Today we walked from Gorakshep to Everest Base Camp!!
We woke up a little bit later and started walking at about 9am. The views were incredible and we were able to properly see Everest, since we missed out on Kalapathar the day before. We were completely surrounded by huge Himalayan peaks and it reminded me of my passion and love for climbing.
We were all wearing our Hawaiian style shirts and most of us were feeling good and excited to get to base camp, our friends’ end destination and the start of Dad and I’s climb. Soon enough we arrived at the famous “rock” that says “Everest Base Camp”. Of course we took the iconic photo, standing on the rock! Normally most people turn around here, but we still had another hour or so to walk to arrive at our expedition company’s setup.
We walked past many different companies, each one usually with a big dome tent (for dining and hanging out), a few rectangular cooking tents, lots of box sleeping tents (big enough to stand and put all of your gear in), and a Puja in the centre (where the Puja ceremony takes place, to ask the mountain for a safe climb before ascents).
It’s like a huge city! Although Dad and I are relatively early to be in Base Camp, there were already people out training in the icefall and doing acclimatisation walks.
We got settled into the dining dome tent, ate lunch, which felt so nice to have something different to the lodge food.
– almost all of the lodges on the EBC trek have the same menu with the same food
Along the trek we avoid any uncooked produce (it can be washed in unsafe water, but from experience, eating fresh fruits and vegetables is fine once you get to base camp. We all enjoyed fresh coleslaw, raddishes, cucumber, carrots, and for dessert, apple and pomegranate!
