Besant Nagar to Base Camp

Now quite rested and refreshed, Rathika and I went for an early morning walk around Thamel on 2nd October. We saw hordes of young people, many of them drunk or stoned or both, leaving the numerous pubs and discotheques that dot the area. We wandered around the bustling market, already crowded owing to the Dasain shopping, had tea at a roadside shop that sold pooris in dangerous shades of magenta and yellow, bargained for tee shirts at a shop, eventually picked up four of them, and admired the architecture of the buildings and temples around, though sadly, many of them were dilapidated. We came back to Bistro Markham, the restaurant at the Potala Guest House for a delicious breakfast of toast with butter and jam, pooris and potato subzi and-- for the first time in 13 days-- curd. After settling our accounts, all of us packed up and headed for the Tribhuvan International Airport. We took care to wear the EBC Trek Tee shirts that we had got made in Kathmandu.  As the Air India flight ...

On the morning of the 28th, we commenced what was to the final day of our ascent to the EBC. We were to reach Gorakshep (5190m) in 2 hours, have lunch, and then continue on to the goal-- Everest Base Camp for another 2-3 hours, celebrate our achievement and return to Gorakshep for the night.  However, we made extremely slow progress, struggling to move forward as we neared the snow line. All vegetation barring hardy weeds had long since disappeared. We ascended and descended peak after peak, but Gorakshep remained as far away as ever. The stunning, stark beauty of the massive mountains all around us-- Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse, Nuptse, did partly compensate for the pain that we were putting ourselves through. We spied a tiny, insignificant peak, well, peeking over the shoulder of the mighty Nuptse, and were stunned to learn that peak was Mt Everest 😁 . The whole journey was ethereal, so much so that as I write this a year later, those mountains are as fresh in my mind as if I ha...

 Today was the Acclimatization day at Namche Bazar. This is a day reserved to acclimatize yourself to the height and the relatively low oxygen levels, before you proceed to even higher altitudes. Typically, a short acclimatization hike of say half a day is scheduled, after which one comes back to the Tea House and has the afternoon free to oneself. Also, the hike allows for the "Climb High Sleep Low" principle to be followed on acclimatization days as well, as it is on days of the trek. We woke up (relatively) late and set out at 8 am for a hike to the Everest View Point at 3775 m and then a bit further upwards to 3840 m. Its time now to elaborate on the "We". The reason for waiting till the write up of this day to introduce the dramatis personae of this trek is that before the hike to Namche Bazar the previous day, we really did not know each other all that well, even those who were Bessie Flyers. The trek to Namche from Phakding brought us all together, each helpi...