It took us a total of 7 day to go from Gorak Shep all the way back to Kathmandu, retracing almost the exact same steps we took on the way up. This porter is also heading South The trail home We lucked out and the weather was just as beautiful going down as it was going up. Always sunny and thankfully it got increasingly warmer as we descended in elevation. Continue reading Everest Trek Days 16-21: The long journey home→

When I say that functioning at this altitude is difficult and painful I’m not kidding. At some point in the middle of the night I actually bolted up in bed having a mini panic attack because I couldn’t breathe. I ripped off my scarf and hat and just sat there gasping for breath and breathing in short, rapid succession. It took me a few moments to calm myself down, to Continue reading Everest Trek Day 15: An Everest sunrise and starting home→

Today is the big day - EVEREST BASE CAMP! Our goal, which we executed quite nicely, was to travel from Lobuche to Gorak Shep (the highest town and last stop before base camp), find a place to stay, eat lunch, and head off to Everest Base Camp. The trek from Lobuche to Gorak Shep was a bit more difficult than we all anticipated, pretty much exclusively due to the altitude. Continue reading Everest Trek Day 14: Lobuche to Gorak Shep - Everest base camp! Finally…→

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I can’t believe it’s Halloween already and we’ve been trekking for 13 days now. Unfortunately no one else in my group shares my love of the holiday as they don’t celebrate it in their respective countries. As we hiked off into the Himalayas that morning, leaving Dingboche far below us, I tried desperately to explain the epicness of Hocus Pocus to my fellow trekkers. I even quoted it a Continue reading Everest Trek Day 13: Dingboche to Lobuche - A day of Power Rangers and glaciers→

Today was our rest/acclimatization day in Dingboche which would normally mean sleeping in, but seeing as sleep has eluded me (and pretty much everyone else) this entire trek I was still up bright and early after a fitful night’s sleep. And it was bloody freezing. Even the yaks looked cold For some unknown reason the staff of the guest house did not light the gas stove that morning. We were Continue reading Everest Trek Day 12: Dingboche - A beautiful walk through the mountains→

When we woke up this morning it was so damn cold in our rooms that none of us wanted to get out of bed. All of our clothes were basically frozen which didn’t help. When I did eventually pull myself out of bed to get ready for the day, I found myself waiting outside the bathroom while an Indian guy was shitting his brains out for about 10 minutes. I Continue reading Everest Trek Day 11: Tengboche to Dingboche - Nasty neighbors and private guesthouses→