XP: SUPER long trip report: Everest Base Camp Trek

[jordylee]

OK, so I think I am finally recovered enough, rested enough, and motivated enough to do a post about my trip. It will probably be an insanely long one! Apparently I am only allowed 3 attachments, but you can see the pics from our trip here

We flew into Kathmandu and spent the first two days getting things sorted like permits, deciding when we wanted to start our trek, and picking up a few final bits of gear (mainly trekking poles, which we were sooooo glad to have). We found a travel agent (whose office was tucked upstairs in the back of a scarf shop and looked super sketch) who we found recommended online to buy plane tickets to Lukla. You can't buy plane tickets online or directly through the airport, so you are pretty much required to use some sort of sketchy looking travel agency if you're doing it on your own without a tour group. Our tickets were literally handwritten on a piece of carbon copy paper, so I was a little wary. The pollution and air quality was a bitch and I had a sore throat and cough pretty much immediately, so I was anxious to head to the mountains. Before we left we visited a few temples, ate a lot of food, went to some markets, and did some general people watching. It was Diwali (festival of lights) so we enjoyed watching everyone decorating the outsides of their homes/shops and getting everything ready for the celebration. Also, this is where I will tell you we are huge dorks and brought our own pulse oximeter so we got our baseline stats before heading up to altitude. I'll put the stats at the end.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We got to the airport in Kathmandu for our 8:30am flight into Lukla. Remember those handwritten tickets on carbon copy paper from our good friend at the sketchy travel agency? I started to get a little skeptical when there was nobody at the airline's check in area until about 10 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. We showed them our ticket, and they told us to sit down and wait. So we waited. And waited. We checked back a few times, and they said to wait. Eventually they let us through into the gate area where we waited some more. On the screen, it said our 8:30 flight was on time, but it was now 10:30. Eventually around 11:30, the lady from the check in area came and got DH and I and said it was time to go. We walked out to the plane with one other person (a local from Lukla) and got in. The lady told us that we were lucky, our plane was only 3 days old! The flight itself was uneventful. It is only a 25 minute flight, but the runway in Lukla is literally a 460m strip with a 12% grade that falls off the edge of the mountain on one side and goes straight into a wall of mountain on the other. So that part was a little unnerving, to say the least. We stopped for some lunch before setting out on our trek.

The first day, we walked from Lukla to Monjo. Since we got such a late start, we had the trail pretty much to ourselves for much of the afternoon. Because of my complete lack of research, I found out that the trek includes several really long, really high suspension bridges and I am afraid of heights. Fun stuff! I nearly had a panic attack on the first one, I was nervous about the second, but after that I crossed them like a champ. When we reached Monjo, we picked a place to stay, got some dinner, and went to bed pretty much immediately. We were both wiped from such a long day.

The next morning we made our ascent into Namche, the last real civilization and place to get supplies. The walk up was a bitch, with tons and tons of switchbacks. This is where I will say that our original plan was to do the trek by ourselves with no guide or porter. I felt weird about paying someone to carry my shit, and we had seen people carrying literally insane loads that seemed inhumane. Well, about 3 hours in, I told my H "when we get there, we're getting a porter". He was agreeable, but still wasn't keen on it. We finally made it and asked the lady working at our teahouse if she knew somewhere we could hire a porter. She told us that it would be really difficult to find someone, but she would try. 10 minutes later, Puna arrived and he was our new companion for the rest of the trip. We combined the "heavy" stuff (our bags weren't actually heavy... mine was 10kg and DH's was 13kg) into one bag for Puna, then DH and I divvied up the lighter stuff for ourselves. Puna ended up carrying ~15kg and we paid him a very generous rate of $20/day (most pay $12-15, but I didn't feel right about it). We went over our plan using (and by "went over" I mean pointed at a list of villiages - his english was extremely limited) and set up a meeting time two days later. We spent an extra day acclimitizing, getting cash from the ATM (which was a several hour ordeal), and resting up.

This is already insanely long, so I won't go through every single day or anything. But we hiked for ~4hrs/day for the most part. Our accomodations were $2/night, with the stipulation that we must eat their food. We slept in anything ranging from a room that was covered in carpet (including the walls and ceiling) with a private toilet to a plywood shed containing nothing but a wooden bed with a 1in foam mattress and a shared plywood box with a hole dug in the ground to squat over. Many places had no running water, so showering was few and far between. We discovered partway through that if you asked the kitchen, they would give you a bucket of warm water to wash off with for a dollar or two. We were vegetarian for the duration of the trip, because any meat up there had to be flown in from Kathmandu to Lukla then walked by a human up the mountain, unrefrigerated. We ate a shit ton of dumplings/eggs/rice, and played about a million games of cards. It was really really cold, and the only heat came from yak dung-burning stoves in the dining area (so we generally went to bed shortly after dinner each night)

During the actual hiking, we saw some of the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen. I was amazed at how clean the trail was, despite the fact that it is so heavily touristed. I was also surprised by how hard it was. I've done a lot of hiking, but it was the hardest thing I've done. I got sick with a cold midway through, and that plus the altitude really took the wind out of me. Toward the highest elevation, I couldn't sleep much and basically felt like the most out of shape person ever. But we made it. All the way to everest base camp, at 17,598 feet. Base camp itself was just a pile of rocks with a lot of prayer flags and a sign, but it's about the journey more than the destination. On our way back down, we made great time and actually ended up staying a few extra nights in Namche because we had extra days.

After we flew back to Kathmandu, we had a few days before heading to China for the "relaxing" part of our trip. I think I'll save that for a different post on a different day. If you've made it all the way through this post, you deserve a medal!

On to the heartrate/O2 stat info. These were taken resting, first thing in the morning after waking up.

Sea level: HR 55 / O2 98%
2800m - Monjo: HR 69 / O2 93%
3440m - Namche: HR 69 / O2 89% (day 1)
3440m - Namche: HR 83 / O2 97% (day 2)
3880m - Tenboche: HR 85 / O2 88%
4530m - Dingboche: HR 93 / O2 85%
5000m - Labuche: HR 102 / O2 85%
5184m - Gorakshep: HR 103 / O2 74% (I felt like shiiiiit this day; thankfully it was our highest night sleeping)
4240m - Periche: HR 80 / O2 88%
3440m - Namche: HR 75 / O2 91%
3440m - Namche: HR 71 / O2 92%
2610m - Phakding: HR 63/ O2 97%
1400m - Kathmandu: HR 56/ O2 98%


Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/397455/super-long-trip-report-everest#ixzz3LE36ZY4h

[mrsd2006]

Amazing photos. What are all the flags in the picture at the base camp? Do you just leave your flag there?

[jordylee]

The smaller flags are all prayer flags, and you can leave your flag there if you like.

[MNH2013]

Sounds great! Do you think it was a good choice to do on your own or looking back would you have gone through a company? Could you have gone higher without a company?

This is one of my big places I have wanted to do forever. Just reading the requirements of some companies makes it seem daunting though.

[osumelissa]

Sounds amazing and such a once in a lifetime experience! What great photos!

[peppermint]

wow OP, great trip report! you are a certifiable bad ass and have confirmed for me that i would not be able to do this trek. congratulations!

[jordylee]

Dec 8, 2014 9:54:43 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

Sounds great! Do you think it was a good choice to do on your own or looking back would you have gone through a company? Could you have gone higher without a company?

This is one of my big places I have wanted to do forever. Just reading the requirements of some companies makes it seem daunting though.

I would absolutely AVOID using a company at all costs (I'll explain why in a sec) if you have any trekking experience, I strongly recommend hiring a porter on your own (you can do it in KTM, Lukla, or Namche really easily) to help carry your heavier stuff. We had small packs (40L) and still ended up sharing a porter because the altitude just makes it hard to carry any weight. If you're a confident hiker, you really don't need a guide... but if you feel like you want one, they are also extremely easy to hire independently. The trails are extremely easy to follow and the few places that there was a fork in the path were in villages with lots of people around to ask. Even with a language barrier, it is super easy to just look confused, say the name of where you are heading, and they will point which way to go. Everest base camp is everest base camp. You go to the same place(s) whether you are on your own or with a tour. If anything, you have a lot more flexibility on your own because you can add on additional side treks if you want to instead of being confined to a rigid set schedule.

Now, for the reasons I recommend against using a tour group to do this trek:

• They go at their own pace that they have pre-determined. If you are a fast hiker you will feel held back, and if you're a slow hiker you'll feel rushed.
• You will always be surrounded by at least 15 people. One of the really nice things about this trek is the solitude, and just taking in the nature and beauty around you. I feel like it wouldn't have quite the same surreal feeling if you are constantly in the middle of a giant pack of people
• This is a really big one. If you need an extra day to acclimatize and you are with a group.... too bad, you are on their schedule. We met countless people who were alone in teahouses that got left behind by their tour group. Either they got sick (pretty much everyone gets at least a nasty cold), had altitude issues, or just really needed a rest day. In any of these scenarios, the tour is going to move on and do what is best for the group and not what is best for the individual. We met someone who had to be brought to a lower altitude by horse because she needed more time to acclimatize but the group couldn't get off schedule. She pushed herself too hard and ended up having to wait alone halfway up until the rest of the group was finished and on their way down.... so she never actually made it to EBC. If you were traveling solo, you could have the freedom to take an extra day here or there if you needed to.
• I really don't feel right about the treatment of the porters hired by the big tour companies. They were often kids that looked as young as 14 wearing flip flops (and it is REALLY REALLY cold). They carried ridiculous loads (I would estimate 150lbs+) and they don't pay them very much because they are such big companies that they will just find whoever they can to do it as cheaply as they can. I had heard stories of porters carrying ridiculous amounts of things and having poor working conditions, but I really didn't expect it from some of the more reputable tour companies (I'm looking at you, GAdventures...). By traveling independently, we were able to pay our porter a very good wage and make sure that he was properly equipped and carrying a reasonable load. Ethically, I really just wouldn't feel right using porters the way the travel companies do. It is sad.
• A smaller thing... but it feels pretty badass to have done it on our own. Also, we had really great interactions with lots of other independent travelers that we probably wouldn't have had if we were with a tour group.

[MNH2013]

Thanks for the response! I hadn't really looked into it a ton since I figured I'd be a few years out physically. I will definitely do more research when that time comes.

You make good points about schedule. That is one thing H always wants when we go somewhere, to do things at his pace.

We decided to make a trip next year to do some mountain hiking in Colorado just to start getting a baseline.

[scout8]

Thanks for sharing. I loved reading about your trip. It isn't something that I would ever do (I'm too wimpy), but I really enjoyed reading about it.