Alessio’s Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

October 2, 2014 – Made it to Kala Patar in Great Style!

Today's episode of the Grizzle Mountain Man and his trusty sidekick, Sweaty Mess begins with a few safety moments. The first is that sunglass MUST be worn to avoid snow blindness. See the picture of the Grizzle Mountain Man looking very cool in his shades. Based on this photo, perhaps he could have a second career as a sunglass model.

The second safety moment is to always be prepared. This will be explained further down.

Before the adventures begin, we would like to outline a few very important definitions we have learned since the beginning of our trip which will help in explaining the adventures:

1. Mountain – any pile of rock OVER 6000M
2. Hill – Any pile of rock LESS than 6000M but greater than 2000M
3. Canadian Flat – section of land greater than 5 meters that is does not go up or down (i.e. is actually level)
4. Nepali Flat – section of land that is not a hill or mountain (there is always up or down), nothing in Nepal is flat
5. Trekking – walking on a path at a reasonable pace as there is actually oxygen in the air
6. Trudging – trying to progress on a path but due to lack of oxygen progress is about the same as walking on the moon

So it has been a few days since our last update, so we will start with our walk from Pheriche to Loboche. This day started with about 2KM of Canadian Flats. This was followed by a dodgy bridge over a creek (see pic) then The Grizzled Mountain Man found the ONLY fast food restaurant in Nepal.

Next, came a Hill (see definition above). This hill was somewhat troublesome as the air has been getting thinner and thinner as we go. At the top of the hill, is the Everest Memorials to remember those that have lost their lives in pursuit of their dream to summit the highest mountain in the world.

See picture. After walking around this area, the Grizzled Mountain Man has decided he does not need to climb Everest.

After arriving at Loboche, there was a quick acclimatization period (i.e. Nap), then we proceed to climb the Hill (Glacial Moraine) up to our first view of the Khumbu Glacier. On this Hill, we surpassed 5000M for the first time. See the Pic “High Five for 5000M”.

Loboche is at 4900M, this means the air is extremely thin. For example, this morning, I sat up in bed, unzipped my sleeping bag, stood up, had a drink of water, and then had to take a minute to catch my breath.

The air is extremely thin this means any step is difficult. We have not progress from Trekking to Trudging slowly.

Today, we walked from Loboche to Gorak Shep which is at 5100M. The morning was beautiful and clear. We got lots of great mountain photos. Then as we decided the 2 hrs to get here was not enough, we proceed to climb another Hill called Kala Patar. It must be said that the only reason we made it up to the 5650 M summit was because of the assistance of our wonderful guides Min and Jetta. The air here is even thinner so it was very much a challenge to make it up!!!!

From the summit of Kala Patar, we were overlooking Everest base camp. If you look CLOSELY in the photo, you can see a few tents. This provided a perspective on how much higher we were than base camp.

As we made the summit, the weather turned for the worse. The wind came up and the SNOW started. It was cold. But as we were well prepared (and a little scared of being cold) we pulled out our winter gear. However, there was a couple right behind us who were not so prepared. They were freezing but refused to turn back. This comes to the second safety moment, always be prepared.

Listen to Bonnie's call from the top of Kala Patar

As we had additional layers we did not need, we lent them our extra gear. They started down the path and were headed the wrong direction, our guides had to help point the way, and then they followed us off the mountain.

Once again, confirming our decision to go with Berg Guides. After the hike, they were kind enough to return our gear to our lodge, restoring our faith in human nature.

It should be said that while we are trekking with a reputable company with knowledgeable guides, we have seen a number of things up here that really show how important safety and altitude knowledge is. We have seen a number of helicopter medi-vac escorting people off the mountain, we have seen people riding horses to get off the mountain, we have seen people lost, and a number of other people who did not properly acclimatize and are just plain sick. This trip is not for amateurs to undertake by themselves.