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Hello all!
We arrived back in Kathmandu a couple of days ago having completed our two week trip to Everest Base Camp and to the peak of Kalapathar. We met some great people along the way and in our Intrepid group, and we were really pleased to be able to complete the trek with Sam and Ollie, especially having not seen Sam in so long. After playing touch rugby in Fiji for 10 days we didn't feel in terrible shape, and we couldn't wait to get going!
We had a couple of days in Kathmandu before the trek started, there is a real energy all over the city and we have found the people to be incredibly helpful and friendly. We were put up in the Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel, which was a nice change to the hostels we have been staying in so far. The weather here is just like a very hot English day, which surprised us on arrival; we had been expecting it to be a lot colder! You can tell immediately that people come here exclusively to trek; every other shop is trying to sell mountain equipment, and it is very easy to get some incredibly good deals.
Having met our guide for the trek and our 12 person group the day before, we left the Guest House at 5 am for our flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. This was an amazing experience; the plane was tiny and was simply run by a propeller on each wing, while the runway into Lukla airport was incredibly short and led straight into the side of the mountain! Once we arrived in Lukla, we had some breakfast (the typical Nepali breakfast is 2 eggs on toast, with spiced potatoes and a banana (although the food deteriorated in quality as we got higher!), and then got started with a two hour, predominantly downhill hike to our first accommodation in Phakding (2610m) - a nice easy day to get us started, walking along the milk-white Dudh Kosi river. The sun was absolutely pounding down, and we actually got quite burnt. Our first teahouse was not a bad standard, but we realised that things quickly cool down in the evenings when you are staying in the mountains..!
The next day was the start of the real hiking, we got going at around 8am and walked for around 3 hours before taking an early lunch, this was followed by a great afternoon where about half the group decided to push on and climb about 700 m without taking much time for breaks. It was really nice to feel like we were working hard in such beautiful surroundings. Although we did feel bad for some of the locals who were carrying supplies up the mountains to the guesthouses; some carrying easily over 100kg while we just had our day packs. That night we stayed in Namche (3400m), where we had a really nice guest house and a last opportunity for a shower! We stayed in Namche for two nights, as the next day was an acclimatisation day. On the acclimatisation days, we would climb up to a certain height, and then came back down to stay in the same place as the night before so that we could gradually get used to the altitude. On this day we climbed up to 3900m, and we were treated to our first view of Everest. We were woken early and did a pre breakfast climb to a viewpoint, where there was also an interesting museum which explained some of the history of Everest and the amount of work it takes to even get to the position from which to start climbing.
The next day the walk started very slowly, which led us to get a bit worried that we weren't going to be working hard enough throughout the trek; we felt that working really hard should be part of the experience. We were allowed to take our own guide for the rest of the day which was brilliant; we did some great hiking with far fewer breaks, and finished the day with a really steep incline into Phortse Gaon (3900m) where we were staying for the night. The only downside to speeding off in the morning was the long afternoons sat playing cards in the cold! The teahouse in Phortse Gaon was very basic, but we had a nice warm bucket of water to wash in, and a great night's sleep. We were also treated to a great view of the mountains, which we could see from where we were laying in our beds.
After quite an unsubstantial breakfast, we headed off for a beautiful morning walk past some huge rockslides, and some very narrow paths (which we had to share with some very wide Yaks!). We also had the opportunity to pop into a local monastery which was in full flow, it was an amazing sight to see all the monks chanting and swaying in unison. That night we stayed in a very cold guest house in Dingboche (4410m), we were now at the highest point we had ever climbed to (the highest we got in Peru was 4215m), we were also treated to the best Dal Bhat (a Nepali curry) that we had had since Kathmandu!
Day seven was another acclimatisation day; where we trekked up to the Amadablam base camp at 5000m. This was a brilliant climb, up a 60 degree face where we had to climb with both hands and feet to get to the top. At the top we had an incredible view of both the Lhotse and Amadablam mountains, it was such a great feeling to get up there and it made me so excited for the rest of the trip. Again we had a free afternoon once we got back down, this was the downside to the trek - we seemed to have brilliant mornings while the afternoons were just spent twiddling our thumbs.
The next day was the day that the altitude seemed to catch up with quite a few people; we climbed from Dingboche to Lobuche (4991m) which was a 5 hour trek covering 7 km. Sam and Ollie really struggled in the evening, while some of the girls were feeling very sick. The hike itself was one of the best days in terms of scenery, with very clear views of Lhotse and Amadablam again. We were also very lucky to be on the path of the 'highest marathon on earth' - the Everest Marathon. It was great to be able to cheer on the runners (especially the English!), and our guides best friend actually ended up winning the race for the second year running. The evening was spent playing trumps and trying to get rid of stomach cramps before an early night - the next day we would be waking up at 4.30am to get to Everest Base Camp!
I slept better than I had expected, and after getting to bed at 8pm, the early morning wasn't too bad. We had a 3 hour pre-breakfast walk to Gorak Shep (5140m) where we would be staying that night, and then after breakfast we began the ascent to Base Camp (5364m). This was a 5 hour round trip through some very challenging terrain. It was incredibly rocky, and you don't want to look up as you realize you could easily get caught in a rockslide! Base Camp was far different to how we expected it to be; it was very sparse and deserted (although I don't know how it could be any different!). We had been hoping to meet Josh Lewsey on his way back down from his Everest attempt, but unfortunately all the climbers had already left. We were also a little disappointed of the view we had of Everest from its Base Camp, although it was easy to determine how hard it is even to get to the first camp past the glacier. The views of the other mountains were spectacular, and we were still very lucky with the sunny weather. After descending to Gorak Shep, we had an even earlier night as the next day we would be leaving at 4am to attempt to climb to the Kalapathar peak (5540m) in time for the sunrise.
After leaving the guest house a little late in the morning, we were worried that we might not get to the peak in time. Ollie and I decided to push on with one of the guides (who looked alarmingly like a Nepalese Ricky Ponting). It was a really tough climb, especially in some strong winds near the top, but we made it just in time for the best sunrise I have ever seen, and an incredible 360 degree view of the Himalaya range. We couldn't hang around for too long due to the wind and the fact that it was bitterly cold, so once the last of the group made it (only 6 of the group made the peak), we decided to head down and try to warm up. The rest of the day was spent walking down to Orsho (4100m), this was a really long day walking downhill and was quite tough on the knees. We were all very tired when we arrived at the guest house, but this was a brilliant day that I will never forget.
There was a feeling that the hard work had been done by now, and that all we had to do was get down; everyone had had quite enough of the altitude by now! The next day was still really good fun though, the weather was fine and we were able to take in some incredible scenery along the way, the days were longer as well as we were traveling further. The highlight of today was the visit to the Tengboche monastery; it was so bright and colourful and was set in a beautiful location where we had our final view of Everest. That afternoon we arrived in Namche again for the night, and we couldn't wait to have our first shower since the start of the trek! As this was our first night back in near-civilisation we had a celebratory night out; we played some great games over dinner, and smoked our victory Cuban cigars!
We were feeling very worse for wear in the morning, and we left the guest house at around 9.30 am to start our final days walking back to Lukla. We knew it would be a long day, but we weren't prepared for how tough the hike was! When we finally arrived in Lukla we were absolutely shattered after the 7 hour day, and we fittingly felt like broken men after the incredible two week trek. We had a nice reminisce that evening, and flew back to Kathmandu early the next morning. The flight was amazing again; the runway just ending off the side of the mountain, and the views on the journey back were breathtaking; we felt a real sense of achievement.
Ollie and Sam headed off this morning to travel into Tibet before returning to England overland through China, Russia and the rest of Europe, while Jules and I have another couple of days in Kathmandu. On Monday, I fly into North India for my last 5 weeks, and Jules is flying to Bangkok to spend time in Cambodia and Vietnam until he comes home at the end of July.
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