Nepal: my Everest Base Camp trekking tour

Who hasn’t dreamed of visiting a place while looking at photos, knowing s/he will never be able to? Not necessarily because of the cost of the trip, but mainly due to health issues and the level of difficulty. I am sure it has happened to everyone!

I was very confused about what I should mention on my first post about my trip to the Himalayas. What should I share? Information about the program? the difficulties I’ve dealt with? survival tips? or anything that could catch the eye of the reader? It took me a while and at the end, I decided that on my very first post I should just reply to those two questions:

First and foremost, what every single person asks me when he finds out about this trip:

“WHY DID YOU GO THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?”

And the second one, the question I was asking myself every single day, for almost 8 days until I reached the desirable Base Camp:

“WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING UP HERE?”

Let me take you back in time, at the end of 2017, that day I received a message on my Instagram account:

“Namaste, my name is Madhav, I am a trekking guide from Nepal and I organize trekking tours to the Himalayas. I like your photos, what do you think about coming with my group to the Everest Base Camp in May? “

The Everest Base Camp? Me, trekking up to the Everest, the Himalayas? No way! He must be crazy!! ….anyway, I have already booked my next trip to Colombia.

“Thank you very much, I have already scheduled my next trip for this year, and I do not think I am able to go up to the Base Camp, I have a serious issue with my knees.”

“Don’t worry, we will try again next May, I will be the guide of that group, so you think about it, I am sure you can do it!”

“Could you please send me further details, and we will keep in touch” (well, next May is too far my friend …)

So I received the information, and while searching further, I suddenly felt extremely curious about the whole experience: “hmm…it looks amazing, should I start thinking of going there? I have nothing to lose! I will also book extra days to explore more of Nepal, I will trek the Himalayas as far as I can and if I can’t go further, I will give up and come back”

This may sounds funny, but curiosity was the main reason that eventually I said “yes” to that torturous 11-days trekking tour! Poor me, I couldn’t even imagine what I was about to deal with. Although I was already aware of the difficulties in theory, everything was much harder in reality.

What I mean:

When you’re not too young (I’m already 44 years old), your physical condition is moderate (it was top once, but not anymore), there are chronic health problems (damaged knees and lower back issues), yet you opt for a 11-days trekking tour on the highest mountain of the world, what’s the chance of success?

Let me start with some general information about this trip:

The tour begins from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, flying straight to Lukla, the most dangerous airport in the world at 2.860meters altitude. Your feet will be the only way of transportation you are going to use during this trip, while ascending and descending hillsides the whole time (you can also use the local horses between some villages but that will cost a lot). The main problem here is this: trekking other mountains, e.g. the Greek Mount Olympus or Kilimanjaro is like going up, you reach the top and then descend. The difficulty on this trip was that we had to walk up and down the whole time, we didn’t reach a top and coming down was as painful as the ascending.

The walking time felt like never ending (we were walking around 8-10 hours per day). Getting tired of walking while carrying stuff was also a serious issue. Although the heavy one had already been given to the Sherpas porters at the beginning of the tour, each one of us should carry his backpack with personal items, water, snacks, medicine, e.t.c. Temperature at night was below zero in most places (up to -15C), the accommodation was very basic, without heating and insulation, and hygiene was basic to tragic, especially in the last two teahouses where there wasn’t even running water!

The altitude increases gradually, but painfully. And your greatest enemy on the mountain is your body itself! It doesn’t matter if you are aware of the circumstances, or how much you have prepared yourself for that, you never know the way your body and your brain will react to the altitude! The altitude sickness is a very serious reaction of the human body against the lack of oxygen at high elevation. While each human system is unique and has different levels of strength, the sickness could start at the 2.600m! The main symptoms (that can be life-threatening due to fluid accumulation in the tissues of the body): acute headache, fatigue, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, breathing problems, and so on… while you climb, the more intense the symptoms become, as the amount of oxygen is getting lower and lower.

Just imagine arriving at our final destination at 5400m.!

“What the hell were you thinking Maria when you decided to come up here?”

My own problems fortunately started late, later than others.

I faced breathing troubles from around 4.000m., but only while climbing stairs…and just my luck, the path in some places had too many steep steps which burdened my already damaged knees. A slight headache appeared at 4.500m. roughly, but thankfully, a normal painkiller was enough to treat it once and for all.

Unfortunately, my breath was getting worse and worse every moment. I faced a lot of serious breathing issues, not only during climbing. The worst incidents of my trip occurred during the night, when my breath got suddenly short and stopped, while trying to relax and sleep, waking up feeling like passing away.

I wasn’t able to get asleep the slightest for 3 nights in the row, two nights before and one after the Everest base Camp. I had also lost my appetite; eating just one bite felt more than enough. Unfortunately, while that was happening during the 3 meals of the day, I could not be able to consume the proper amount of energy my body needed, and I was feeling weak all the time. My nose had already started bleeding. Plus the fatigue of the full day trekking carrying a 10kilo backpack.

Maybe it was time for me to give up…or not?

“What the hell are you doing Maria up here?”

I really don’t remember how many times per day, and for how many days this question was turning over and over my head! Likewise, I got the answer several times during this torturous journey through the images that popped up in front of my eyes on those hardly accessible areas.

Everything I was looking at and experiencing in places I used to admire in other’s photos a while ago, they were MINE now, my own experiences and my own photographs!!!

Certainly, the highlight was the accomplishment of the goal of this tour: that moment we started walking on the highest glacier in the world during snowfall, and faced the yellow tents of the camping at the foothills of the highest peak of the world as well! That was the best compensation and the biggest reward we could receive for all those hard days up there!

Was it my best trip? Of course not!!!!

 

Was it the most difficult? Of course it was!!

 

Has it been the most thrilling experience in my life so far? UNDOUBTEDLY!!

A man can be proud of many things in his life.

What makes me proud of most of all, is that I have overcome the difficulties and even my own self! Curiosity might kill the cat eventually, but not me!