Jiri to Everest Base Camp--An 18 day trek in the Himalayas

Wow. That's all I can say about what Des and I have just experienced. After 4 days back in Kathmandu, Nepal, we are still buzzing from what has been the highlight of the entire trip for both of us.

View of Everest

Des Jumpin' for joy!

After checking out several different options and speaking to the wise Simon Bolger, we decided we would do the big trek from Jiri to Everest Base camp. This would mean walking on foot for 18 days rather than wimping out and flying into Lukla as well as using a map, local villagers and Sherpas for directional advice rather than a paid guide and porter to carry our bags. We rented feather down jackets and sleeping bags before we left and took with us the bare minimum (literally 1 change of clothes each--we were mingin'!) in our 45 liter back packs and set off to find the way for ourselves!

The bus-ride out to Jiri was probably the most terrifying bit of the entire journey. It was more horrible than any bus ride we experienced in India as it was raining and the back end of the bus was fishtailing up the extremely narrow and mile high roads through the mud. As we got higher and higher up the mountain the rain turned into snow and ice and I have never feared so much for my life! At one point we were stuck and the bus was reversing back and forth for about 20 minutes right beside a million foot high cliff with nothing stopping us from dropping right off it. Looking out the window, all we saw was down...down...down. We were nearly tempted to get out and sit on top of the bus--at least if it flew off the cliff we could jump off to safety! Anyway, we refrained and made it up alive but decided at that point we would fly out of Lukla at the end of the trek rather than do the extra days hiking and busing.

As it was off-season we had the mountains almost entirely to ourselves for the first week--definitely a happy coincidence as sometimes there can be so many tourists throughout the year that people can't find places to sleep and end up sleeping on the floors of the hostels/guesthouses. The down-side to going at the time of year we did is that it was bloody freezing--but definitely worth every bit of hardship for the breathtaking and ever-changing views that opened up to us each day.

The first week was probably the most strenuous of all the trekking (aside from the latter trekking to catch the big views of Everest). It was literally up and down, up and down, up and down, throughout the valleys going from beautiful green hills to freezing, snowy passes (the Lamjura pass was a nightmare--I spent every 5 minutes on my bottom from all the ice on the trail). We trekked for 6-9 hours each day and passed through all the local villages where we would stop for tea (we added tons of sugar for quick energy boosts) or very basic meals which we would be absolutely ravenous for by the time it came!

Des making water from snow

Icicles!

Avoiding the sun on our faces

Roadblock

As there are no roads, everything is carried up by yaks, donkeys or people (sherpas) and therefore, the higher we got, the more expensive things were--Des measured the cost of goods by inquiring how much his beloved Mars Bars were at every destination. The local Sherpas we passed were absolutely amazing with the amount of weight they could carry (many of them trudging through the snow in their flip-flops) some carry up to 90 kg--we even saw a man carrying a fridge on his back! The yaks and donkeys were bullies of the trails-we were always yielding to them.

Sherpa carrying fridge

Sherpa carrying load

Yak-Jam

Yak behind wall

Yaks carrying goods across high bridge

Tunnel of snow covered trees

We stayed in little tea-houses for the nights--the most simple of rooms that were unbelievably cold--we would always ask for extra blankets to put over our sleeping bags and I would climb into every single layer of clothing I brought with me each night. The rooms themselves went down to -15 degrees and we would awake to frosted windows every morning. Our titanium water bottle (which we filled with village water, snow or river water with iodine tablets or chlorine drops) even froze one night and we awoke to shards of ice being sprayed all over us! We always tried to find a tea house with a chimney which would ensure we would have a heavenly warm pot-bellied stove where yak-poop dipped in white spirits was burnt and where we could sit around at night and dry our shoes and socks. Des often helped the locals chop wood and start the fires--they all loved him!

In bed with every warm item I owned on

Glacier river

Most of our dinners were simple but carb-filled pastas, spuds, sherpa stew, or Dal Bat (Lentils, veg and rice). We also had some lovely apple pies, hot chocolates and popcorn which we would always look forward to! Des tried yak meat and I ate yak cheese (similar to Parmesan--not my favorite). Showering was rather traumatic as the water was either freezing, and I mean FREEZING cold or we would get a hot bucket shower at a very high cost that would be more painful to get out of than it was worth!

Eating well deserved spuds and cheese with fried egg!

Des eating apple pie!

 All the villages were filled with beautiful and friendly people--especially before Namche Bazzar in the less touristy parts of the trek. The children were gorgeous with their red wind-burnt cheeks always greeting us with the biggest smiles and putting their hands into the prayer position and enthusiastically hollering "Namaste!"

Along the way, Buddhist prayer flags, prayer wheels, mani-walls, stompas, monasteries, chortens and rock paintings were everywhere. We got very superstitious and made sure to always go clock-wise around them, to say the mantras and spin the wheels.There were some beautiful hydro-powered prayer wheels that we passed by after we'd cross the very high and long chain bridges that hung over the turquoise blue-glacier roaring rivers. There were some lovely little houses spread across the valleys set against the most stunning of backdrops. We passed lots of hanging dried corn and simple gardens with scarce vegetables (I even stopped and bought 2 raw carrots from a random lady in a village on the way down from basecamp--was craving some crunchy veggies in a BIG way after eating cooked mush for nearly 3 weeks!) There were baby animals in every single village we passed--puppies, lambs, kids (goat's), kittens, you name it--we had the most adorable little puppy follow us up the high and very steep paths for hours on 4 very tiny legs! We passed newly-budding rhododendrons of very beautiful and bright colours, the most beautiful bird I have ever seen (it was the same shape as a pheasant but the colours of a peacock--even brighter and more illuminous), snow leopard prints (no sign of the YETI--except for a dried mud print hanging on the wall in one of the tea-houses), stairways of high, vast and green paddy (rice) fields, high stacks of firewood, and tons of little shops selling whatever goods they could get up to their neck of the woods. All our meals were cooked either on an open fire or in this big silver satellite dish-looking thing that heating water through solar-power...great invention! (Especially in Nepal where the capital city is without electricity for 16 hours a day! They rely much to heavily on generators---the villagers cooking methods are the way to go!)

Solar heated cooking

Stairway of rice fields

Snow leopard prints

Lady washing hair in snow

The puppy that followed us for hours

Des and lamb

Mani-walls (walk clock-wise around them)

Des turning prayer wheels

Hydro-powered prayer wheel

Mani-wall

Prayer flags

Des found us 2 very sturdy bamboo sticks which became our reliable walking sticks for the entire journey--completely made a world of difference on the snowy paths! One day it snowed so badly that we got stuck in our tea-house (in Tengboche) for the day. It was fine though as we used it to acclimatize and play cards. We also went to the village monastery and listened and watched the monks in their heavy maroon cloaks chant and pray while drinking chai. It was very magical in the snow and especially when the monks started skiing down the hills in their robes! The next day the path was semi-covered but we managed to find our way higher and higher up the mountains through the snowy tree tunnels of birches that were covered in what looked like green cotton wool to Dingboche where we took a full day to acclimatize and did a smaller day-trek to Chukung which was very beautiful.

Monks skiing in robes

Monks running into monastery to hide from snowfall

Staying warm!

Bamboo where Des got our beloved walking sticks

As we climbed higher and higher each day, the temperature dropped and the snow increased, the sun got stronger and the stars became inexplicably bright and stunning (it was unfortunate that it was too cold to take the time to sit and admire them). Our faces started falling off due to the climate. I hadn't looked in a mirror in about 2 weeks and I scared myself when I did! I nearly didn't recognize myself--my skin was so chapped and almost wrinkly which I attribute to the counterfeit Nepalese sunscreen we were stuck with for the whole trip (we only noticed it said SPF 35 Skin "MISTURIZER" rather than "moisturizer") we are still suffering the wrath of that one!

Des and Blooming Rhododendrons

We had a couple of really unforgettable evenings with people in the mountains. One in particular was the night we stayed for the first time above 3500 meters and about 20 local sherpas stayed in the same tea-house. It was pure and utter chaos with an adorable 2 year old (whose smile reminded me of Benji's), a baby lamb, puppy and kitten that curled up by the fire at the same time while all our clothes hung around the fire drying, (meanwhile the lamb's mother kept sticking her head in the door or crept in the house jumping over all the furniture causing quite an alarm), the lady of the house cooked for all 22 of us at the same time, some of the Sherpas got drunk off oin (Des and I tried it--a hot alcoholic drink made with rice water and some other stuff--smelt like apple cider--very nice!) and I tried to have a bucket shower in an outhouse that I had to trudge through the snow to get to in bare-feet...it turned out to be in the box shed where the hay was stored that fed the goats--I had to tip-toe around goat poop in order to get clean! It was hilarious! It was such a great experience to see how the Sherpas interact with each other though and how they spend their time after what I'm sure are excruciatingly long days with extremely heavy loads. Des and I spoke to them and discovered that many of them double their body weight in what they manage to carry. Also, most of them actually have the last name "Sherpa." It's the same thing in India where the caste system is very prevalent and the last name determined the career. (In India many places have stopped using a last name in order to alleviate prejudices. Anyway, we also learnt that even they can suffer from altitude sickness if they don't acclimatize properly-although their hearts have adapted (it would take us 3 generations to adapt the same way) to allow them to function better with the mountain climate.

Above: kid by fire/ Below: Outdoor toilet

Lamb, puppy, baby and shoes all huddled by the fire

Little one eating porridge right from the bowl

Another very interesting evening we experienced was in Dingboche when we celebrated a South Korean's 59th birthday with the group of random people that were staying at the tea-house. We had fish sausages, red-bean jelly and a few sips of Everest beer (I was a little tipsy off that small amount at the high altitude) all brought over from Korea.

I spent my 27th birthday in the heart of the mountains, trekking for only half the day and the other half spent eating the treats that were available at the local shops and staying warm and out of the rain! Des ordered me a snickers cake but there was a deliberate misunderstanding on the bakers part and he made me the 35 euro version which we refused to take!

The views were unbelievably spectacular and as Des said, we were at most times surrounded by an "amphitheater" of mountains. It especially felt that way when we were down lower trekking through the valley, looking up all around us. Literally a panoramic, 360 degree view of the most stunning sights--all encompassing us in one little moment--it was absolutely surreal! Once at Gorek Shep (the last stop before base camp) we literally felt like we were on a different planet. I felt like we were on the moon and Des felt like we were in a scene from star wars.

On the glacier

The last day before our descend, Des and I climbed to Everest Base Camp in the morning and did Kalapathar (where the view of Everest is best) in the afternoon--needless to say, we were absolutely knackered by the end of the day! During the trek we were normally in bed by 7 or 8 pm and up by 6 am. We climbed up narrow ridges and through a scary event of dodging rocks and stones that were constantly sliding down the mountain on the way to Base Camp---you could here them rumbling and at one point a big one landed right in front of Des--we made a run for it!  On the way up to Base camp there are lots of deliberate piles of stones---some that are for good luck and others as memorials for those that died during their expedition up Everest and the other surrounding mountains. There are some crazy stories about people who have tried to summit Everest and a great book to read is "Into thin Air" which is about the freak storm disaster in 1996 which left 12 people dead. It is certainly something neither Des and I have the desire to do---it seems ego takes the leading role in people's quest to be able to say they have reached the highest point on the planet.  However, people get there they have to immediately turn around to come back down as time up there plays a major role in life and death. (In other words, climbers don't get to enjoy the moment of being up there or relish in the views) and the amount of dead frozen bodies still up there is numerable.

Memorials

Anyway, base camp was a big enough achievement for us, although the place itself was much of a non-entity--simply a section of stones on a glacier where climbers begin their trek up Everest and pitch their tents. It was amazing for us though as we were literally the ONLY people there (most other times of the year, I believe it is packed) so we just sat taking it all in and listening to the cracking of the glacier and ice moving. We saw an avalanche and the surrounding views were loads of glaciers, ice falls (a frozen water fall that moves really slowly each day--in summit season people actually move the ladders each day to help the climbers get across this part--apparently the most difficult of the entire Everest summit), turquoise ice peaks, giant boulders, skies that looked like a fake background and of course the biggest mountains in the world! We were lucky to have a beautifully clear day and so saw everything we wanted to!

Base Camp

Kalapathar was one of the most difficult climbs we have ever done. It was 1.5 hours (meant to be 2 --woohoo!) of straight steep up hill. The higher we got the more blistering cold and windy it became--it literally took our breath away and made the climb even more difficult. With utter exhaustion we reached the top and took in the deserving views (5,550 meters). It was surreal to sit and stare at the highest point on the planet (Everest at 8,848 meters).The best view of Everest was right in front of  our eyes, not to mention again, the panoramic views of all the other mountains. There was only one lady up there at the time and no other trekkers so again, it was absolutely peaceful. Feeling "on top" of the world we literally ran down and have been buzzing from the experience since!

Way down from Kalapathar

We flew back to Nepal's capital (Kathmandu) from Lukla which was a 35 minute flight but rather terrifying as the air strip is extremely short with a  little hill. We were in a 10 person passenger plane that felt like a ride at the fair, being thrown around up and down, back and forth by the valley thermals--it is apparently one of the most dangerous airports in the world and there have been 3 crashes in the past 2 years--but we figured it was  better than the dodgy bus! We're alive!

Namche Bazaar

We are happy to say, it took us only 18 days to get up and down with 2 days off trekking for acclimatization.(Most people take around 23 days to complete the trek). It took us 2.5 days to get back to Lukla where the little airport is. We have felt a new sense of accomplishment and euphoric natural high that is unforgettable. It has been both an individual growing experience as well as the most brilliant thing we could imagine to do as a couple---we pulled each other through the tough climbs, relished in the memorable moments and got to the top of the mountains together! Go team DNA! x x