Almost standard trek to Everest

A story about trekking to Everest Base Camp in April 2018.

This was not the most standard trek to Everest. Firstly, upon completion, some of us were going to climb Island Peak (6189 m). And secondly, the weather that spring was quite strange. Typically, the Khumbu Valley in April is a relatively dry place. And then suddenly there were rains and snow... All this added variety and made the trip even more memorable.

It was cloudy from the very first day of trekking. After 12:00 the sky traditionally became cloudy, and by 16:00 it usually began to rain. During the day, at an altitude of about 2500, it was +15 and after the breaks, many froze.

In Namche Bazaar (altitude 3400 m), mountain sickness manifested itself on the very first night - headache, insomnia and indigestion affected several tourists from our group.

But the next morning was simply wonderful - the sun graced the mountains and we ran (actually crawled) to acclimatize.

The Nepalese military authorities flew to the Everest View Hotel on a huge MI-8. The helicopter came in to land right above our heads and slightly blew our hats off.

Residents of the village of Kumjung were busy planting potatoes. In these parts, spring is just beginning. The grass is withered, there is almost no greenery.

The Buddhist monastery in which the “yetti scalp” is kept was closed for lunch (the abbot is also a human).

In order not to waste time, we went to a nearby hill, climbed it to the 4000 m mark and sat down to acclimatize.

Gary is the boss of our porters. He accompanied the group on most radio stations and helped tourists. Including your cheerful smile :)

On the descent to Namche we met a teenager who was carrying a new refrigerator on his back...

On the trek from Namche to Tengboche there were a couple of sections that were so pleasant that I even unfastened my trouser legs and took off my windbreaker.

However, the cold wind persistently reminded us of the need to keep clothes at hand. And immediately upon arriving at the place where we spent the night, it began to snow.

At the Tengboche Monastery, our “classmates” underwent a short puja ceremony and were tied with white scarves.

The evening radial to hill 4160 was mostly in fog. But when the wind suddenly blew at the top and dispersed the clouds, the people’s jaws dropped. The sunset was burning over Everest.

Today is Easter - everyone ordered eggs for breakfast and... that's it. They don't make Easter cakes here. But the shelter has a coffee machine.

In Pangboche we had to tinker around before finding a shelter with decent rooms. But unfortunately there were no decent cooks in that shelter ((

The journey to the Ama Dablam base camp was marked by pain. After the 4000 m mark, the miner made a happy life for several trekking participants at once. One of us had a stabbing sensation in his heart and arm. The other one began to gargle. Some people started taking Diacarb the day before and this was also noticeable :)

Unfortunately, at the Ama Dablam base camp the visibility was disgusting - the summit did not open for a second. But there were a lot of climbers’ tents there, and we quickly took pictures with them before they too were covered in clouds.

On the way back, Andrei decided to wash his feet...

And in the evening, the TV was turned on in the shelter’s dining room (a rather rare occurrence) and we were hooked on the Premier League. If I'm not mistaken, Arsenal then won 3:2 against Southampton.

That night it was +8 degrees in our bedroom at the shelter. And in the morning it was funny to hear how differently this temperature was perceived by different tourists. Some were sweating, some were freezing, some were sick.

Well, this morning I put on a powder coat for the first time (usually this happens earlier). And not in order to walk on glaciers (the shelter yard actually froze overnight), but in order to sit comfortably in the dining room. It was already +5 and I had breakfast with gloves on :)

We walked from Pangboche to Dingboche in the standard 3 hours, checked into the Summit Lodge and were surprised to find that EverestLink did not receive Wi-Fi there. This greatly upset the members of the expedition and in the evening we did not fail to go to a nearby shelter for some cultural leisure.

At one o'clock in the afternoon we set out for the acclimatization radial on Nagartsang, accelerated, “put our heads down” and two and a half hours later we were at the first five thousand on this trip.

The weather, however, was not kind. The cold wind forced me to put on a second jacket, and on the approaches to the top the stones were covered with snow. And there was almost no visibility this time. We sat in the cloud for an hour, but never got a normal view of the opposite side of the valley. But Amadablam showed up to us a couple of times.

For the next night, in the village of Lobuche, we also arrived quite early - at 13:00. There was still plenty of time before sunset, which made it possible to do evening acclimatization according to a more expanded program.

We climbed above the village along one of the ribs of Lobuche peak to a height of 5170 meters and got a good breath. Moreover, at the first stop I had to put on a windproof mask - the air was too cold and burned my lungs.

After this there was a traditional exit to the moraine of the Khumbu glacier, admiring Pumori and the first visual contact with Kalapathar.

The room we found was very warm (I slept in just a shirt), it was +7 inside at night, I slept great, no one vomited... This is not a joke. At this altitude (almost 4900) altitude sickness is already rampant. Every night can bring surprises and every morning begins with conversations about well-being.

After pushing through crowds of tourists, by 10:30 am we were already in Gorak Shep. We had to spend the night here in a shared 12-bed room. For tourists, this is certainly not the most comfortable option, but from the point of view of looking after potential patients (and that’s literally everyone), such accommodation is ideal.

After lunch we went to the Everest Base Camp. Again the cold wind, a protective mask and one and a half jackets on me. At the same time, I rolled my trousers down to my knees.

There were a lot of people at the supposed base camp (observation point for tourists) and we had to wait a bit before we managed to take a proper photo of the whole group.

Then we individually went to wander around the real base camp (for climbers). Work was in full swing there - the Sherpas continued to level the sites on the glacier and set up tents for clients.

The walk around Everest base camp took about an hour and a half (not including the road to it and back). Some meditated on flags, others hugged ice towers, I shot a video.

We returned to Gorak Shep at 17:00 in a state of total fatigue and powerlessness. Just in case, I took a Mildronate tablet. Immediately after dinner, at 18:30, half of the group went to bed. And I attribute this primarily to fatigue, and not to the upcoming early rise.

The alarm rang at 3:30. It was -2 in the room (two degrees below zero) and in order not to freeze I slept in thermal underwear (top and bottom), thick fleece and covered with a down jacket inside the sleeping bag.

At 4:30 we left the shelter to storm Kala Pattara. It was -10 outside, and quite light, because... A couple of centimeters of snow fell during the night. Nevertheless, we started with flashlights.

Rising above Gorak-shep, we saw in the distance, in the middle of the Khumbu Icefall, a group also moving upward with flashlights. Yes, these guys were crawling up Everest.

While we were walking, many of our hands (fingers) began to get very cold. For this case, in addition to fleece gloves, I took insulated tops (sold in Namche, I recommend) and felt great... Well, at least I didn’t get cold.

At 5:20 we turned off and hid the flashlights (so as not to put pressure on our heads), and at 6:30 we were already at the top of Kala Pattara.

As soon as I stopped, I traditionally warmed myself up - put on insulated self-release trousers and a down jacket and began a long-planned (i.e., since the evening) series of experiments. I wanted to test how chemical hand warmers work in high altitude conditions.

However, the results of the experiments disappointed me - I activated several heating pads and several thermal insoles for shoes from different manufacturers, but none of them warmed up to any noticeable temperatures. Apparently the experiment will have to be repeated...

Most of the group spent no more than 30 minutes at the top (due to the cold). Thanks to excessively warm clothes, I was able to stay there 30 minutes longer. I took pictures, admired the sunrise over Everest (actually over Nuptse) and, warmed by the rays of the sun, calmly stomped down.

I was at the shelter at 8:30 and soon the sad breakfast began. In the 5 hours that had passed since we got up, we had become thoroughly tired and now we wanted to go to bed, and not have breakfast (zero appetite at all) and not go down. I took Mildronate again and began to patiently chew oatmeal.

There were no special problems on the descent. We gathered our strength, broke through the side glacier, dropped a couple of hundred meters and soon felt that there was more oxygen. It’s a divine feeling when your legs move on their own again, without the every-minute thrashing from more conscious organs.

On the way to Dingboche we were covered in snowfall and we took a couple of harsh Nordic shots.

At the shelter we had a festive dinner and farewell. Most of the group will continue their descent towards Lukla tomorrow. And four crazy people (including me) will go up again, to the village of Chukung. We planned to do the climbing Island Peak (6189 m) and there will be a separate story about this adventure.

Kirill Yasko, September 16, 2019