The Journey To Everest

This post is a about the journey from Kathmandu to Mount Everest base camp, its almost three weeks long, I've been blogging daily while on the trek so this entry is a bit long with many pics for fun, enjoy!

Pre-departure in Kathmandu

I arrive to Nepal and with the idea of trekking to Mount Everest base camp, I wanted to find a trekking buddy/group to make the way more enjoyable, my plan was to leave Saturday morning regardless, worst comes to worst I'll find people on the way. so after few days of looking all around Kathmandu in many various ways, online, notice boards, asking randoms, and becoming a walking billboard (pic thanks to Juliette Margirier ze French fencer), by Friday I am finally ready to leave on the way to Mount Everest base camp along with Flo from Germany and Raphael from Argentina.

We all wanted to do it without a guide, we got map of the path to Everest, sat down with some friends in a nearby restaurant to plan our trip then we got few accessories, some warm cloth, few snacks, and got some official government paperwork out of the way, and we are set to go!

I wrote this blog on the go every night before bed when we were trekking as lights mostly go out around 8pm.

Day 1

Waking up bright and early to get our 6am bus from Kathmandu to Jiri – The town where we will start our trek from. After getting on the bus with our bags we had a super bumpy ride, I mean like really bumpy, on the plus side the views were just amazing, 9 hours later we arrived to Jiri at 3pm and started our journey around 4pm after getting some snacks then aiming for Shivalaya. The path was mostly uphill, by 6:30pm it started getting dark so we stopped by a small tea house on the side of the road, 10 mins we stopped sweating and it got quite chilly, we put on our jackets scarfs, socks and beanies preparing for the cold night ahead, our sleeping beds/wooden-seats where in the living area where we had some dal-bhat and rice for dinner, we were so tired that we were out cold by 8:30pm.

After few hours hike I learned two things:

1- My bag is much heavier than it should be, it doesn’t seem that way but after walking few hours light bags feel much heavier

2- Walking sticks are super useful, I always thought it was useful but after walking uphill with a backpack for few hours I started to appreciate the real beauty of it.

Day 2

After a storming night with heavy rain we got up 5:30am full of energy as we slept early the night before. We passed by some nice views with rivers and waterfalls, we stopped by a small river to make some tea and enjoy some dry oats as Flo was trying to get rid of the 1kg oat bag he brought along.

After enjoying our tea on a side log we kept going until Shivalaya where we had to get our trekking permit for the area. We stayed in the town for about an hours and enjoyed some chapatti with some peanut butter Flo had packed over.

Heading to Bhandar we reached a small town where the locals made Yak cheese, we had some cheese and it was very tasty!

Later we continued to Bhandar where one of my bag straps broke, I tried to get it fixed with the locals but no use as the bag material was too strong to stitch through, on the good side I could clip few more things around that kinda did the job. We kept walking on the way to Kinja. Just before sunset we found a nice house where we got had some cold showers in nature and had the same thing for dinner as the night before dal-bhat it is, then slept in a room the looked like an eighties-lover room with posts all over the walls. Our Shoulder are really exhausted today, hopefully tomorrow we’d feel better in the morning.

Day 3

Waking up a bit around 7:30am our shoulders were still sore from the long day yesterday we got our stuff together to go on the road, unfortunately we got into a small dispute with the house owner as he asked for a higher price than what we agreed on, the discussion took about an hour of our trekking time. We didn't let a small dispute get us down as we continued on our way and had some nice tea a biscuit breakfast in a tea house. 30 mins later we reached Kenja where there was a checkpoint to sign our names. We knew that today would be mostly uphill and we were expecting to make it to over 3500m, so we had to slow our pace a bit to avoid altitude mountain sickness (AMS), by around 4pm we were all very tiered and it stared raining so we decided to call it a day and wake up tomorrow to continue our trek.

We stopped by a house with a nice family, we got some tea and biscuits to start with before dinner, went around the house and got some pictures with the nice family here.

There is no electricity in the house so we are using some battery lights, we got dal-bhat for dinner but the portions this time were just massive we were very full after dinner. We head to bed around 9pm.

Day 4

We woke up around 5:30am had some tea and made our way to Junbesi, we trek for few hours before getting to a small place to get some yak cheese, the cheese we got had some mold on it we tasted a bit then thought its better to leave it. 

we got to a nice cozy cabin not far away where we sat down for some amazing apple pie(even though it was super deep fried) we needed the energy.

After continuing the trek we got a bit lost for two hours in very misty conditions and then it started raining to add to the dramatic seen, we started looking for routes around but all seemed to lead nowhere.

Once the mist went down a bit we saw a local man far away and shouted for directions he pointed the right path for us, and we're back on the road after two hours (yay!). After a long day of trekking we finally got to Junbesi, we negotiated few overnight prices around and got a nice place. I needed to stitch my bag as one of the straps ripped totally went off today. I got a thread, a needle, and a rock to "hummer" the needle through the bag, the stitching wasn't perfect but it did the trick. After finishing our dal-bhat dinner we had a team discussion, Raphael and Flo wanted to stay in Junbesi an extra day and spend more days in little towns along the way to go on a slower trekking pace, from my side I thought it would be nice, but I would prefer to stay on the move. We decided that the best solution for everyone would be to split up at this stage and possibly meet at a later point, it would be a bit inconvenient but it will allow us to go on our own paces.

Day 5

Waking up a around 7:30am, we split the few things we bought together, unfortunately Raphael was sick this morning and wasn't able to get out of bed to say goodbye, I had few biscuits with Flo, then got my bag and was about to head on my way when I met Khalil; a fellow trekker from Greece with Palestinian background just like myself, what are the odds? He was heading in the same direction so we decided to walk together to Nunthala.

Note:

1) For the past four days of our trek we only saw one trekker other than us, so the odds of meeting any trekker at all were very slim..

2) Throughout my trip in Asia (8 months at this point) I have only met ONE other Palestinian who was a university student in Hyderabad in India (Big shout to you Ahmed! :)). So I'll say meeting a trekker with a Palestinian background in Junbesi out of all places was not high at all.

We had a small break noodle-lunch break while it was pouring rain for lunch. We made our way after it was almost over, on the way we saw some amazing group of monkeys in an old abandoned house, we stopped for a bit and took some photos but all the monkeys run far away in the trees. 

We met many Nepali locals who were carrying goods all the way on the trek. We talked to them a bit, they said they get around 50c per Kilo and it takes them around 5 days walking. So on their best month if they carried 4 loads of 100kg each, 4 times, they would have walked for a total of 20 days and made 200$ for the month. If you think you hate your job think again!

Later around: 5:30am we reached Nunthela, we had few games of cards then ate lovely dal-bhat for dinner, and head to bed around 10:00pm.

Day 6

We got our tea in the morning and aimed for Bupsa, We left around 7:45am we started our path along with tens of donkeys carrying rice. !e were heading in the same direction, few times we had to overtake and sometimes we would just stop and let a group of donkeys pass by.

The path was mainly uphill today, our path was a bit slower from the flat grounds yesterday, we met some local farmers along the way storing some corn.

It took us over 7 hours but finally made it, we debated about keep moving, but then decided to call it a day and chill in this nice town where we did some washing had a hot shower (haven’t had one in while), and played some cards with the owner, and finally had the same thing for dinner and head to bed around 8:30pm.

Day 7

Today we started with some biscuits and tea from one the close houses with a cute child:

We started making our way to Lukla (the "big" town with the airport), the way was a bit of an ascend, but not too difficult. We had to stop 2 hours for the rain as it was raining very hard, we also managed to get some amazing bagels from a little house along the way. when the weather cleared we continued but unfortunately we missed a turn and ended up lost on the wrong way for about 2.5 hours around the mountain.

Finally reached Lukla, after a long journey. Lukla is an actual town where people can fly in, so it is way more developed then any other place we've seen so far with restaurants, cafes, and shops... we saw quite few trekkers around for a change.

Day 8

Just before leaving Lukla around 7:30am I finally got internet connection with my phone, adding to that Khalil was also craving a cappuccino for the last few weeks so we decided to sit in a cafe for me to catch up on some emails and for Khalil o get his coffee dose before we get any higher altitude. By the time we hit the road to Namche it was a around 9am, we started see much more trekkers (compared to the full last week where we saw almost no one), the trek was really nice, the higher we got the better the views, we saw few waterfalls on the way with different sizes:

On the way we met two French trekkers Paul and Nico. we started chatting then we continued the rest of the trek together. 

We found a small guest house in Namche Bazaar with really nice food, we were so tired from the day, we went to bed around 8pm. Today was the hardest day so far; as the ascend was very sharp for around 3 hours just before arriving. Namche is a big town between the mountains, as most trekkers take an extra day or two here to acclimatize here.

On our way up here we met a group from South Africa who  were dressed in Rhino suits. It was funny to see someone with a rhino suit in the middle of the mountains, but it was also a great conversation starter. Their aim was to raise awareness about the rhino poaching South Africa. They are really nice people with a great cause. we had some chats as it was interesting what they had to say, and it was creative way to raise awareness on the issue. Their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/RhinoClimbEverest

Check them out :)

Day 9

Today was our acclimatizing day, we woke up at 7am got some wifi from a nearby bakery with a nice hot doughnut and charged few of our electronics until 10am then started our trek uphill to a higher altitude. We reached an Everest viewing point, this is the first time during our trek to see Mount Everest, it was a bit cloudy and cold but at least now we could see our target even though we are more than a week away.

We continued our ascend to a hotel where staff claimed it was the highest hotel in the world, couldn't argue as I have not seen a hotel over 4000m yet. We had some soup there and then went back through the to Namche passing by Khunde and Khumjung where we saw a French family with two very cute little kids, the dad was a mountain guide in the Alps and got his kids all the way Namche:

We saw more sherpas carrying more and more:

The views along the way were great between the clouds, was really pleasant to glaze into.

We had some momos and noodles for lunch, planned our trip for the next few days then caught up with some fellow trekkers in a cafe nearby

Day 10

Waking up bright and early around 5:30am we started making our way towards the Mount Everest viewing point, while making our way there we saw a helicopter landing so we decided to check it out.

We went there and saw the locals taking supplies from the transport chopper, the pilot was Russian, he was nice and allowed us to take pictures inside the cockpit, so we all took turns posing in the chopper.

We waited till the helicopter took off then continued to the viewing point; on the way we saw some photogenic scenes:

We sat there in the same hotel the "highest hotel in the world"and had some breakfast with an amazing view of Everest and the surrounding mountains.We continued walking to Tengboche, we decided to go a bit adventurous and get off the beating track... we crossed some land then ran into few dead ends, after a while we connected back to a track (that went well I guess)

On our way we met a group of inspiring Venezuelans who had an 11 year old boy with them and an 82 year old man! He's determination to achieve his goal was truly amazing! he seemed to have an invisible billboard on him that everyone can reads, the message was clear: its never too late!

We got to Tengboche where we saw a monastery with monks.

We played some cards inside the dinning cabin and had some dal-bhat then went to sleep. We had a long day but we kept our high spirits up throughout the breaks:

Day 11

We got up around 6:30am today and started making our way to Pheriche, we went down around 600m then gained altitude back with a relatively steep ascend, we stopped by one of the villages for around 30mins, where Paul lied and continued reading his book and Nico checked the map if we were still going the right way.

We continued our way passing many yaks until we reached very close Pheriche, there was a river between us and the village, there was a bridge few mins away, so Nico and myself thought it would be a good idea to ignore the bridge and just cross the river... well, lets just say the river was a bit wider/deeper than what we expected and super freezing cold, we where in the middle of the river and we had to keep going, Paul took a pic for laughs:

Khalil and Paul were giving us directions from higher grounds as they had a better view (by this time they both already got to the village put there stuff and down and came to assist us). Finally me and Nico crossed the river and couldn't feel out feet afterwards as it was freeeezing cold. we arrived around 1:00pm, put our stuff to dry waiting for the fire. We relaxed for few hours then made our way the 3pm briefing session about altitude sickness run by the Nepali Himalayan doctor association, it was an informative talk. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and walked a bit around small town.

Day 12

Last night was super duper cold, we all slept with our sleeping bags, blankets, socks, and jackets, and it was still very cold. Today we had no real rush as we knew Dughla should only be around two hours away, we didn't want to push further as we are slowly approaching the 5000m mark and we need to be well acclimatized to avoid altitude sickness. We got up in the morning got some breakfast and tea, charged our electronics and bought more warm cloth at the doctors center, next to the Everest monument, it had the names engraved of everyone who has died on Everest.

We made our way to Dughla around midday, we were there within 1.5 hours, there was not much there at all, the full “town” was one building, It was really cold and cloudy, we sat around the fire for the day, had some food, played some cards, and enjoyed the freezing nature. We slept around 8pm.

Day 13

Today we had a nice trek, we got up around 7am and started making our way towards Lobuche . The views were amazing, as we could see the snowy peaks in every direction. There was a steep incline the got us all puffing, we could feel the lack of oxygen at this altitude. we got to the top and where we rested for a bit and took many photos. Heres my fly-kick and hand-stand pics, photo credit goes to señor Paul Ruterana:

And of course never forget to have fun!

Day 14

Today is the day! today we make it to Everest base camp. Waking up 5am we make our way to Gorak Shep. We arrive there at 7:30am have an hour tea break and put our bags down at the hotel. We start our ascend on Mount Kala Patar to 5550m the hike was a bit demanding as we could feel the altitude and the lack of oxygen strongly; few minutes would get us breathing heavily. Finally we made it! There we were on the summit of Kala Patar with perfect weather we could see Mount Everest and the surrounding mountains clearly!

I took a video to share the amazing view:

We spent two hours on the top amazed by the views around us and striking many many poses with Mount Everest for our grand kids.

After the breath taking landscape we started moving towards the final leg of our journey:  Mount Everest base camp, we took a different root rather than going all the way back to Gorak Shep, the shortcut was not the simplest one at all, the rocks were unstable and we were on a slope. 

After about two hours we finally made it to our destination, there we were at base camp yeppy! There was an Italian camp and a Korean camp preparing to head up to the summit, the frozen glacier looked great.

Base camp was really small compared to the camps we've been on this trip, but the feeling was of course different than any other. Paul again took both my fly-kick and hand stand pictures:

The kick was not in the best form here, I did let the ball down a bit. I guess freezing cold /walking up-hill/ fly-kick don't mix too well. After an 1.5 hours there, we made our way back to Gorak Shep passing by the lakes

While we were heading back to Gorak Shep we met the two Italians who were aiming for the summit, we had a chat with them, they were aiming to ski down the South summit of Everest, which does sound super extreme and fun! 

We got back around 6pm, four very hungry trekkers, we ordered some buffalo steaks and noodles, played few games of tarneeb and by 8:30pm we were out after our long day.

Day 15

Today is Pauls Birthday! Khalil, Nico, and myself arranged with the guest house to make a cake early in the morning and bring it when we are having our morning tea. We were there with our teas waiting for the guest house owner to bring the cake, there he comes and we start singing happy Birthday the South African rhino group and the other trekkers in the place started singing as well, it was quite a nice morning.

After having our tea and cake we started heading on our way passing some beautiful lakes and good smelling plants.

After around 5 hours of trekking and enjoying the views we reach Dzonglha, we slept in a guesthouse were we met an American guy who started trekking when he was 60 for his birthday and has been doing it for over 10 years now, it was quite an interesting conversation to hear all his stories, his methods, and his experiences in trekking for long periods of time.

Day 16

Waking up around 4:30am we started making our way to Gokyo with a group of trekkers, most trekkers in the village left around the same time, we started walking through a thin layer of snow from last night.

We passed by a small river crossing where it was very slippery, everyone had to help the others so we could cross safely.. After around an hour we got to a very steep incline where we were pretty much climbing the rocks using hands and legs for around 45 mins, it was a challenging climb due to the small parts of rocks covered with slippery ice, finally we got to the top! Our group was one of the first to get there, we sat down took few pictures and enjoyed the amazing landscape, it was a great view.

We continued our walk with more rocks and much thinker snow, we had a steep snow incline then a decline, it was slippery. We kept in the front for quite some time when we realized we were going the wrong way as we saw the others pass by far away, they shouted for us to come up the mountain. It took us about an hour to get there as we were walking on big slippery rocks over the river. I broke my stick when falling down, I was lucky as my backpack cushioned my back and head. Khalil twisted his ankle a bit, but we were both still good to go with no serious damage.

We finally we got to Dragnag we had our lunch there and debated if should cross the glucia today, as it was around 3pm. We decided to keep going. It took us around 2 hours to cross it. it was quite tough; many of the rocks were loose, and its not very easy to find the correct route. It looked similar to the one at base camp:

We finally got to Gokyo it was a really nice town, with an amazing lake view. We sat down in the common area with other trekkers and had some chats. While waiting for dinner we played cards with a Swedish/Canadian couple, they taught us few new games. by the end of night they went to sleep and we started playing tarneeb, it was quite an intense game between Khalil and Paul vs me and Nico, we felt that the owners wanted to sleep so we decided to continue tomorrow morning after breakfast. 

Day 17

We woke up around 7am had some nice breakfast, continued our tarneeb game from last night. me and Nico lost this time to Khalil and Paul.

We took few pics for a quick goodbye as Khalil will stay one day behind and we will go to check the airline tickets and meet him in Lukla or in Kathmando if we find immediate flights.

There we go Paul, Nico and myself heading towards Namche, we had a relatively fast pace, we got to the first village in less than half the time we were expecting. We were having a quick break when we saw a Sherpa going passed, we asked him if we are on the right way, he said that he was also heading to Namche and he kept going, we decide to take the challenge and walk on his fast pace. We kept on with his speed for about 3 hours until there was a very long uphill where we lost him, he was just sprinting up there without much effort. Luckily we weren't too far away from Namche, about an hour later we got to Namche and stayed at the same guest house from the way up.

Day 18

We woke up around 7am and started making our way to Lukla, in our mind this was the last leg of the journey and that we will fly back from Lukla to Kathmandu.

After many ups and downs sun and rain we got to our final ascend when it started raining heavier so we started speeding up. When me and Nico saw the gates of Lukla it was quite a feeling, Nico looked at me and said: the last ascend! We ran up the stairs with our backpacks and got to in the gates! we went directly to the airport where we found an empty building that looked really sad. We asked around, we were told that there has been no flights for the last two days and the waiting list is 19 flights. We went back to our guest house relaxed for a bit, then got a call from Khalil that he arrived to Lukla already, oh what a pleasant surprise! We met up then went to have a drink to celebrate the end of our Everest journey, we met up with the South African Rhino group there, played some pool and had an amazing time with other trekkers we had met on the way, with the good music and everyone congratulating each other and singing some song, it seemed like we were at the end of a movie and the credits are running on the side, truly great feeling of accomplishment!

Day 19

Waking up 6am today I met up with Khalil at the cafe, we sat down to decide whether we should walk 3 more days or take the plane back to Kathmandu, there was a long list for the planes and the officials where not sure if any planes would run in the next few days. Paul and Nico had already bought their return tickets before they left when they flew in. We checked the maps and finally decided that we will wait till 11am at the airport if we don’t get a flight then we will start our walk towards Salieri to get the 19 hour bus to Kathmandu. Khalil went to the airport to take some pics of the landing planes, the airport was quite small.

About 30 mins later he came and said we can get on the next flight with a new company! they started operating recently and doesn't have a big waiting list! we packed our stuff and headed directly to the airport, we arrived at 9:00 waited for few planes to land then we book our ticket from a guy with a suitcase (didn't seem legit at all), by 11:05 after waiting for the plane crew to finish their lunch noodles and morning coffee on the runway, we were finally up in the air! The airplane was very small we took the seats directly behind the pilot.

30 mins later we arrive to Kathmandu. We share a cab with a fellow trekker. Nico and Paul arrived few hours later, we all had well-needed hot showers/shaves/clean-cloth/electricity/civilization...etc. After feeling alive again, our amazing Everest journey comes to an end with some amazing falafel sandwiches in Kathmandu!