September 10th, 2010

Labuche to Gorak Shep—side trip Everest Base Camp. Friends in High Places.

This is another long day. The original plan was just Labuche to Gorak Shep (a short jaunt), but Pala has recommended we add on a trip out to Everest Base Camp in the afternoon since we’ve got the time. And we feel that we’re so close, it would be silly not too. I mean, who knows when we’ll be back here. Base Camp had not ever been on our radar for this trip, since we felt it would be the most traveled path, and it sounded less interesting than doing the mountain passes and Kala Patthar, but here we are and why not.

So we take a short hike, a couple of hours, in the sunny morning to Gorak Shep. We stop for lunch, and then Pala and we three ladies head out to Base Camp. I’m still feeling crappy, and Lisa is too, but it’s a sunny afternoon and we set out in good spirits.

The hike starts on a ridge that skirts the Kumbhu Glacier. It then cuts across the glacier (this is one of those grey, rock-covered, lunar looking glaciers that looks nothing like the awesome blue/green snow covered glacier that glows in your mind) to the base of the Kumbhu Ice Fall. This is where Base Camp lies. The Kumbhu Ice Fall is the where the glacier starts to move higher up the mountain and becomes a series of jagged peaks of ice and crevasses. It’s the first major challenge for Everest trekkers and involves a lot of rickety aluminum ladders stretched across deep crevasses. Fun!

Our afternoon is relatively easy and warm. Along the way we run into a Japanese photographer, Yo, and his team. They’re here to shoot an Everest Japanese expedition for National Geographic, only one of two expeditions attempting the summit this fall (most expeditions go up in May). The other team is American and consists of only one man, Eric Larsen.

We had run into Eric in Namche Bazaar. He is attempting to do Everest and both poles in under a year. He’s done both of the poles already and is just starting the Everest portion (check him out at www.savethepoles.com -- he recently reached the top and you can see pictures and read his journals). Eric told us in Namche to come say hello in Base Camp, but when we get there the weather has started to turn and Tsering isn’t excited about going to over to the American tents.

There is no view, sadly, of the peak from Base Camp, and the hike is oddly unimpressive, both in view and difficulty—thrilled we didn’t make this then end-all be-all of our trip. But we’re glad to have made it anyway. One of the members of the Japanese team runs out with some hot grape juice for us, and we sit for a bit and finish the juice and then turn back.

On our way back to Gorak Shep we run into Eric and his guide, Tsering. He hasn’t actually gotten to Base Camp yet. So we chat for a bit and wish him luck before heading back to the teahouse.

We have an early dinner, and after a couple of rounds of Call Break with the boys, we head to bed. We’re going to have a 5 am start in the morning to head up Kala Patthar. We’re hoping if we head out early, we’ll beat the clouds and fog, and we really want sun in the morning as Kala Patthar is supposed to have great views.

Pictures:

Mountain top in the sun.

Across the Glacier (that rocky crap) at a mountain where there was an avalanche that we got to watch

The Khumbu Ice Fall (Base Camp is off to the left)

Base Camp

Us at Base Camp