Had a sound sleep yesterday night and got off the bed @ half past 5. All set to reach our final destination, Gorak Shep, at an altitude of 5164m. We were gonna set this as base and do EBC, Kala Pathar. As usual, started @ 8, path full of rocks and rocks in all possible sizes. One would have to invest some time in understanding this formation, hardly you could see any vegetation on the hills, rocks placed all over. We reached "Gorak Shep" just under three hours into the trek, and put up at hotel "Paradise". Finished our lunch and all set to do EBC in the afternoon. We dumped all our luggage and backpacks in the hotel, as we'd return back to the same place after doing EBC. We were then a little lighter and set off for EBC. EBC is at an altitude of 5364M, this means you gotta gain 200m altitude from Gorak Shep. Om Bahadur Ji was leading us through the mountains and explained us to be a little extra cautious as rocks could slide down at any time, and that left us a little worried, but moved on. Terrain was very dusty all through, and at times slippery. Into the trek twenty minutes, we could see the tents in yellow, blue and red colors appeared as some dots at some distance, and we were told that was the base camp. This fuelled our body which was kind of giving up after some serious week trek, and helped us to keep that hunger to reach EBC. Let me tell your that was some real distance we had to cover to reach EBC. All this while, we were walking around some rocky mountains on the one side of the river pass and we had to cross the river sometime to reach the Everest Base Camp.
After gruelling two hours into trek, at around half past two in the afternoon, we had crossed the river (a dried one) and landed our foot in the Everest Base Camp, 5364M. It was a "Dream Come true", and we, were the first three ones from our group, who did it, Kanchuki, Sudhir and I. We captured few fine moments near the Everest Base Camp.
Lemme explain you my take on Everest Base Camp. It was 1 in the afternoon, no trace of sun at all, Mt. Everest and all other peaks surrounding it were hovered by clouds, heavy wind was going across, not even my woolen gloves and multiple layers could stop my shivering. We could hear some strange noises at regular intervals, guessed it may be the noise coming out of glacier falls, Om Bahadur concurred it. Small small water bodies which we could see around were completely frozen and I tried breaking them hitting with stones and failed to reach my objective. It is pretty apparent that this place experiences below zero temperatures 24x7.
Tents and Expedition camps were still some distance to cover and Om Bahadur Ji had some business at the camp. So, he marched on, and we followed him. We walked past one set of tents, and there was a clear sign board at the entrance which said "No Entry". Meanwhile, some serious drizzle also started, in fact, a snow fall, that fit my requirements, what a marvelous sight that was. I was completely taken away by the sight of Everest and didn't feel like placing a foot further. I'd taken off my gloves and down jacket and found a rock to just lie down and see Everest. I initially shivered for some time, but decided to beat it as this rock gave me the best view of Everest. I let my other folks go ahead and decided to spend some quality time till they come back. I could see Kanchuki and Sudhir, moving towards the expedition camps along with Om Bahadur Ji. I slept on the rock, you don't believe it, my body acclimatized to the conditions and my shivering stopped soon after. I stared and stared and stared, at Mt. Everest for close to fifteen minutes. Spent some invaluable time at that spot, all alone by myself. I moved towards the base camp milestone as I'd seen Kanchuki and Sudhir tracing their way back. As I neared the base camp milestone, I saw Ali, Swetha and Ramesh posing for photographs with two ladies. I congratulated all three of them and met the two ladies, who were around 165cm tall and slightly plump. One of those, hailed from Haryana, India, Mamatha Sodha, and was planning to summit that saturday, 22nd May, 2010. I wished her all the very best. Another hailed from Nepal and she seemed to have summitted Everest once. I too posed for a couple of photographs with them and considered myself to be damn lucky. This was truly a great day in my life. Meanwhile, Kanchuki and Sudhir have also joined us from the expedition camps.
Swetha, Ramesh and I have resumed our journey while other folks still wanted to spend some time. We met Paddy, as usual, accompanied by Kiran marching towards the Base Camp. She wasn't too long, hardly a thirty minute walk from the place where we met. We wished her all the best and moved ahead. Reached the hotel by 5 in the evening and straight away hit the dinner hall. I shared all my stories with the Pune batch at the dining hall, they were all ears to me. Ali, Sudhir, Kanchuki and Padmaja had joined us after thirty minutes. Had my dinner and hit the bed to catch some sleep by 9 in the night.
A memorable and an eventful day comes to an end here.
Sorry but I couldn't laugh when you said "river" on the side. That is the great "Khumbu Glacier". As you might have realized, the base camp is actually setup on top of this Glacier and is actually a floating mass.
ReplyDeleteAlso from where did you get the view of Everest from the base camp? Actually you wouldn't. The Everest is actually not visible, all you see is Lhotse face from there and the great stretch of Khumbu ice fall.
I wouldn't actually appreciate this idea of going to EBC as a continuation to Lobuche-Gorakshep trek, as you are greatly risking the Khumbu Glacier view (EBC to Advance base camp route) when you are there post-lunch. The early bird might get a view but consider the weakest person .. all he/she would see is low flying clouds!