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Today is the day! I’ve been dreaming about this adventure for years. It felt surreal that in just a few short hours I would be standing at the base of Mount Everest. This morning half of our group decided to make a push for Kala Patthar, which is known for its incredible view of Mount Everest. I opted out since acclimating wasn’t the easiest for me and I had my eyes on base camp over anything else. I will say that it is possible to make the trek from Lobuche to Kala Patthar then onwards to base camp as long as you start extremely early and are feeling very strong.
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The Hike To Gorakshep
The trek to Gorakshep, which is where we would meet up with the rest of our group, was only a couple of hours. It wasn’t a hard hike, but with the fresh snow, it made the trail very slippery and difficult to keep your footing. It was a struggle, but the scenery during this part of the trek was my favorite from the entire week. Every mountain towered over us and was completely covered in snow. The air was so thin, but it was easy to forget how difficult this was on the body because of how beautiful everything around me was. Thinking about how remote and secluded this part of the world is had me at a loss for words. I simply can not describe some of what I was thinking or feeling and with that I would say if you are reading this and EBC is on your bucket list, GO!
Reaching Gorakshep
Reaching Gorakshep warranted a hot cup of coffee and a rest. We wanted to get going quickly to get to EBC and back so that we could make our scheduled helicopter transport down the mountain that afternoon. The walk to EBC barely had any climbing and was a pretty easy trail. For the most part, we were up on a ridge looking down onto the Khumbu glacier.
Reaching Everest Base Camp
As we descended down into base camp the feeling of accomplishing a dream overwhelmed me and sharing it with a couple of my best friends was icing on the cake. We immediately cracked open an Everest Larger and toasted to a successful climb to base camp! We spent some time taking photos and enjoying the views. It was surreal to turn around and make the trek back towards Gorakshep. And just like that, another adventure was checked off my bucket list.
Unexpected News
We made it back to Gorakshep with plenty of time for lunch before our helicopter was scheduled to leave. Unfortunately, the clouds had moved in and the weather down the mountain was unfavorable for flying. After a few hours of playing the waiting game, we were told we would be stuck in Gorakshep for the night. All the teahouses in Gorakshep had already been booked up so we were set up in a tent just outside. At first, this was a lot of bad news at once because I knew to sleep at 16,942′ would be tough on the body, but then thinking about spending the night in a tent at the foot of Mount Everest would be a memory I would never forget. *April 7th, 2018.