In which Team Nepal makes it to Base Camp!

3rd January

It was a VERY early morning start this morning as the alarm started blaring off at 4:30am in the morning so that we could pack & eat before our 6:00am starting time. Now I know 1.5 hrs sounds like a long time need for just packing and eating but at this altitude (4900m) even little things seem to take quite a bit out you! After packing my bag I actually had to catch my breathe... which as you can imagine bode well for the rest of the day!! Unfortunately for Alicia - she had to do this all with a splitting headache!! (Altitude sickness rears its ugly head!)

We finally left Loubche at 6:00am extremely cold with our head torches on as it was pretty dark, though after about 30min or so it was light. Our first part of the day was a 3 hr trek to Gorakshep (5140m), our last stepping stone to Base Camp and our final place of resting for this evening & home to the HIGHEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD (imagine that done with a booming Wizard of Oz type voice!)

Anyways, it was a relatively easy trek except for the massive arse hill we had to climb up in the middle... which was you know 'fun' if you like pain... which (to be honest) I don't! But we got up there eventually and had a nice break at the top and watched these Europeans practically run up the mountain.... freaks.

Anyways, we eventually reached Gorakshep at 9:30am and ordered our extremely early lunch (I'm not going to call it brunch as no cantalopes were involved).... and then waited... and waited... and waited... til about 11:30!!

We were actually a lil worried we would not have enough time/light to make to Base Camp, as it was still another 5 hour walk there and back but we all wolfed down our lunches and were ready to go by 12pm (our deadline).

We started out by crossing the sight of the Everest Test Match, which hold the record for the "Highest alitude recorded for a field sport" - I can't imagine playing a game of cricket up here... I think I'd be requesting a runner! The field itself was pretty rocky as well - so I could imagine it'd be quite easy to roll an ankle or two... (not that I need any help in THAT department - I'm quite good at falling over without any external assistance!)

After following the relatively dried up river beds for awhile we ended up walking on the Khumble glacier which kept things pretty interesting as it was pretty up and down and extremely rocky and prone to rockslides as poor Ash found out when nature called! She almost ended up sliding her way to the bottom with a few boulders but luckily Kasia was there to save the day.

We spent quite a bit of the time walking along the 'ridge' of the glacier, which I guess was the easiest path to follow... relatively close to Base Camp, Fangy actually followed the ridge a little too far and the guides had to yell out to her that she was going the wrong away!! (But don't fear... the guides got her on the right path eventually!)

As we got closer to Base Camp the ridge of the glacier actually got quite small and slippery - so much so that KTP and I (the stragglers), instead of staying on the ridge, had to walk a different path as they had determined the ridge was too unstable! Raj and the guides mentioned that this path was perfectly fine the last time they has made this trek (only a couple of weeks ago) but it obviously deteriorated very quickly... Alicia told us later that she was quite scared crossing the ridge as it was icy and about 1cm in width! I was glad that we had the other path!! And then... finally... there is was

BASE CAMP!! in all it's rocky/icy glory!



Now lets be honest. Base Camp is not a very exciting place. It's bloody cold. It's very windy. It's rocky and icy. Did I mention it was cold and windy? (and where exactly the mountaineers camp is a freaking mystery to us!)



But this is a perfect example of how its about the journey and not just the destination. 8 (or so) months ago we decided (unfit, unprepared and completely sober) to do this. Randomly. Out of no where. We wanted to make our way to this place, in this amazing country, fiver thousand and six hundred kilometers above sea level. And finally here we were - slightly fitter, a little more prepared. There's just something amazing about setting, what seems to be, a far off unreachable goal and actually making it. It makes all the pain and toil worth it.



Unfortunately (for me anyways) the pain and toil weren't exactly over... but more on that later.



Our short time on Base Camp mainly consisted of us taking lots (and lots) of photos... though we never got around to taking a big group photo at the camp! Which is a bit of a shame! Kev carried up a can of beer and a few people had a good sip of the (very frothy) celebratory beer, while Raj and guys mixed up a bit of a shandy and asked everyone if they would like some 'sprite'! (Nice try guys!) AND quite a few of us managed to defile BC with a celebratory pee!!



I stuck to the celebratory chocolate - mainly as the trek to BC had taken a lot out of me. It seems I had finally succumb to the chest cold that had been plaguing me for the past few days.



The trip back to Gorkashep was, by far, the hardest leg of the whole trip. It just seemed to go on forever and myself and Marky Mark really struggled (with our lovely companions KTP and Amy).



We got to one part where there was a steepish incline, slippery with lots of small rocks. I half-heartedly attempt to get up but slipped back all the way down. Exhausted I looked to KTP and was all like "I don't think I can do this!" but KTP had my back giving me the advice I needed to get up there!


Anyways, with the sun quickly slipped behind the horizon we did eventually make it back to Gorkashep - about an hour or so behind everyone else. Though it wasn't an easy time for those who made the trek back quickly either. We hears later on that Ash, Kasia and Kev nearly got caught up in a rock slide on their way back!



As we finally walked back in to the tea house the rest of the team gave us a little cheer to welcome us back. Unfortunately for me the day had taken its toll and as soon as I dumped all my gear I was back outside having a bit of a spew.



Which was the begining of a short but horrible even where I split my time between the table (attempting to eat dinner...) and the bathroom (throwing up dinner). Eventually I just headed to bed with Ash's hot water bottle and an extra blanket from Raj to a solid nights sleep.