EBC trek

Lots of the details won't be that interesting here, so I will just put notes beside some of the pics - as they are the interesting part of this post. As mentioned before, most of these photos are taken by someone else, apart from the few grainy ones from the cellphone. In case you haven't figured out, you can click on the photos and they blow up to decent quality. 

 We sat in the two front seats of the plane - we were the last to get on and they were the only empties. Seemed noone wanted to look out the front window! It gave us a unique view, including seeing the pilots at work two feet in front of us. There was a pretty cool moment we should mention though. Everyone, including Johnny Knoxville, wears aviator sunnies at some stage of their life. Mostly fakes. But when the sun came up, we saw the pilot reach into his bag, pull out the case, polish the lenses, then slip on the real Ray Ban Aviators - for the purpose they were invented for! A classy moment. This was flying through the fog though, not a time for aviators - rather an expired Garmin GPS. Eek!

Street in Lukla at the beginning, feeling so ready for the body-breaking 16 days to come.

In Lukla, notice the Starbucks. When we were stuck here for a day on the way out, it was great to have a good real Latte and free wifi for hours!
One of the things I have enjoyed the most about travelling is the amazing (most of the time) people you meet. This is Juan, from Argentina. We bumped into him in Jaipur, catching a train to Agra. A few exchanged words between foreigners, but that's all. Bumped into him again in Agra, another few words. Saw him in Varanasi briefly, but didn't stop for a chat. Then, he happened to stay in the same guest house as us at the border, so we had a few yarns. He wanted to do a trek in Nepal but didn't really know how to go about it, so we teamed up and organised to trek together. We had a great time with him, and he was an amazing travel buddy. So laid back, keen to just cruise and enjoy the ride rather than blasting ahead, and great company. Handy that he is a good photographer as well! After about ten days of trekking in the altitude and cold, he got sick of the whole setup and wanted to get away from the ***** trekking! So while we had an extra acclimatisation day to deal with the headaches and nausea, he went ahead and said " I don't care now, if I get sick - great - it means I can get down faster!". Thank goodness he didn't get sick, and we saw him on the way down after having been to Kala Patthar and base camp. We spent some more time with him, and some others we met on the trek, back in Kathmandu and will miss him, but now we have an excuse to go to South America.

A moment to ponder the beauty of the surroundings. 

 This is called a 'Gompa' - a Buddhist worship thingee.

Some nice photos of us on a bridge. 

 More pondering...

 and resting...

and striding...

 In the background is the very distinctive Ama Dablam. It is often recognised as the worlds most beautiful peak. I'm not really that appreciative of beautiful scenery, but as we climbed up the valley, we had plenty of time to sit and just gaze at how incredible it looked. It totally made up for how plain Mt Everest looked.

 This is taken from Kala Patthar, at 5,550m. The highest point of our trek. This was probably the hardest leg of the journey. We travelled from a small village to Gorak Shep, the final village on the trek. We got there around 11am, and were pretty tired. Everything is much harder work at this altitude, as there is only 50% of the oxygen in the air that there is at sea level. We had about three hours rest, then pack-less, started up toward  Kala Patthar - a 400m ascent up a dirt track to what is meant to be a good point to view Everest, because you cant see it at base camp. It took about two hours, and we got up there about 30 minutes before sunset, apparently the best time to be there. On so many occasions during the climb, we nearly turned back. We both  often felt like vomiting from the exertion, but the other problem was that because of the lack of oxygen you couldn't walk fast enough to heat up, so it was pretty cold(around -10 before you account for the windchill). We managed to get to the top, take a couple of cell phone photos, (Juan had headed back by now) and celebrate with a few of the others who were up there. We actually jogged back down to warm up, which was a bit thoughtless as somehow in the loose hired boots I was wearing, I managed to tear a ligament (not too bad at that stage) in my foot. I actually hardly noticed at the time, but it ended up getting worse and meaning it took us twice as long as normal to walk back out to Lukla.

Taken from halfway back down to Gorak Shep looking at Everest (Left) and Nuptse. 

 The day after climbing to Kala PattharZealand. So we read a lot about base camp, particularly in books about the 1996 tragedy on Everest. Getting there, although for only two minutes, was really incredible. It is small area which is steeped in history, a lot of it is pretty sad though, and we had an almost "hollow" feeling a lot of the time. Not only at base camp though, because all throughout the trip there are stone mounds as memorials for the Sherpas and climbers who have died here. Actually a pretty heavy feeling at times.

 The temperature here at at the time (around 8am) was about -15 (in Gorakshep - even colder here) but the windchill was mindblowing. Taking my gloves off for the 30 seconds required to turn on the phone and take a photo was enough to make my fingers completely numb.

This is the final shot of the trek, taken somewhere on the way up. Juan took a few photos side by side and edited them into a panorama - cool effect. In the background is Ama Dablam on the right, then you can just see Everest directly above Sarah's head. 

The trek took 16 days, and we went into it thinking that a "moderate level of fitness" was required (quoted from the guidebook) however we never realised how difficult or amazing it would be. 

We had a real struggle getting back down (with some substantial uphills too!) because my foot got pretty bad, and at some stage slinging my pack on, I wrenched a muscle in my shoulder which meant I couldn't lift my arm more than an inch out to the side from my body. We trekked a few days with some doctors who said it is a common injury, called Rotator cuff. It is slowly getting better, along with the foot! Also because we came from India with tummy bugs, it added to the problems we were having. I think the trek would have been a lot easier straight from NZ, also, 90% of the people we saw had a guide, and a porter to carry their packs. We only had light packs (around 12kg each) but at altitude they felt pretty heavy! That said, I don't think I would want to do it with a porter, I think it would take away from the feeling you get of "doing it yourself". 

Also, the need for a guide is a joke, most of the track was at least as wide as a road, and with so many people walking, we never once pulled out the map. 

We were so blown away with the porters/Sherpa people who ferried the loads of gear up the mountain. Wow they are strong. Their loads are a minimum of 25kg, but they carry loads of up to 75kg. You cant carry this kind of weight in a pack, so they hook it around a fabric loop which runs around their forehead. We saw one team of Sherpas carry a woman down for 2 days like this, she had pretty bad altitude sickness. They each have ten minutes then rotate to the next Sherpa, apparently quite common with the cost of heli-rescues. 

I guess the harder something is, the more you appreciate it later - and already we can say it was an absolutely amazing trip, memorable in so many ways. The scenery was stunning, and it was fascinating to have a look into the lives of the Sherpa people. Also, as a Kiwi it was pretty cool to stand under Mt Everest. When the Sherpa's quiz you on where you are from, saying New Zealand invariably brings a reply of "ooh!! Edmund Hillary is my God, Wow!!"   We will probably never do it again, but would definitely recommend it to everyone. 

I may have left some gaps, as a lot happened in the 16 days up there, but I will add them in later posts.