11/14--Day 9-- Gorakshep--EBC--Gorakshep--Lukla--29/9/2022

Up bright and early, we set off at around 6 am for the Everest Base Camp. The day was bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Tenzing kept on telling us the need to make good speed as we had to return early to take the helicopters to Lukla. We couldn't have a word with those who had gone to EBC the previous day by pony, as they were sleeping in.

Much to our surprise and relief, Rathika was fine in the morning and all raring to get on with it. We progressed through that last distance, awestruck beyond words or even thoughts at the mesmerising beauty all around us, mighty peaks, snow clad, each towering over 7000m-- Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse, Nuptse.... the glaciers that we saw on the way....the mini avalanche on the hill opposite the one we were on, reminding us of the risk that we were in as well as to be careful on these slippery slopes...we stopped every so often to take pictures.. admired the robin accentors that were flying around us even at this height, looking for crumbs.... as I mentioned earlier, a feeling of being blessed beyond compare stole over me at that moment, as I am sure it did for everyone else in the group, and indeed for everyone who has trekked that fabulous route.

As we neared the goal, the ground got even more dificult, and we had to traverse over large boulders. The poles were now of hardly any use and we scrambled over these boulders using  our hands. Finally, 8.10 am,  and here we were....the end point that we had dreamed of for the last few months, and one that we had obsessed over for the last nine days...the well-known triangular rock with the words "EVEREST BASE CAMP --5364 m" written on it in red paint. 

We stood there and looked all around us. While mighty mountains ring the EBC, the peak of Everest itself isn't visible from the Camp. A sliver of the peak however is visible behind the rock, peeking behind another mountain. However, at one point on the way to the EBC, you get a decent view of the Mt Everest Peak on a clear day, as it looks out from behind the shoulder of Nuptse. And getting that one pic that day made this entire trip worthwhile. 

And joy oh joy, we were the ONLY ONES at that time on the rock. We had been told that the EBC often got very crowded, and each person got hardly 5 minutes to take his set of pictures and to vacate the place. However, we had the next 2.5 hours all to ourselves, and made the fullest use of that time. The day was bright and sunny, and we took pictures singly and in groups, changing our tee shirts right there, one showing our running group Bessie Flyers, the other our respective organizations....displaying banners and flags of our schools, colleges, workplaces...and of course the National Flag. Raj had brought with him a whole set of photos as well as his college banner, the Indian National Flag as well as the Kuwaiti flag. We couldn't take our eyes off the Khumbu glacier, the treacherous beauty, she who accounted for the most lives lost of aspiring sumiteers.  Being non-summit season, the actual base camp below us had barely 2-3 tents pitched in the far distance. It would be a bustling tent city with hundreds of tents during the Summit season of April and May. 

We each made and recorded speeches for our loved ones back home, hugged each other and our guides, and finally sang the Indian National Anthem, with gusto even if lacking time or tune. 

It was now time for the other big event-- to celebrate Raj's 60th birthday. Raj had joined up because of his batchmate (the third couple who had to drop out in the last minute), but what a pleasure and blessing it was that he was with us! A thorough gentleman, generous to a fault, always looking out for others in the group, never ever complaining.... it is a pleasure that our paths crossed and we are all now firm friends! The best birthday celebration for a milestone birthday that could happen to the person who best deserved it, and we were thrilled to share in the joy of the moment.

Finally, extremely reluctantly, after clicking that just one last photograph, or recording just that one last video, we packed up at close to 11 AM and trekked back to Gorakshep. Emotions welling inside each one us, as yet unprocessed, we carefully made it back, receiving congratulations from those who were on their way to the EBC. Those last few meters across the lake bed to the rear of the camp seemed to take an eternity; I kept drawing in great lungfuls of the rarefied air with each step I took. Finally, we all assembled in the dining hall of Yeti Resorts, accepted more congratulations from others sitting there, cut a cake for Raj and grabbed something to eat. 

Lunch done, accounts at the tea house settled, our memorabilia pinned on the walls of the tea house, as was the tradition, surplus items given away to the sherpas and porters, we rushed to pack up and make it to the helipad. Because of the rarefied air above 5000m, a helicopter would only take three pax besides the pilot, and would transport us to Pheriche below. From there, another heli would take 5 of us at a time down to Lukla airfield. That last climb to the helipad was excruciating, a feeling that each step would be my last. Finally, the heli that was to pick Jayashree and me, landed and we got on board, landed at Pheriche, where Rathika and Captain also joined us, and the helicopter took off to Lukla. The views from the copter were scary and exhilarating at the same time, with mighty snow-clad peaks and turquoise blue glacial lakes as we took off from Gorakshep, and threading through in 16 minutes all those areas that we took 9 days to traverse by foot. Beizzati ki bhi hadd hoti hai! 😉 

We landed in Lukla and traipsed upto the Danphe Guest House. The feeling of having achieved what we set out to do was yet to sink in. We ate some croissants and paranthas and ordered coffee. Finally, we checked into our rooms, looked at the modern toilet with a lot of affection, and took the first long, hot shower since Debuche, that seemed so long ago. Fresh and changed to non-trekking clothes for the first time in 9 days, we assembled in the dining area. Bottles of rum and Barasingha beer opened up, as we celebrated the team's success. Still, not too much talk around the trek; that would happen in the next couple of days. We wished Raj once again for a fabulous year ahead and retired to our rooms to sleep the sleep of the dead.