Mount Everest Base Camp Hike

My friend Christine and I hiked to Everest Base camp awhile back. The map of our route and pictures of our trip are below.

We started in the city of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, to get supplies and meet our guide company - Ace the Himalayas (who I highly recommend). Day 1 we flew by helicopter to the “most dangerous airport” in the world at Lukla. It got the title because of it’s extremely short runway on the side of a cliff that is usually smothered in cloud cover. From there we hiked all afternoon until we reached the town of Phakding were we experienced our first tea house.

I think it’s funny that the Google Maps below says you can hike the whole thing in 17 hours. But what it fails to consider is how much weight a person is carrying on their back, rest days to acclimate and altitude. Once we got to Namche Bazar, the last “big” town we’d see for the duration of the trip, we could really feel how high we were. The worst for me was waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air sometimes. This was also the last time we would shower for the next 10 days…

My toughest day was our hike up to an old Buddhist monastery called Tyangboche. It felt like I had a monkey hanging on to each one of my rib cages. At one point, I was so dizzy I lost my sight for a few moments. Obviously, altitude sickness is extremely dangerous. The only cure is to get to a lower elevation. But if you’re too weak to walk that could be a serious problem. Some people take a prescription to help, but it’s not 100% effective and I also wanted to do it all on my own - pride cometh before a fall, I suppose. Luckily, everyone on our crew was OK for the most part. We did see one Taiwanese gentleman who was extremely sick one day and found out later that he died on the mountain.

To put the elevation in perspective, by the time we were at Dingboche, there was 50% less oxygen in the air versus at sea level. Even the guides start feeling it at this point. Just imagine what it’s like near the top of Everest! Safe to say we were moving at a sluggish pace. One foot in front of the next, I kept telling myself.

At one point we passed a guy who had no legs and was crawling the entire journey on his stomach… what a badass.

Everest base camp was cool but my favorite was the optional hike up to Kala Patthar the next day. We got up at 4am to catch a view of Everest at sunrise. At 17,500 feet, I was hurting. Everyone was hurting. But seeing the sun come up over Everest was bittersweet. The reason being, I lost my grandfather that day too. However, I didn’t know at the time, because I had no internet or cell reception for days.

This is for you grandad. It will only haunt me that I couldn’t be there to say goodbye, especially how close we were. But I also know you would want me to keep exploring. I love you and I’ll miss you.