Outdoors4Life

Day 1 – Kathmandu

Arrive in Kathmandu and get situated to fly out to Lukla where the hike starts.

Day 2 – Lukla to Phakding: 10km, Starting altitude 9350 ft. Destination altitude: 8500 ft

After the “world’s most dangerous flight” into Lukla, today’s trek started with a gradual ascent and was mostly an easy and gradual descent into Phakding. This was the first day that I crossed suspension bridges – and the group made sure to ‘rid’ me of my fear of heights!

Day 3 – Phakding to Namche Bazaar: 14km. Destination altitude 11,300ft. Altitude gain: 2800ft.

NB is set in the heart of mountains and is a huge trading hub of the region and is a very popular, bustling town with lots of shops and activity and is one of the last places you can withdraw cash – which you will need for EVERYTHING – from charging your phone to potable water to toilet paper. Today, we started to see Doodh Kosi river which would be our guiding path for the rest of the days. We stayed here for 2 nights for acclimatization and did short hikes the day after.

Day 4 – Namche Bazaar acclimatization day

Climb high and sleep low. This mantra helps the body acclimatize to the high altitudes in a safe manner. We had two acclimatization days built into our itinerary with Namche Bazaar being the first one.

Day 5 – Namche Bazaar to Tengboche: 12km. Destination altitude 12,650ft. Altitude gain: 1350ft.

This was the hardest hike of them all (except for EBC). It started off with a steep climb – making us out of breath on the get go, it was one of the longer distances, we descended a bit on extremely rocky, uneven and treacherous terrain and it ended with a strenuous climb of about an hour. But when we climbed to the top to see the Tengboche monastery and the divine mountains surrounding our tea house, it was all worth it! They say this place is revered and serene – and I can attest that I’ve never come across a place that inspires divinity like this.

Day 6 – Tengboche to Dingboche: 12km. Destination altitude 14,300ft. Altitude gain: 1650ft.

Our bodies had resigned themselves to the punishing xxx that we were putting ourselves through and today’s hike didn’t feel quite as strenuous. This is also where the tree line gave way and the scenery changed from forests to barren, rugged landscapes. It also started getting significantly colder with no trees to block the cold winds (or the punishing sun). With no trees to block the views, the mountains rose in all their majestic glory and we drank our fill of glorious mountain views. We spent an extra night here for acclimatization and did punishing steep ascent acclimatization hikes on our ‘rest’ day.

Day 7 – Dingboche acclimatization day

Climb high and sleep low. We could tell that this mantra was working. Punishing acclimatization hikes of a short 3 mile distance really took something out of us and we were gasping for breath at every step – but it definitely helped our bodies get used to the low oxygen level and high altitude and we were able to cope with the next days’ hike better.

Day 8 – Dingboche to Lobuche: 9km. Destination altitude 16,300ft. Altitude gain: 2000ft.

Our guide assured us that it was supposed to be an easier hike today. Thoda upaar, thoda neeche aur chalte rehna…. (loosely translated it means just slightly up, slightly down and keep walking…). Getting out of Dingboche was a painful uphill trek for the first 45 min which is actually a long time to be gasping for breath at that altitude. From that point on, hike was relatively chill for the first couple of hours. Then we reached the river and it was uphill Moraine terrain after that. Those couple of miles absolutely killed me. Rocks all the way, slippery conditions. So many times I was focusing on the rocks under my feet and looked up to come face to face with a train of yaks. It is surprising how you tune out the yak bells when you are focusing on being able to breathe and not break your ankle at the same time! After a torturous 2 mile moraine terrain trek, we reached Everest memorial which is built in memory of 31 trekkers who perished on Everest? A good 15 min restored my lungs to a point where I was able to cover the rest of the 5km of relatively flat, gradual ascent in good spirits.

Day 9 – Lobuch to Gorakshep to EBC: 9km + 8km. Destination altitude 18,300ft. Altitude gain: 2000ft.

At this point, we were at an altitude where the oxygen level was low enough that it was impossible to catch your breath. Sleeping was torture because I couldn’t breathe – it reminded me of the very last few days of my pregnancy when my baby was sitting on ALL my organs (ladies out there probably know what I’m talking about!). It didn’t get any better when we were upright either. Pretty much everyone had AMS symptoms by now – headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting… gathering the courage to walk almost 20km was something I have no idea how any of us did. It was -25F outside (without accounting for windchill), the ground and the trails were frozen over and it was a miserable start to the hike. Luckily, we warmed up soon into the hike and the excitement of finally reaching EBC today propelled us forward! After an initial plain plateau, the terrain today was treacherous – rocky, technical, mixture of sand and rocks. We walked on top of a narrow ridge (2 people wide) sloping away to the Khumbu glacier on one side and rocky mountain terrain on the other. After covering a patch of rocks that had me jumping around like a mountain goat (with help from my group!), we finally descended to the Everest base camp – the culmination of a long ‘tapascharya’.

Day 10,11,12 – Quick descent back to Lukla with night halt along the way depending on the distance covered during the day.

Going back down is a MUCH faster process.

There are no acclimatization days on the way back, so you are essentially covering 6 days worth of hike in half the time. It is brutal on the knees, but you are not gasping for air with each step – in fact, each step down brings more oxygen with it. So, it is infinitely easier to go down than up. For people like me who didn’t have vacation time from work, helicopters from Gorakshep are also a good option and cover the distance in 20 min rather than 3 days!!!