Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch
May 3, 2010 – We Reach Our Goal: Everest Base Camp
This is Leila reporting from Everest Base Camp. Today has been an extremely full day! We woke up to snow in Gorak Shep but that didn’t change our plans of going to Everest Base Camp. On the contrary, it made it more exciting. We all slept well and had no symptoms of high altitude, we are all eating well and are excited to go.
A helicopter evacuation on the way up to base camp
The higher we trek, the more drama that we see. Today we saw a person being evacuated by helicopter as we were leaving Gorak Shep for Everest Base Camp. It is always a wake-up call to try to understand and respect this place. Life at high altitude is not a joke and that’s one of the reasons why Berg Adventures always takes time and are not in a rush to get up high.
I am proud to say that we were all doing well as we moved slowly but surely towards EBC, taking our usual breaks for photos, water and bathroom or just plain enjoying the scenery. As our longtime Berg Adventures friend, Rob Dunn, would say, we're "taking it all in!"
As we approached base camp, it was interesting to see the number of expeditions and also to note the fact that trekkers are not always welcome here. The climbers are working really hard to stay healthy for their climb, and all it takes to blow their Everest summit plans is for someone to arrive here with a cold and before you know it, everyone on your team is sick. So we were very careful and made sure to wash our hands upon arrival. We also used hand-sanitizer and tried to keep our hand-shaking and hugging to a minimum, even though it is not always easy.
Jamie was awesome, he couldn't have
made us feel more at home.
Berg Adventures has a great camp site set up here. Our climber, Jamie Clarke, is sponsored by Hanesbrands who has a ton of new gear that they are testing on Everest this season. All our teams received some great Hanesbrands gifts; t-shirts, baseball hats, wool hats and even a poster. We felt like Christmas had come early.
We had lunch in our dining tent and made sure to visit the yoga tent, which is set up for relaxing, reading, stretching and maybe even doing some yoga.
If you are spending many days at base camp, it is really important to have a tent where you can just chill out and relax, read a book or catch up on the latest magazines and news from back home.
Jamie Clarke was absolutely awesome and extremely friendly with the entire team and happy to answer any questions. He is a perfect ambassador for Hanesbrands.
Well, the weather was not so great by this point, and knowing we'd be dealing with some deep snow, we had to leave base camp and hit the trail back down. We had decided to skip the extra night in Gorak Shep and go further down to Lobuche where the air is thicker. In Lobuche, we also plan to cross paths with Wally Berg who is hiking up with the Hanesbrands team.
We are on our way down now and soon we will be back in Namche and Kathmandu!
The team gathers before leaving Gorak Shep for base camp.
The trail to base camp was covered in deep snow.
Everest Base Camp is just around the corner.
Standing at the official Everest Base camp sign.
Some expeditions are quite careful about visits from unexpected trekkers.
Jamie Clarke and Scott Simper made our team feel a hundred percent welcome.
Our dining tent was a welcome sight at EBC.
Jeremy in our dining tent.
Sometimes you have to find ways to amuse yourself when you live at base camp for too long.
This yak was guarding the entry to Everest Base Camp.