Everest Base Camp 2000

Mount Everest 29,029 feet (8848 meters) Highest mountain on Earth

In the year 2000 Curtis and Sheri did the trek to Everest Base Camp. Prior to the Everest trip they had been trekking in Nepal near the town of Pokhara completing the Annapurna Circuit in 21 days. Sheri was adamant that we were going to trek to Everest Base Camp while the climbers were walking up to base camp to start their attempts on Everest. From Pokhara they took a bus on a windy road for ten hours to arrive at the Thamel District in Katmandu. Thamel is so tightly packed and busy it is not possible for a bus to drive into to it. We were dropped at the edge of the district and wandered around in masses of people until we came to the Katmandu Guest House. We walked in and got a cheap room in the basement of the old wing. 

Curtis on the rooftop of Katmandu Guest House

After we arrived there was a Communist protest march and demonstration that went noisily all through Katmandu. The next day, the day we were to fly to Lukla, the communists had declared a national strike day and everything was to be closed, including all businesses, roads, taxis buses, everything. the threat was they would smash your widows in and rough you up. At this time pretty much every other country on earth was throwing off communism and Nepal, being the crazy place that it is, was embracing communism. We met up with a Canadian team at the guest house that was planning to attempt Mount Everest. They said we could ride with them to the airport. Next day we left early in the morning. The Canadians had a bus we rode in and they had put the word “Press” on little signs in the windows. The streets were abnormally empty and fortunately nothing happened on the way to the airport.

Canadian climbing team loading gear at dawn.

Our Pilots and the de Havilland Twin Otter aircraft that flew us to Lukla

This is how our trek started. We had tickets to fly on March 27 to the village of Lukla which is located south of Sagamartha National Park where Mount Everest is located. By taking the flight it cuts out 10 days of trekking each way through the low lands. Because of the mountain terrain, Lukla is the only airstrip around. The gravel strip slopes steeply uphill and ends in a 20 foot stone wall below the Himalaya Lodge. Our trip was self-guided; we used a guide book and a map. We had light packs, carrying a sleeping bag and cold weather gear, but no cooking gear or tent. We planned on staying at tea houses which are located all along the trek. We had no reservations, no porter, or guide.

Lukla airport

Plane landing at Lukla

The route in the mountains is well traveled. From Lukla the route follows a stream (Dudh Kosi) to a high suspension bridge and then up a steep climb to the village of Namche Bazaar. From Namche it continues north up a valley and passing by the beautiful mountain called Ama Dablam. here the route climbs a terminal moraine on the east side of the valley and it crosses the boundary into the Khumbu Glacier region. The trail runs along the west side of the Khumbu Glacier to a sharp bend east where Everest Base Camp is located on the rocks and ice of the glacier at 17,700 feet. We were trekking during the start of the second high season. The first high season is in October when everything is green from the rainy monsoon season. We visited during the second high season when it is not raining, but coming out of winter so the vegetation is dry and dead. Mountain climbers start walking up in April for summit attempts in May or June. They use yak trains in the Khumbu, in contrast to the Annapurna Region where they use ponies. The porters carry woven baskets that come to a point at the bottom, called a ‘doko’. This is how everything moves in the mountains.

Curtis (in the yellow jacket) enjoying some sun and breakfast at Lukla

Porter taking a break with his loaded "doko" basket. He carries a stick to brace the load to take the pressure off the thump line across his forehead.

After breakfasting at Lukla we walked north towards Phakding. On the route through “suburban” Lukla they were building many more guest houses. Everything, including forming the stone blocks, is done by hand. The walk undulated and climbed and it rained a little. We were going through a Buddhist area and there were many religious carvings and paintings on the rocks. We stayed at a lodge right at the end of suspension bridge in Phakding.

Curtis in front of huge carved mani stones and prayer flags.

Yak train coming up the trail in the rain

Bridge outside our lodge at Phakding

Next day we trekked along the stream to a high suspension bridge. From this bridge it was a steep and grinding uphill walk to Namche Bazaar. This climbing section of the trek pretty might weeds out trekkers who are not used to the walking, or to the altitude, or who have a bad stomach (which is common), or a combo of the three. We trekked through the center of Namche and walked to the upper part of the village and stayed at Panorama Lodge at about 11,700 feet.

Bridge over the Dudh Kosi

Curtis on the bridge over Dudh Kosi at the start of a steep climb.

Namche Bazaar is located in a cirque bowl at about 11,700 feet altitude.

Sheri in front of Panorama Lodge in the upper part of Namche Bazaar.

During the trek we timed our altitude gains so that we could acclimatize properly. So we stayed two nights in Namche. During the days where we were not advancing our trek we would do acclimatization hikes, to walk as high as we could go with light day packs and return at night. So from Namche we day hiked up to Khum Jung village which is where Edmund Hilary established a school for the Sherpa people. Along the way the first stop was the Everest View Hotel where we had a hot lemon on their deck at about 12,700 feet (http://www.hoteleverestview.com/hev.html).

Rush hour in Namche Bazaar. Yak train clogs the narrow track.

Downtown Namche Bazaar

View from above Panorama View Hotel

Curtis on the deck of Panorama View Hotel in Namche. Morning sun settles the stomach, heals the altitude, and by afternoon the cold wind will be ripping.

Busy kitchen at the Panorama Hotel. Everything is on the honor system. When you eat or drink something you write it down in a book. They add up your entries at the end of your stay.

Huge Buddhist mani stone painted with prayers. The mind blower is its the same four words painted over and over: Oom Mani Padme Oom. A six syllable Sanskrit mantra. Literally "jewel is a beautiful lotus flower", but the true meaning is profound or maybe it just produces a nice internal vibration when chanted.

Curtis having a hot lemon on the patio at Everest View Hotel. The tippy top of Everest is visible (top left).

Sheri on the patio of the Everest View Hotel. There are specially fitted aircraft (Pilatus Porter with one big ass engine) that can land and take off from a short air strip a mile from the hotel (at 12,400 feet its the 4th highest airstrip in the world). Every room in the hotel has a view of Everest and every bed has an oxygen tank next to it.

Sheri from high above Namche Bazaar.

We trudged on to Khum Jung village were we discovered they had a bakery and the bakers were taking apple pies out of the oven just as we arrived. Curtis had three slices. We walked to the west and took a less traveled route back to our guest house in Namche.

Buddhist chorten in foreground. Thamserku (21,700 feet) in the distance.

Buddhist Stupa in Khumjung village. The eyes of Buddha are always upon you.

Stupa in Khumjung village. Mani stones in the foreground are piled up to make a wall.

Students outside Edmund Hilary's school in Khumjung village. Piles on the ground in the foreground are composted straw and dung (human and otherwise) that will be turned into the stony soil as an amendment. Nepali Tenzing Norgay  and New Zealander Edmund Hillary were the first to summit Everest on May 29, 1953. Hillary established a foundation that built schools and hospitals in the Khumbu area.

Grazing Yak in Khumjung village.

The next day we struck out for the village of Tengboche (12,700 feet). We had met a little circle of trekkers who were going the same way and we all trudged along crossing streams and up yet another hill. Unfortunately for Curtis his digestive track began ailing and he had a gruesome trudge just trying to make it from one switchback to the next switchback. We arrived at the village and stayed at a trekkers hut behind the gompa or Buddhist church. After reclining and having several Coke Colas, Curtis revived himself. Apparently a village women had died recently and someone made a contribution to the gompa to commemorate her life. So the Buddhists organized a big ceremony. Everyone was invited. We went in and took off our shoes as is the custom (shoes are dirty). The place was nearly full and it smelled like dirty feet and BO. Incense burned to cover the odor. They chanted and a bunch of monks played instruments and spun prayer wheels. It seemed like a cacophony of random noise, blasting of a horn, crashing of a gong, but there was an old priest who was following along in a huge book and indicating who was to do what next. They would take breaks and everyone got tea. It was freezing in there so we left after an hour or so.

Suspension bridge at the start of the climb to Tengboche

Yak train crossing the suspension bridge. Each prayer flag has a Buddhist prayer written on it. With each flap in the wind a prayer is sent out into the aether.

Curtis on the trail up to Tengboche

Buddhist Gompa at Tengboche.

We trekked on to the village of Dingboche. On our right was the poetic peak called Ama Dablam (22,350 feet). We passed along the west side of the mountain and then turned east into a side valley and passed to the north of the mountain at Dingboche. We stayed in a plywood room in a trekker lodge.

Musk deer grazing in the rare clump of woods. Most woods have been cut down and most wild animals have been eaten.

Ama Dablam (Elev 22,500 feet) a poetically majestic mountain.

Curtis by a mani wall. Each stone has hundreds prayers carved on it. Lhotse (Elev 27,940 feet) in the distance, fourth highest mountain on earth.Quiet mornings give way to windy afternoons. Winds can rip at 100 miles per hour at the tops of the mountains.

Yak carrying trekking gear.

View from Dinboche Village. Stupa in foreground, stupa on top of a hill, and the north aspect of Ama Dablam.

The village of Dingboche located at 14,800 feet elevation is situated at the lower end of the Chukhung Valley.

We did an acclimatization day hike from Dingboche east into an incredible glacial valley. We walked to Chukhung Village (15,500 feet) and onward where several glaciers come together in a wild landscape of rock and ice.

We trudged off trail up a ridge to about 18,000 feet to get a view down upon the Chukhung Valley.

Curtis and Canadian climber Chris Guest at the Village of Chukhung. Chris attempted Everest but didn't make the summit.

Peter and Peter at Dingboche village. The older Peter (in black) hired the younger Peter as his personal guide to accompany him on the Todd Henry expedition. A good idea, but neither made the summit of Everest.

From Dingboche we walked north through scabby rocky areas and up a steep section ascending the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. At the top of the moraine was a line of stone monuments or chortens to people who have died on Mt Everest; including Scott Fischer who died May 10, 1996 and was a subject in Jon Krakauer’s book ‘Into Thin Air’.

Monument to New Zealand climbing guide Rob Hall. He died May 11, 1996 below the summit of Everest. His body still resides on the summit ridge.

The other trekkers all talked down about the village of Lobuche, saying it’s unhygienic and everyone gets sick there. This is where you get Khumbu cough! On the other hand the math works out good for acclimatizing elevations so we stayed there. All I remember is it was third world and unappetizing. Sheri had a chronic cough after this.

Curtis had had a bad stomach on the previous trek around Annapurna Mastif, so for Everest he had a bottle of iodine and an eye dropper. So a couple of drops in the hot water, and a couple of drops in the soup, a couple of drops on dinner, and a couple of drops in the water poured from jugs at the tea houses.

Painted Buddhist carvings in the rocks.

Yak train descending the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier.

It’s a short walk from the cesspool of Loboche to Gorek Shep, but very high and dry, and tiring. Sheri ran out of gas when we arrived and stayed at the hut. Curtis and a friendly German fellow trudged on up to the high point above Gorek Shep called Kala Patar. At 18,200 feet elevation it is the highest point on most treks, and offers one of the best views of Everest.

Curtis approaching the top of the terminal moraine.

Khumbu Glacier terminal moraine. The top is lined with chortens. Pumori (23,500 feet) beyond. Each chorten represents someone who has died going up Everest. Some of the bodies are still up there. Welcome to the Khumbu.

The place called Gorek Shep (16,900 feet).

Curtis (in the center) enjoying the morning sun at Gorek Shep. A little hot tea and warm sun is good for reviving the spirits and settling the stomach. It is hard to get a restful night of sleep at this elevation.

The hut at Gorek Shep is lager style so it’s one wide bunk on the bottom for like ten people and one bunk above for ten people shoulder to shoulder. The place ran on yak dung. There was a free standing yak dung stove in the middle of the hut. A yak dung fire was kept going in the kitchen for hot water. A little girl walked about two hours for “fresh” water which would be dispensed sparingly from a 15 liter jug. Our latrine was a slot in the floor of a small outbuilding.

Hut at Gorek Shep. Feeding the yak dung stove.

The couple who are the proprietors of the hut at Gorek Shep. She was very warm and friendly. He asked for $5 bucks for the photo.

Everest Base Camp

Khumbu Icefall. 16 Nepalis died here in an avalanche on April 18, 2014.

Four Australian nurses were staying at Gorek Shep and they looked tired. The next day we all walked along next to and on top of the Khumbu glacier directly across from Nuptse (25,800ft) to base camp. The elevation was a little difficult and everyone was dehydrated. Base Camp is located in a 90 degree bend of the Khumbu Glacier; where the Khumbu Icefall comes down and meets the flatter part of the glacier then turns south. There were releases of snow periodically from the mountains around base camp. The camp is located so that it is far enough away from slopes so the releases won’t normally affect the camp, although a blast from a snow release generated wind might blow through the camp. The climbing route starts and trekker’s route stops at the icefall. It took us nine days to walk here. We could see set ladders in the icefall and every once in a while a little person would appear and cross a ladder and disappear into the seracs. The icefall is moving and a dangerous place. A climber might cross it four times. The Nepali porters and guides who set the fixed ropes, install ladder bridges, carry equipment, and set up the camps cross it many many times.

(1) Snow release from a glacier on the lower slope of Nuptse

(2) Snow and ice gaining speed. The avalanche rides on a cushion of air forced underneath it. An avalanche can reach speeds over 100 miles per hour.

(3) This release traveled across Khumbu Glacier and blasted us with frigid wind. This type of release was common during our time at base camp.

At base camp we met Babu Chiri Sherpa who was a famous climber with two climbing records (http://www.everesthistory.com/sherpas/babuchiri.htm). One for spending 21 hours at the summit of Everest without oxygen and another for the fastest time from base camp to summit (16 hrs 56 minutes). He summited Everest 10 times. He died one year after we met him. He fell into a crevasse at Camp Two on the south side of Everest. 

Babu Chiri Sherpa at Everest Base Camp (summited Everest May 21, 2000). Unfortunately he died on Everest on April 29, 2001.

Nazir Sabir (on the left), and a Pakistani climber with Sheri at Base Camp. Nazir Sabir was the first Pakistani to summit Everest (May 17, 2000).

The four Australian nurses and their Nepali guide at Base Camp.

At the elevation of Everest Base Camp the concentation of oxygen in the air is about half of what it is at sea level. On average this is the break over point where a person's body can repair and recover it's self. Above this elevation there isn't enough oxygen available to totally recover from exertion and all the other insults a body must deal with. Essentially little by little the body is slowly dieing. Hence the overly dramatic expression "Zone of Death". Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is another problem. This is caused by the build up of bicarbonate in blood from breathing more. Excess bicarbonate can only be dumped from the body through urination. Hence drink more water. Unfortunately most water in Nepal is contaminated or at least suspect. Symptoms of AMS are headache, exhaustion, nausea, diarrhea and worse pulmonary edema and extremely dangerous cerebral edema. Everyone gets AMS to so extent, but every once in a while a poor trekker with develop a headache then die. Guaranteed cure - go down hill.

Curtis and Sheri below the Khumbu Icefall at Everest Base Camp, April 6, 2000.

On the day we left Gorek Shep, and started to descend, Sheri walked to the top of Kala Patar since she had missed out on it the other day. To return to Lukla, we walked down to Pheriche and then Phortse, with a day trip up Gokyo Valley, then on down to Namche and Lukla. We stayed at Himalaya Lodge and to celebrate finishing the trek Curtis had a glass of roche (local hooch) which Nepalese love as a vice. It had black specks floating in it and tasted like gasoline.

Solarium in Phortse Village for guests to sit outside and stay warm.

Trekkers lodge with stacks of bent used ladders from the Khumbu icefall.

Culturally Nepal is an interesting place. In 2000, Nepal politically was a Hindu kingdom. A picture of the king hung in every house and business. The south of the country, the lowlands next to India, is strongly Hindu. As you move north, the mountains of the Himalaya rise up into Tibet. The culture transitions from Hindu to Tibetan Buddhist. In Kathmandu there are many small Shiva temples dotting the streets, and there are Hindu priests walking around and chanting and incense burning. Where in the mountains there are Buddhist Gompas and monasteries. Entering each mountain village there is a mani wall, which are piles of carved tablets, and prayer wheels mounted in walls at shoulder height so that, with the right hand, as you walk by you can give the wheel a spin. Each rotation makes karmic merit by sending a chant that’s carved on the wheel out into the aether. Ooommmaaa.

Sheri in front of an ancient stone house in Gokyo Valley. Sheri rented the down jacket she's wearing in Katmandu for the trip.

The native people of the mountain valleys in Nepal are divided into groups by district. So in the Annapurna area they have the Gurung group. The personal naming convention is that everybody in that district has the word Gurung as the last word in their name. Same thing in the Everest Region where Sherpa is the native group and everyone from there has Sherpa as their last name.

A little boy carrying his brother.

Most people in Nepal are dirt poor. The per capita income in 2000 was $180 per year. To carry a pack a porter costs about $5 per day. There are basically three ways to to trek in the mountains of Nepal. You could join a fully supported trek where a porter or a yak carries all your things, cooks cook all the food, and you arrive at a camping place with your tent set up. A guide leads the group and you're kept to a strict itinerary. You can book these trips from home, from Bangkok, from Katmandu, or maybe join one at Lukla. The price drops significantly at each of those steps. Another option is to have a personal porter or have a porter with a guide. Not a bad way to go since a guide would allow you to interact with the locals since English and Nepali languages are far apart. Nepali is written in Sanskrit, they have their own calender and use there own number system so it can be difficult to come to an agreement for a services. The least expensive way is to carry your own stuff and stay in tea houses. A bed is only a few dollars, and our cheapest room was 25 cents for two in the Annapurna area. Food is cheap but the chances of being sick are high mostly because water in Nepal is suspect and hygiene standards are a bit different. Probably the biggest problem is people don't use toilet paper and Nepalis eat with there hands (fecal oral contamination). It's common to mix human waste with needles or leaves and dump it in the fields to amend the soil. Burning fuel to heat water unthinkable so people don't wash themselves. Chronic bronchitis is a problem also. Fuel for cooking or heating is hard to come by and requires a long walk and into the mountains. Traditional Nepali homes don't have chimneys, they let the smoke from cook fires seep out from around the eaves. Living and sleeping in smoky rooms causes bronchitis coupled with a large reservoir of people who have chronic bronchitis makes it is easy to pick up a case and hard to get rid of. Wads of sputum and phlegm litter the trail along with empty antibiotic bubble packs. To better people's health and increase life span there was an effort to install chimneys in local homes. But pretty much every chimney has been blocked off. Local people saw the heat going up the chimney as a waste, especially considering some young boy or girl spends four hours per day collecting the wood. Their thinking is who wants to live longer, life is hard, full of hard work, sickness, always cold, no money, who wants more of that?

Little girl in front of a store of Yak dung.

Nepalis must think we're crazy. First they think we're rich which we are compared to them. So it is unfathomable why a rich person would do the hard work of walking in the mountains, freeze there ass off, have diarrhea, for fun? and pay for it! Why do we need all this weird and different food? Candy, meat, eggs, bread, spaghetti, soda? And we need different food at every meal! They eat dal bhat; rice and lentils with a little veg. It's all a person needs. So at 10 am every morning everyone stops. The porters park their loads outside a tea house go in and eat dal bhat, as much as they can until the pot is empty. Then for dinner its a cup of tea and maybe some hooch and that's it. The same thing everyday. Why do you need anything different? Why do we need bottles of water and snickers bars and beer and scrabbled eggs? All this packaging and plastic gets carried up the trail and none of it comes down. Why do we need to shower? Also in the evening in a tea house the guests will eat then have quiet conversation among themselves and drift off to reading books or looking at maps then go to their private rooms and try to sleep. Nepalis would never do that. They'd sit around together and have loud conversations and laugh about god knows what while playing cards, smoking and drinking hooch till midnight. Then they all go to a dark cold room, pick a filthy wool blanket off of a pile and lay down together on a thin grimy mattress or a yak hide.

Monument to American Scott Fischer. He died May 11, 1996 near the summit of Everest.

For us completing this trek was accomplishing a recreational goal. But there is an unfortunate tradeoff. On one hand we spent money in the cities and mountains of Nepal and we tried to spend it where locals would benefit and we challenged ourselves and learned a lot. On the other hand by completing the trek we caused adverse effects on the fragile alpine environment. Wood was cut for our extravagant western food, warmth, and hygiene requirements. Trash and human waste was generated and probably dumped in some gully somewhere. Yaks trains, probably carrying things for us, over-graze the fragile meadows and stomp out the trails. Plus we are part of a wave of westerners drowning the local culture and driving up prices.