Report: Everest Base Camp, Nepal, with pics!

RATM

Just got back a wee while ago from treking to Everest Base Camp on the Nepalese side and thought Id share some insights here.

Arrived in Kathmandu in the afternoon and got a taxi to Thamel, the main tourist district and a jumping little suburb full of shops selling treking gear, fake CDs/DVDs and jewellery. Settled into my hotel and then hit the streets to get the trek organised. First bought a flight to the small mountain town of Lukla with Yeti Airlines who use 18 seater Twin Otters. Then it was off to the Tourist Board to organise my TIMS card, a new system they have set up for tracking where independent trekers are on the trail. With that I went to a treking shop and bought some last bits and pieces. Picked up a nice fake North Face Windstopper jacket for just under 12 euro.

Next day I got to the domestic airport for a 6.30 red eye flight. The landing at Lukla was superb, at 9200ft it is one of the world's highest airports, the runway is on a 20 degree slope to help the planes stop after landing. Shortly afterwards I was on my way, the first day was only a gentle downhill 3 hour walk. The trail was shared mainly with local porters carrying all manner of goods up to the Sherpa 'capital' of the Khumbu Valley, Namche Bazaar. The loads they carry are quite phenomanal, especially for such small lads. One guy I saw had a fridge on his back !

The second day was a hard 2200ft accent to Namche, a kind of a test of fitness at the start of the trail. Swichbacks galore on a steep rocky trail brought me all the way to this bustling little viliage of around 20,000. Over the next week I hiked 5-6 hours a day until I was high in the Himalaya and far up the Goyko Valley, a valley that runs paralell to the Khumbu Valley where Everest is. Goyko is known for its' 5 sacred lakes which glmmer turquoise under a shining sun. My plan was to climb Goyko Ri, a 17770ft mountain over looking one of the lakes and with views of Everest, Cho Oyo and Lhotse- 3 of the worlds 5 highest mountains, all well over 26,000ft. By climbing Gokyo Ri I also fully aclimatised to the thin air that one gets that high. The summit offers fantastic views right across the Himalaya and is an easy enough ( albeit slow ) walk to the top.

The next few days were spent getting across the Cho La pass, a thin trail wedged between two huge mountains, in order to drop down into the Khumbu Valley and continue to Everest. It was a tough walk as the trail was far from ideal, it involves first crossing a vast expanse of glacial moraine and then hiking up over 3000ft to the pass itself before decending down scree slopes for over 10kms. All in all a taxing time, 11 hours walk in a single day renders one glad to get to the comfort of a lodge.The views from the pass are superb with valleys radiating in all directions and glaciers slowing gnawing their way down them.

After another 4 days I made it to the hamlet of Gorak Shep, complete with three solar powered lodges to choose from. The aim of the game was to climb Kala Pattar, normally a significant peak at 18,300ft but in this area dwarfed by its monstrous neighbours. The summit of Kala Patter offers the best views of Everest you can get without actually climbing it. A 5am start ensued and I slowly plodded up the hill, sucking for ****** all the way. At this height there is only 50% of the ****** available to you than there is at sea level so the going can be quite slow as frequent breaks are needed. I arrived at the top at around 7.30am, just in time to see the sun rise from behind Everest. It was an absolutely incredible sight to watch the sun rise from behind a plethora of Himalayan giants and one I'll never forget. Everest towers some 29,029ft in the sky, not far off the height of a cruising Boeing. Its prymiad shape looks like a daunting prospect to climb as do the jagged peaks of nearby Lhotse and Nuptse. On the summit of Kala Pattar I was blessed with a blue sky day and the air was a crisp and clean as any Ive ever experienced.

At 9am I began my decent and then proceeded on a march to Everest Base Camp itself. This is nothing more than a patch of rocky ground from where expeditions set up their main base complete with communications tents and medical facilities. For now though it was empty as the climbing season had not yet begun but in a few weeks it will be bustling with mountaineers all aspiring to bag the world's highest peak. At Base Camp I wandered briefly into the mighty Khumbu Icefall, a collossal glacier that groans with every movement. Many climbers have been killed in crevases in the Icefall so I decided not to linger too long.

Over the next few days I headed back down the Khumbu Valley, passing yak caravans and Sherpas hauling expedition equipment in preparation for the season to come. The yak is an amazingly versitile animal; a cross between a cow and a buffalo it provides the local population with wool, milk, cheese, home heating ( in the form of yak dung ), transportation and eventually, meat.

I arrived back in Lukla having spent a pleasant afternoon at Tengaboche monastery which is one of the most revered in the Buddhist world. It is permitted to go inside and watching the monks praying and chanting, an often noisy affair especially when they all pick up their instruments for a jam. At Lukla I was lucky enough to get the first flight out and arrived back in Kathmandu shattered after nearly three weeks of hiking the Himalaya.

The Everest Base Camp trek is one I can certainly recommend. It has the huge advantage over other treks in that there are lodges to stay in all along the way so there is no need to carry any tents, stoves or food. Indeed, if you dont want to carry your own bag then you can hire a local Sherpa porter to do it for you. The lodges typically charge 1-2 euro a night for a bed and around 2-3 euro for an evening meal which can consist of anything from egg fried rice to pizza.

Overall this is a difficult trek but one that anyone with the motivation can complete. The views must be among some of the best in the world and Ive certainly got memories that will last forever.

BuffyBot

Fantastic report - excellent read!

meditraitor

Im so jealous man, Lucky you, thanks for sharing.:)

breadmonkey

You must have been very lucky to get on the first flight, I'd heard that flights got backed up for more than a week with the weather!

Two questions:

A) How much do you estimate the trip cost you in total?
I'd read somewhere that the Cho La is a crampons and ice axe affair. Did you have/need either?

RATM

Yeah I was completly lucky with flights, I was on the 2nd last flight into Lukla before they got cancelled for a whole 12 days. All the porters in Lukla were broke because they had no work for nearly two weeks, nothing came into the mountains and nothing went out. I met a couple from Roscommon who had went and spent 1200 euro and joined the tour group Intrepid. Becasue of the weather they were flown to another air-strip about a 4 day walk away. The poor twosome then spent the next 4 days hiking massive passes in the clouds whilst getting sucked on by leeches. Their whole holiday was ruined as the company cancelled the two acclimitisation days and told the whole group to go on a march right up to Everest. As a result several got headabches and had to turn back. Only 4 of a group of 14 made it to Everest Base Camp.

As regarding your Q's
Return flight Kathmandu - Lukla $220 ( $250 if booked outside Kathmandu )
National Park Fee $15
Beds in lodges along the trail- mostly 1 euro per person, sometimes 2 and sometimes 0.50c. Deal is the same as the Annapurna trek- you must eat in the lodge becasue the bed prices are so low.
Food- usually 2-3 euro a meal, more if you want yak steak !
Drinks- can get expensive, can of Coke can be around 2 euro up past 14,000ft, 1L water is at least 1 euro and more the higher you go. I just used waterfall/stream water and purified it with iodine- saves on money and burning plastic bottles.
Hot shower is 2-3 euro, a small pan odf hot water to throw over yourself is about 50c

Overall I spent just under 280 euro on all the above for 20 days treking, around 14 euro per day. I reckon it is more expensive than the Annapurna ( and in many ways more developed- ie hot showers in most lodges and not so many power cuts, most are on solar or hydroelectric power ) but when a bed only costs a euro its still some bargain.


Regarding getting over the Cho La pass, Id didnt take an ice axe or crampons- but you do need these at certain times of the year. I only made my decision about treking the Cho La after getting advice from the KEEP center in Kathmandu. They give pre-departure advice for all treks in Nepal and also enviromental talks on treking in the Himalaya. As I got closer to the Cho La I asked alot of locals about the conditions and they gave it the all clear. Its a tough pass, a marathon 10-12 hour day with a pre sunrise departure but if you've got the experience of treking the Annapurna and crossing the Throng La then you'll do fine. If you want though Sherpa porter/guides are available for 20-30 euro for the day, expensive in Nepalese terms but well worth it if you are not sure. Its a tricky pass with lots of shale and scree slopes just begging to be turned into a landslide so there are some dangers there. In hindsight I should never have done it alone and wouldnt again, if something had of happened out there I might have been waiting 2-3 days before anyone else passed through. That said though if you did it in the main treking season of Oct/Nov there'll be plenty of other people on the trail.

cfitz

RATM wrote: »

The landing at Lukla was superb, at 9200ft it is one of the world's highest airports, the runway is on a 20 degree slope to help the planes stop after landing.

SNIP

The second day was a hard 2200ft accent to Namche, a kind of a test of fitness at the start of the trail.

SNIP

My plan was to climb Goyko Ri, a 17770ft mountain over looking one of the lakes and with views of Everest, Cho Oyo and Lhotse- 3 of the worlds 5 highest mountains, all well over 26,000ft.

SNIP

It was a tough walk as the trail was far from ideal, it involves first crossing a vast expanse of glacial moraine and then hiking up over 3000ft to the pass itself before decending down scree slopes for over 10kms.

SNIP

The aim of the game was to climb Kala Pattar, normally a significant peak at 18,300ft but in this area dwarfed by its monstrous neighbours.

SNIP

Everest towers some 29,029ft in the sky, not far off the height of a cruising Boeing.

Let's go metric man

kevpatts

Hey RATM,

Myself and a few friends are thinking of doing the base camp trek next year. We are complete novices and most have never done ANYTHING like this before with the exception of a few 2-3 treks by some of us in Asia.

I have a couple of questions:

1. What time of year should we consider going? We were thinking of going late August/early September. Would it be better/safer/cheaper/better weather to go during the main season Oct/Nov or a little outside?
2. What would you recommend as training? I for one am pretty damn unfit right now! Is fitness or strength more important? Surely you don't need to be able to run a marathon to do this!
3. Are there any shots you need to get before the trip?
4. It sounds like you went on a much more demanding trek than we intend. As rookies, is there any specific trek company/guides that you would recommend?

Sorry if these questions seem stupid! Any other advice?

Kevpatts

lg123

Hi all,

I just finished this trek a few days ago and thought i would update the pricing:

Return flight Kathmandu - Lukla: $220 but we bargained him to $200

National Park Fee ($15 above), i think this has went up to 20euro

Beds in lodges along the trail- 2euro almost every where- you must eat in the lodge becasue the bed prices are so low. we got hit with paying $20 in the Eco Lodge, labouche as there is very little availability. this place was a total rip off and a complete dirthole, i couldnt find water anywhere to wash my hands before dinner.

Food- usually 2-5 euro a vegetarian meal, we were advised not to eat meat on the trek.

Drinks- can get expensive, can of Coke can be around 2 euro up past 14,000ft, 1L water is at least 1.5 euro and more the higher you go. I just used waterfall/stream water and purified it with iodine- saves on money and burning plastic bottles.

Hot shower is 2.5-4.5 euro

We got a porter to carry our shared backpack, we didnt organise this in kathmandu as you will have to pay his flights. we just got one at the airport in luckla, there are loads of them there looking for work. we paid him 500 rupees per day, just less than 5 euro. well worth it in my opinion as he was great. i can get a contact no. for our guy if anyone wants it, we were very happy with him.

when you are going to tengbouche, labouche and gorak shep, its a good idea to send your porter ahead to get you a room as these stops have limited beds.

picked up some diamox in ktm for around 70 rupees for 5 days worth.

also, when you get past tengbouche you hear of/meet a lot of people who have got sick, some is food poisining others from sanitary isues at the lodges. therefore, i would put a decent hand sanitation product as an essential requirment. we were told that more people fail the complete their treks due to this reason than altitude sickness or fittness issues.

i am travelling around the world at the moment and this trek was a last minute thing when someone suggested it in turkey so we had to get all our gear in KTM, so to save money we rented our 4 season (-10'C) sleeping bags and down jackets from Sheonas trekking shop, its in the lonely planet. the guys in there were a great help, gave us loads if info and advice. the sleeping bag was around 50c per day and the jacket was 40c/day iirc.

sorry not as good a report as RATM but my experience was much the same, a great experience all round. mumbai next for us, going to take us about a week to drive down there, through the chaos that is india.

breadmonkey

You're driving to Mumbai?!

All I can say is :eek:

Thanks for the update. I would also highly recommend Shona's. They were very helpful and the prices for renting the gear are very reasonable.