

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE MADE IT!!

It was quite an uphill struggle, but we succeeded!!!

As the previous blogs state, the trip didn't quite start out as planned. Because of our delay in getting a flight to Lukla we lost two days. This meant that we would lose one acclimatization day on the way up and lose one day on the way down. We now had to do the trek in 7 days up and 3 days down rather than 8 and 4. "No problem", our group said, "We're rock stars!". To the left is the Yeti Airlines flight that we finally got to Lukla. Cute little plane isn't it!

Upon arriving in Lukla, we rock stars started out with a light hike from Lukla to Phakding (see the map below for reference). Today's hike was only 3 1/2 hours.

After some lunch, dinner and relaxation in Phakding we started out Day 2 with another 3 1/2 hour hike and then lunch. After lunch we hiked up Namche hill as the locals call it. This "hill" would be better described as a cliff face. We hiked up and up and up forever. It consisted of a whole bunch of switch backs which meant that you would hike up to the top of a switch back thinking that at the top it would be flat, only to turn around and see that you had to keep on going up more. It was tough! It took another 3 1/2 hours to reach Namche Bazar where we were more than happy to rest!! Luckily we were informed that Namche Hill was the toughest physical hike of the trip. Later on we would be experiencing more mental challenges as the altitude increased. At Namche we had reached a mere 3440 m (11,286 ft), nothing! Unfortunately here 2 of our 12 had to turn back. Sabah, who is asthmatic but hasn't had an attack in about 10 years, had a slight asthma attack while climbing Namche Hill. She and her mom Farida decided that it wasn't worth pushing Sabah to climb to higher and tougher altitudes, so they headed back to Kathmandu early :(

Day 3 started out with a very light slightly downhill hike until lunch. Donna from our group was actually giggling to herself while watching the people hike up while we were going down. But the giggles slowly died as she realized that that would be us in a few days time!! After lunch we had another set of uphill switchbacks to conquer. These ones didn't seem half as difficult as the previous day's. After the "easy" switchbacks we arrived in Tengboche (3860m, 12,664ft). While in Tengboche we visited their monastery where the monks were chanting/praying to reincarnate one of their head monks who had just died. He died in a seating position and they will continue to pray for him until he falls over. So far they've been doing it for 16 days. Also in Tengboche the owner of the place were we stayed was Tenzing's daughter. Tenzing was the sherpa who was with Sir Edmund Hillary during the first summit of Everest way back in 1953. The owner had a photo album of her father during his expeditions, which she gladly shared with us. Very nice!!

After Tengboche we hiked a total of 4 hours and 40 minutes to get to Pheriche (4270m, 14,009ft) where we spent two nights. We lost one acclimatization days, but still had time for one here. So the day after arriving we did a 4o0 meter climb up and then headed back down. It was a tough day. We had pretty much all begun to feel the affects of altitude. Many of us had some intense headaches and lack of appitite. This is where it really became a mental challenge. The physical steepness of the hikes weren't overly challenging but the headaches and loss of breath because of the deficiency of oxygen at the higher levels was a struggle. At this point Tanya (from my MBA program) had to turn back. The altitude was too much for her body and the only way to fix it was to climb lower. It was quite unfortunate when we set out the next day one member short :(

We were now 2 days away from Base Camp with about 1,100 more meters to climb (3,600ft). From Pheriche we climbed to Lobuche, knocking out another 700 meters (2300 ft). Only 400 more meters to go (1300 ft) and our goal would be met.

We finally reached Base Camp on day 7 of our trek. It was a long and exhausting hike from Lobuche -> Gorak Shep -> Base Camp, but the remaining 9 members of our group and 2 guides made it. And we have a picture to prove it!!!!!

You know what the weird thing is about Everest Base Camp? You can't actually see Everest from it. How insane is that?! Doesn't make any sense to me! So the day after base camp we had to hike some more so that we could get a shot of the infamous mountain!! To do this we took a hike to Kala Pattar. Here is our proof that we actually saw Everest!!

The way down consisted of 6-8 hours of hiking each day and lots of laughing. It felt sooooo great to have accomplished our goal and we were continuously getting more oxygen than we were use to which instigated fits of giggles!!!

All in all it was an amazing time!!!!!

And "I shot the minnow" even made it there!!!