Everest Base Camp

Where we went:

---------------UP---------------------

08/09 - Kathmandu [FLIGHT to] Lukla (2860m) [then WALK to] Phakding (2610m)

9/09 - Namche Bazaar (3440m)

10/09 - Namche Bazaar (REST DAY)

11/09 - Deboche (3820m)

12/09 - Dingboche (4410m)

13/09 - Dingboche (REST DAY)

14/09 - Lobouche (4910m)

15/09 - Gorak Shep (5140) [then UP to and BACK from] EVEREST BASE CAMP (5360m)

16/09 - Gorak Shep (Awaiting good weather)

 ---------------DOWN-------------------

17/09 - Pangboche (3930m)

18/09 - Kumjung (3780m)

19/09 - Namche Bazaar (3440m)

20/09 - Lukla (2860m) [FLIGHT to] Kathmandu

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Rather than write endlessly about walking and being out of breath I though a few photos would give you an idea of what we were up to... starting with the airport that is consistently in the top 10 most dangerous airports in the world - LUKLA! It's runway is 400m long, is on a 12 degree upward incline and has a cliff at one end and a concrete wall at the other. Oh yes, and one of the steepest approaches I have ever seen (to clear the other larger 'hills' on the way in that are right under the flight path!).

Lukla strip - The start of the journey

Gomphurs like this one with prayer flags were a common occurrence. The peoples of the mountain are mainly Buddhist and along with gomphurs, we saw (and spun) lots of prayer wheels and monasteries. The mountains in the background came and went as and when the rain stopped! On the way up we only saw the mountains once before Gorak Shep, but on the way back down we were much more lucky.

Gomphur with prayer flags - Always go clockwise round them!

Namche Bazaar (below) was the first day for acclimatization. It was here that we really started to feel short of breath. I had a resting heartbeat of 86 bpm and climbing stairs left you out of breath like you had just been out for a run! Walking up stairs whilst eating a mars bar was strictly out of the question - unless your wanted to pass out!

Namche Bazaar - Acclimatization day 1

The trek to base camp loosely follows the course of a river and therefore involves crossing the river in many places. Most of the bridges were substantial steel wire rope bridges. This one below however was one of the more questionable ones... It wasn't until we had crossed over did we realise quite how buckled it was. (one too many yaks maybe???)

A bridge (on its last legs)

The Sherpa peoples are very friendly and their children are always keen to say hello to all and sundry (Namaste!). This little girl took this one step further and appointed herself guide for half a mile. Quite sweet really!

Our guide - looking very serious!

Like I said, we didn't always have cracking views - it rained quite a lot:

Neon rave in the rain (it's a walking pole hooked onto the top of the umbrella in case you are wondering!)

But when it did stop raining and the clouds cleared the scenery was simply breathtaking and made all the effort worthwhile.. This was our view from one of our lodges one evening just as the sun was setting.

Mountain views in the evening

This is a picture of Ama Dablam - one of the most stereotypically 'mountain shaped' mountains in the region.

Ama Dablam

There were nine of us on the trek - six guys and three girls. Luckily we all got along just fine - nine is enough not to get bored of talking to one person for too long (sorry Olivia!).

The A-team

After many days of trekking we finally reached Gorak Shep, the highest place we would sleep (5180m). It's a slightly odd place with a large open area of sand, but made for a good staging point to Everest Base Camp. Amusingly (after the time), the effort of turning over in your sleep invariably work you up since you would be so short of breath! Didn't imagine that before I did the trek.

Gorak Shep - High altitude sleeping

From Gorak Shep (the same day we arrived) we made the 5 or so hour round trip to base camp. The majority of this stage was done on the same glacier that base camp is on. Having never walked on a glacier before I was surprised to find quite so many rocks (not a perfect sheet of ice like I thought!). They are deceptive however because beneath the thin layer of grit there is most certainly ice and it is just as slippery as usual!

This picture is of a hole in the glacier showing the water below.

On the glacier

Finally, after many days, we reached Everest Base Camp. It was actually a bit on an anticlimax because by this point we were absolutely knackered, cold and bored of walking. Still it was a relief to finally be there and see some tents - there is not sign to announce your arrival :(

Everest Base Camp - comfy looking eh!

It really was significantly colder up on the glacier - cold enough to snow in fact.

Ahhhh. sweet! (Olivia did make it!)

On the way back down the mountain (which only took three days by the way - depressing!) we took a detour to look at what was marked on the map as a 'pyramid'??? Turned out to be a climate research lab run by the Italians. We even managed to get a look around inside and we all enjoyed some geek time with the scientist. Pretty impressive stuff, and very committed of them - it's cold and lonely up there!

The climate 'pyramid'

Olivia thinks no one cares about my boots - so i'm proving her wrong! (right??) When we got to Namche Bazaar on the way up, the soles of my boots started to peel off. I took myself off to the local man with a plan, and he glued and nailed my boots back to life! However, by the time I got to Namche again they were looking a bit sorry for themselves again: (I switched to deck shoes for the last two days of the descent)

Dead boots :(

Everest at last! It's not a good looking as Ama Dablam - but it's the biggest so i'm not going to make fun!

Mt Everest (center) and a prayer pole (also clockwise!)

Relieved to be back in Lukla we pottered around town and came across this!

Real - honest!

All in all a great trek with some truly amazing scenery!

Base Camp

We got there!!!! wahooooo...

In Namche Bazaar at the moment, internet expensive so will write more when we are back in Kathmandu.

xxxxxxx

Day trip to Patan & packing

7 SEPT 2010

Today we topped up on a bit of culture... we took a morning trip to Patan which is in Kathmandu and about 8km south of the center. We pottered around and saw literally hundreds of Buddhist temples and shrines. Quite an amazing place with loads of small courtyards and alleyways.

A 4m high statue of Sakyamuni

It was quite incredible just how many massive statues, temples and shrines Patan had. Every corner we turned there were more!

A temple at one corner of Durbar Square (An UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Another statue in the square, in front of another temple!:

Just as the sun finally started to come out!

We then found a great place for lunch, in which you can sit right at the top of the building on a terrace just big enough for four chairs and a table.

Had Buff Mo Mo for lunch (basically little parcels of spiced buffalo mince), which was really surprisingly nice. From the top of the restaurant building the view of the surrounding mountains were stunning:

We then returned to Thamel for some last minute pre-trip bartering and buying. Got some snacks and treats for the way up (and maybe the way down too if they last that long! -[Olivia!]) along with umbrellas which could rival Mary Poppins and some fairly convincing North Face copy clothing.

I also took the opportunity to get a haricut, which I didn't realise came with a free beating! The massage at the end of the very good haircut included; an eyeball massage (?), much slapping of the head and neck and culminated in him cracking my vertebrae! Not quite what I had in mind...

The rest of the evening was spent ditching lots of useless clothing and weight and replacing it with all our new junk!

We are the second flight finto Lukla 2moro so, if the weather allows, we shall be well on our way by tomorrow afternoon.

Wish us luck, and we shall both look forward to telling you all how it went when we get back in two(ish) weeks time...

Love Us!

Day in Thamel

6 SEPT 2010

Woke up and Olivia was still feeling a bit off so took some Pepto Bismol. Seemed to help but she slept it off until 1130. I went out to look more around town.

By the time I got back Olivia was a bit better so we (O, O, D and L) decided to move to Pasang's house in outer Kathmandu (Pasang is the rep in Nepal for the company that are running the climb and will be one of our guides).

Really nice guest house that comes with built in amusement - has has a small boy and a baby girl. The boy 'Jubilee' has a habit of rummaging through your stuff so you have to keep your eyes peeled, and the baby 'Ellie' has just turned one and has learned to walk so is a constant source of amusement! Nepal is well served for internet (here anyway), hence the frantic blogging!

To avoid having to get the bus back to Delhi we decided to fly and save ourselves two days! (We are booked onto the 14:40 from Kathmandu, flight no. 9W - 7056 [for the parents!]).

Tim, also climbing with us, arrived to Pasang's guest house this afternoon having done the same trip Olivia and I had done from Delhi, although about 6 hours faster. He also wasn't feeling too well, having spent 4 days in hospital two weeks ago. Out of five people, two were right as rain and the rest were not too hot. Doesn't bode well??? 

All decided to go out for dinner together back in Thamel, thanks to Pepto Bismol settling stomachs! Food was good but came out at odd intervals as and when it was ready. Mine took 1:45 - think they climbed Everest to pick the mushrooms especially. Promised a free beer if I go back - we shall see!

Torrential rain started as we were sitting in the restaurant (not unusual since we are still in the monsoon season - although it is due to finish soon), so trying to flag down a taxi whilst jumping from step to step to avoid the flooded road was amusing. The road was so bad in town that the water poured into the taxi at one point.

We fly to Lukla from Kathmandu on the 8th, so tomorrow is the last day to buy any bits for trekking before we leave for real!

The plan after Everest is now:

- fly to Delhi
- Train to Agra (Overnight in Agra)
- Tarj
- Couple of places recommended north of Delhi (by train)
- Into Rajistan (again by train)
- Down the west cost (sleeper trains) stopping in Mumbai [Bombay]
- End up in Goa for 1/2 weeks on the beach
- Fly back to Delhi, the onto Dubai, then back to London!

Really looking forward to it all and please to have some people to talk to about the trip who have been to some of these places already! Will try to write tomorrow, after which the blog will probably run dry for upto two and a half weeks while we are climbing.

Hope you are all well. Please do put a reply up here if you fancy. (Got yours Lucy - thanks.)

The epic journey continues...

4 SEPT 2010

Train continues...

Arrived into Gorakhpur at 1200 (2hrs late somehow???). Spent the next hour trying to work out which bus to take so we wouldn't get ripped off. Eventually ended up back in the station at the tourist info office. The guy in there didn't really speak english so wasn't overly helpful, in fact the German tourist who had signed the visitors book before us had simply written 'confusing...'

Eventually found a bus headed for Sunauli that was due to take two and a half hours and cost 60 Rs each. We hopped on and then spent the next hour and a half driving round the village picking up more and more people. When the driver had successfully filled ALL the available space in his non AC bus, we left. Then we stopped again, to pick up and drop off. This continued for the best part of an hour through all the local villages. Eventually we reached the Sunauli boarder crossing.

Stamped out of India...

The boarder crossing definitely wasn't the 1.5 km the cycle-rickshaw drivers tried to convince us it was!

Crossing the boarder was easy, just a rubber stamping exercise. Some very strict policing on the Indian side. We saw a boy crying and clutching his shoulder after having been hit by a policeman with a stick. Tough love! The most bizarre part of crossing the boarder is the time change. We were reminded that we had gained 15 minutes by crossing the boarder, now putting us at GMT + 5h45. Odd!

Instantly approached by someone offering us bus tickets. Decided to follow him since we were getting pretty tired by this point. Offered bus tickets for 700 Rs for two; took that. Seemed very good for a 9 hour bus journey.

The bus was fairly big (about 40 pax) but the leg room was seriously bad. My knees caps literally touching the back of the seat in front. Still, assigned seating looked like a good sign of an organised company? Everyone on board, we left at about five past six, just five mins late. Still looking good!


We initially enjoyed the views, until it got dark. The driver seemed to drive as fast as the on coming traffic would allow! During the day the horn was played (it had a melody) every five seconds. At night the full beam took it's place.

5 SEPT 2010

So there we were, in the dark crashing along in a noisy bus, local music on full blast and crammed into the seats. As the hours passed, stopping every few hours, we looked forward more and more to 3am when we were due to arrive. One particularly vicious bump sent a piece of our trim clattering to the ground. Cue the speedy reversing to collect it then toss it in the gangway of the bus. Following the dinner stop at the bottom of the mountain we started climbing up to Kathmandu.

The road surface changed from a rough tarmac road to an unmade mountain track. Still black as the ace of spades, we continued on up the mountain. The road was just wide enough for two buses to pass one another, the steep hill on one side and a sheer drop on the other. Then we got a puncture... 1 hour spent changing the tyre. Added that to the time spent on the bus. GRR. Then we hit the traffic! Slowed down to crawling pace, then stopped altogether. Damn! We spent the next four or five going nowhere in the sweaty, smelly bus.

Look closely.... that white line in the middle across the photo is truck, cars and mostly buses in the queue, but further down the mountain!

At long last, after the sun had come up and shown us the amazing views, we started shuffling along up the hill. At 0930 we finally arrived into Kathmandu, after a seven hour delay on the bus and FORTY hours traveling for Delhi to Kathmandu. Grabbed a taxi and managed to meet up with David and Laura (mates also doing the Everest climb) and they helped us find the hotel. Checked in, upgraded (figured we'd earned it!) and crashed for a bit. Olivia was feeling slightly under the weather by now so decided to take a nap, I (oli) went into town.

Town (Thamel - Kathmandu) is seriously touristy - there are bars, shops selling trekking gear, sandwich shops, tourist tac, etc. Still, a good atmosphere and really great to have some easy conversation in a native language and see friendly faces.


Went out for a dinner at a great pizza restaurant (told you it was touristy!)... then came back some serious sleeping. Olivia still not feeling great, so Ibuprofen and bed. The power was out just as we came back so lit, although struggled with the wax matches???, the candle provided for the event. Nice to finally be in a bed!

So far so good (mostly)...

In case you didn't catch what we were up to in Delhi before the blog went down I shall give you a brief overview.

31 AUG 2010

Arrived in India (Delhi) safe and sound after a long but comfortable flight. Couple of things that amused us;
- Emirates had paid extra for the installation of mood lighting (including stars on the cabin roof) in their aircraft
- The Indian stood up just 5 seconds after landing and started to collect their luggage from the bins (much to the annoyance of the staff!)
- The time zone is GMT + 5.5. Never been in a half time zone before!

This is a shot through the window of the taxi onto the main road

Delhi was seriously hot - even at 3:30 am when we arrived. Pretty much sweating from the word go. Mostly the humidity that made it unbearable. Sorted ourselves out with an, expensive, taxi from the airport and there after got an appreciation of what the driving was like. Like nothing we had seen before. No lane etiquette at all, he who barges hardest goes the fastest! Wing mirror are folded in or removed all together - they just get in the way when barging. An all types of transport, be it foot, car, cycle rickshaw or motor rickshaw all compete for the same piece of road. Throw in the odd cow and goat, a healthy dollop of hooting and flashing of lights and you begin to get the picture! Arrived at the hotel(ish - more someones house really) shattered and slightly bemused by the whole thing. Still,. pleased to have made it that far without any serious mishaps.

Got taken to the 'tourist office' having expressed an interest in buying train tickets for our upcoming trip to Nepal. Slightly suspicious but the office seemed to offer what we wanted and wasn't overly expensive. We asked to have tickets booked for the AC2 sleeper overnight on the 3rd Sept giving us about three days in Delhi. That afternoon we took up their (the office) offer to take us to some markets. First one was a disappointment - all the international chains, pretty much like London (but HOT). The next one was much more what we expected - crazily busy, but in a way that creates a good atmosphere. Tried some street food, a dahl with flat breads that were inflated using the heat of a stove. Managed to get an Indian sim card too (cannot remember the number at the moment) so can keep in touch.

1 SEPT 2010

Today was the day of the grand tour (also courtesy of the 'tourist office' - noticing a theme!?). We managed to see the Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Qutub Minar, India Gate and the Lotus Temple.

Humayun's Tomb (Delhi)

Great to see the 'key' sights, in particular the Red Fort which was significantly larger than we had expected. It has it's own covered bazaar inside the gate. We also saw the Delhi traffic from a new perspective - a cycle rickshaw trip. Quite an experience, really get to feel like you are in the middle of the hubbub.

The Lotus Temple

Red Fort (from the outside)

Slightly frustrated with the travel company by now, and the reluctance to; A. let us pay and B. release our tickets the assured us were booked. Decided to begin checking up ourselves. Made plans to go to Connaught Place (independently) tomorrow.

2 SEPT 2010

Popped by Ali's 'tourist office' to see if he fancied releasing the train tickets - he didn't fancy and said not to worry and to come back later. Not convinced by his rhetoric we went down to Connaught Pace. What a mess! the whole are is one big building site, supposedly in preparation for the Commonwealth Games. In all honesty there is no way the city is going to be ready, most of the work they were doing was at the foundations stage. Mind you - the are artful bodgers...

Connaught Place was tricky to get around, due in part to the complete lack of signage, the building site and the endless touts trying to get you to go to the 'real' tourist bureau. The true and real one was found eventually but was shut owing to the festival or birthday of a God.

Then went towards the train station, in part to find out where it was but also to check if we were booked on a train. Went to what we though was the tourist train information centre only to be told that there were no tickets available to Gorakhpur (en route to Kathmandu) until mid way through out climb. Starting to get worried at this point. Our only options were to trust Ali at the travel center, that he had booked us on a train, or to buy a flight (which turned out to be prohibitively expensive.)

Slightly disappointed, we returned home on the metro, - fantastic by the way, and Olivia picked up some hareem pants she had wanted at the market at Karol Bagh (our area where we were staying). We popped in via Ali again but to no avail - told to come back later. GRRR!

Later: popped back in to see Ali and finally got the tickets. Quite relieved to have our hands on them. Seemed genuine. Then went to dinner. Found a local curry fast food place and ordered a curry between us. Problem was Olivia reacted to the nuts in the curry and had to be escorted into the hotel next door to use their facilities. Shot straight back after that.

3 SEPT 2010

Pre-epic journey admin day. The train was due to leave at 20.25 so had the day to double check plans, including a trip to Connaught Place to find the station, discuss Indian multiple entry visa issues and find the actual station (which we had not managed to the day before). Felt like C-P pros today, walking past the touts with minimal hassle. Found our way back to the tourist office and  the visa problem wasn't a problem at all. Then found the train station - further away than we thought. Checked at the reservations office that the tickets were indeed the genuine article - they were (cue a huge sigh of relief!).

With time to kill, an seriously disgustingly sweaty by this point we hit that great American institution - McDonald's! Half an hour later we had had recovered an decided to get back to the hotel to collect the bags. Left the hostel at 1800 in plenty of time to catch the train. Grabbed a quick kebab in a recommended cafe en-route to the station.

Delhi station is huge - 16 platforms all packed with people, trolleys, goods and anything else people decide to bring along. The platforms are some of the longest I've seen too. Walking from platform 9 steps to where our carriage was due to arrive took us at least 5 mins. Having found where we though we should be we asked around to double check and got chatting to an Indian chap who works at Amex.

The train eventually arrived into the station at 2100 - not bad considering some were 17 hours delayed! Overall very impressed with the train. Clean sheets and a face towel provided and the cabin was roomy enough - and cold importantly!

Quite telling of how poor the average train user is - the fine for pulling the emergency stop without due cause is 1000 Rs (about 16 pounds!). Managed to get comfortable and settled down to read/sleep. Actually slightly please to have left Delhi behind.

Technical Hitch!

Google, cleverly, realised that Olivia was no longer in the UK and has locked her account until she can verify a code using her phone number! Trick out here. The blog will now be posted from here. Sorry.