vaga #7/8 EBC and down

part VIII

EBC: Everest Base Camp and the descent

as I could never take a photo of the summit and it would be the one that corresponds to this cover, I put a photo of what I could take… .. It makes me laugh to see this cover and a photo that is not mine, the only one on the cover, but of google, but the sense of humour prevailed today. Although I had the same one in my hand and it did not occur to me to take a picture of it.

On the eighth day we reached Gorak Shep the last of the ascent, we skipped a day of acclimatisation at the previous stop at 4,700 meters of altitude because we did not need it. That day, after two hours of walking, we reached 5,000 meters and after 4 hours when we turned a hill and the final valley appeared and Rafa pointed out to me, that a camp with blue roofs could be seen in the distance. It is the valley where Everest is. A high mountain landscape with glaciers, not all white, some covered with black gravel, fallen from the mountains or carried by the wind. It felt desolate, hard and solitude, a smell of a difficult life in that landscape. It was grey, and cloudy, very cold and you couldn't see the peaks, and that's why the panorama felt bleak, it was shocking, perhaps with a radiant sun it would be totally different, but this is what I experienced.

For me it was a relief to reach those blue roofs and no more walking ... at least up, one more night and we will begin to go down, I was ready, my capacities almost exhausted and my eyes full of wonderful landscapes, adventures and an unexpected achievement.

photos of the arrival at the camp at 12 am and then at 1:30 pm on the way to the EBC

We had lunch on the spot, changed into dry clothes and set out to see the base camp. In my ignorance I thought that we had reached the base camp, but these are not the facilities, it was 3 more hours to walk on the glaciers until we reached the foot of the ascent. There I did wear boots since you walk on a glacier, sharp ice. After a couple of hours of difficult and dangerous walking, Gopal showed us a cave where Helmut Hillary had camped when he reached the summit. I thought it was a joke what he was telling us, and that we had to take pictures here (The last two)…. With Rafa we looked at each other hmm? nothing special, glacial, then we walked another half hour past ice and sharp ice, and we arrived at the other side of the glacier and he told us that it was the base camp. He was teasing us .. There was nothing, I had seen years ago a movie of the base camp, full of tents, hundreds, large dining tents, a helipad, and what there was was an uneven glacier, not a flat metre to put a tent, and less a helipad ... What a disappointment not to understand, it was up to us both to assimilate the spectacle, long awaited to arrive at a glacier without neither a flag nor icon, or symbol, nor a helicopter windsock… ..there he told us that in high season there is no ice, only stone and easy to flatten and thus it fit the hundred tents and for the helicopter it is changed every year because the deeper ice moves. Understanding that we began to enjoy and take the photos and as the occasion demanded we had a whisky, we bought it where we had lunch Everest (Rafa took it as a souvenir) It was a sure sell, for everyone who reached there, I said to him “buy it, don’t tell me the price” I carried some sacred Tibetan flags to make the memorial to my father already related in "vaga # 6/1 puff Nepal" We had a cold drizzle, there was no one else, we met some boys who were going up. In high season for sure about 400 trekkers would be there, and the facilities 3 hours below collapsed by guests it is famous for that and the race to grab a bed or if you do not sleep on the ground there is nowhere else to sleep. ... the magic would be lost for me, the special flavour of achieving something difficult, I do not change it to see the top that is not seen from there either.

tribute to my father already discribed in vga#6/1 Pufff Nepal

Some information, the 8,849-metre-high Everest, the highest mountain on the planet. As trekking there are other more beautiful landscapes such as the Annapurna chain, with its permanently extraordinary views, is the most popular, they climb thousands per season, there are others more lonely, and distant and less visited and others more demanding and for experts with challenges. important. As for summiting Everest, it is not the most demanding, more and more climbers are climbing. There are agencies that prepare interested parties without being professional climbers, I don't know if this is still valid, because in one there were several fatalities due to lack of professionalism. It has several routes to the summit and through China also with important differences in difficulty. Climbing excursions are booked years in advance because places are limited and a very high value is paid as a right. It is for example in the same national park further down is the more complex 8,516 mt Lhotse and where the first female Sherpa to ascend Everest died years later or the 8,611m K2. in Pakistan that if they are serious challenges to professional climbers and for them more attractive than Everest.

Before the next dawn Gopal took Rafa to climb the mountain already close to 6 thousand metres and reach the summit. For him a fantastic feeling and not with "mommy" because I lowered the profile of his effort, and I was happy to go down with Pemba, they caught up with us for lunch

On the way we came across the stone houses, I include them now because there was too much information in the previous chapter of the ascent. They were on the penultimate day on a plateau, where there was a lot of green and it was a place of pastures of the yak, horses. Seasonal houses for fattening animals. I found them beautiful, all made of stones and with their stone fences. They are stones without quarrying, meaning boulders and the technique of fitting with each other for their stability is not minor, technique and experience transmitted between them for years. The most impressive were those with flagstone ceilings ... poof ... the weight, how are they supported? , plus winter snowfalls ... a mystery, there was no wood nearby, and you would have to climb with beams on the back ... and I saw nothing but window and door frames in wood, the rest remain a mystery how they are supported.

Going down is the difficult thing, it is hard the knees , and not when going up, the slips are frequent, the fatigue is felt and as soon as Gopal allowed me (for the height) the well-deserved Everest beer

Gopal and Pemba cooked us "momos" one night. Nepali food, like dumplings in a tea house before arriving in Lukla. Those are the things that give me value, inviting us to the kitchen where they asked the owners to cook something special and with their hands they made us momos and other things. We dined together with the couple who own the hostel in the kitchen. The idea of Gopal and his kindness as a person, beyond the trekking guide and also shows appreciation for a new friendship and respect that was developing. Then two days later in Lukla, Pemba, the Sherpa who lived in that area invited us to his sister's room who lives in Lukla for tea, what an impression… He had a table at ground level, the 3 of us sitting around with Gopal and he took care of us, the sister and her family were not there. Pemba, did a series of rites, blessings before serving us, with a piercing solemnity, I did not take a photo, it was an intimate situation and the fact that they shared it with us especially. Pemba, who was the porter, the lowest of the step with only a few phrases in English and there he was proud and moved to invite us to tea. Gopal told us that this is the first time that this has happened to him with a client. We were more than clients, we were close, we shared many joys and that for me gives meaning to life.

This is how rainy and miserable the last days of hiking were, very hard and I am grateful that it was like this on the descent and not when we started the walk it would have changed the flavor or the spirit.

I copy text "in situ" to my group ...... and report intense moments that I lived:

We arrived a few days ago at Lukla, the starting point and the arrival point of the trek. 12 days have passed ...................... yes, if I arrive at Everest Base Camp a whole record without looking for a record. On the way down I was already fed up with the accommodations in the tea houses along the way, I felt more and more precarious and as this note is in situ and perhaps the need to express myself now about my specific situation. Gopal, gave me the option to go down in 5 hours a day of walking and 4 days or 7.5 hours in three days, which means walking an additional 2.5 hours a day. I accelerated the descent from 4 days to 3 days. It was very heavy, however, all I wanted was a normal bed, a toilet with a bowl where I could sit and flush, since all of the above a hole, a bucket, a drum with water and manually one fills the bucket and the hole empties it and always dark, there was never a light bulb ... a dry towel. I could descend in 5 days since it was still on the itinerary, since we skipped an acclimatisation and in Namche Bazaar that I loved and enjoyed a rest, looked for a place to sleep, a decent place, varied food, private bathroom, shower with hot water , enjoy the scenery and rest, even if you have to pay the difference. But I didn’t.

Better in three days and in Lukla I I would treat myself to a decent place since the misery of the accommodation surpassed me. I told Gopal that I wanted the best hotel in Lukla, because I know that you have to wait for the plane and weather to return to Kathmandu and it could be a couple of days, he replied that he will take us to a "Sherpa lodge" better in everything and that We could have a private bathroom with hot water. We arrived almost in the dark and I was bursting with fatigue because the 12 days suddenly came to me and we got to the same thing.

I almost died. ... I told him - I want the best and I will pay extra-. It is the best, was his answer ..... the largest room, very cold with no heating and with a private bathroom. I was desperate for a shower, I hadn’t washed for 10 days. It turned out that the bathroom in the room did not have water, we had already unpacked, and changed the room, I could no longer take another step, in the other there was water in the bathroom but it does not have hot water, you had to go downstairs to a community shower, disgusting again, the showers with hot water were where the only geyser was located. I asked for a towel at the reception, there is no service, mine was damp and fetid for days ... THE TOWEL that Gopal got me I took with a grimace it was a miserable rag and completely damp, just like mine ... the shower with the geyser turned on and off every two seconds ... No, I didn't want to cry, but it was a reason to cry, longing for the best hotel and what I got was definitely something to cry about .... Then I asked for laundry .... Since there would be no plane the next day without certainty when there would be one, and what does it do? In 5 days that none have arrived, due to the weather …… What, one more week? I almost cried. Laundry? Look at the weather, how you think it dries. There was one type of large fireplace in the hall, dining room and common space and they did not light it we were the only guests.

I no longer had dry clothes, not a single pair of panties, the three days of descent it rained on us, and the last five hours were miserable going down with the mud and the extreme care that must be taken to avoid slipping and added to the fatigue the legs do not react Quickly. Rafa in the same state of feeling overcome did not care about the shower he was happy in his stench, but I slept with him, but the wifi technically had, it did not work there, it hurt him.

I told Gopal the next morning I can't take it anymore, the first time I open my mouth out of desperation, I want to go back to Kathmandu anyway now !!! He said that the only other way out of here is 4 days walking valley after valley and steep not like the high mountains, there is a lot of rain, then a jeep that picks you up which adds 10 hours to the journey and with this climate it is very doubtful that it will be able to reach the point where he would pick us up. Helicopters don't fly either. The thing that we could be stuck here easily for 5 days or more. HERE in this barrack for a week, today the bathroom had no water ..... No, no more, I told Rafa if we are going to be stuck here, let's look for something on our own and it occurred to me to see "booking" in my phone and look for something in town. I found three good places. We started walking by the first one for 50 dollars, totally reasonable. We arrived, it was closed with a padlock, the second the same, it was at the end of the season, the last cost 150 dollars, expensive, very expensive, however I paid them blindly and the hotel was closed …… Shit !!!!!, go back to where we were ... how many more days .... Rafa laughed and said "the princess" wants a hot shower, wants a clean and dry towel. There he told me spend my energy and extra money to get out of here. Then we would not wait for the plane and we put ourselves on the waiting list for the helicopter. Together with Gopal, he was in charge of checking with the people in charge of the town, the conditions and who has the first quota when one arrives, since a week has passed without anyone being able to come down. He returned from the meeting held on the airstrip and they put an extraordinary price to him, double that of the climb…. Obviously they knew that we were desperate, and we had to go down yes or yes. .. I wouldn't walk for 4 more days, period, without dry clothes, dead tired and Rafa was also exhausted, fed up with the lodgings, the same food, many days. Rafa told me that I moved and travelled in similar conditions, yes, sometimes, but I clarify only for a few days and always be able to leave when I want to, by motorcycle, bus, walking and I go to a good hotel and I recover, but here it had been 13 nights, I can't change to a hotel, I have to wait for nothing less for a plane that can fly. Now there was no plane in Lukla, I had to wait for one to come up and hope that the weather does not change so that it comes down immediately and with the 13 passengers that can fit or you have to pay for the empty seats together. It wasn't just the weather anymore. I assume this extra cost and I decided to pay whatever it took to get off and obviously I did not have the cash, only the card and had to go to "a bank" one without a name and it was an office with a table and a man on the other side who I don't know what he did and suspiciously he took my card, I signed any piece of paper and he got me the cash, with my eyes closed, all I wanted was to leave. I wanted a towel and dry panties, he wanted wifi or signal to talk to the girlfriend

photo of the altar in Pemba room and my three rain jackets wet for ever…..

At night it began to be rumoured that permission was being requested to fly in an extraordinary flight for a rescue, there was a wounded Nepalese in the town. If approved, it would not be in Lukla, it would be lower, always due to the climate, lower clouds and less violent winds and that it could be our alternative, Gopal told us, but the decisions are made by the person in charge of the town. I already knew that we would pay what was agreed. On the third day, Gopal excitedly knocked on the door at 10 am, we had 15 minutes to pack and we walked down for 3 hours to where the helicopter will land, but without any commitment and there was somewhere to sleep in case of not being able to get on. We went down some cursed ravines between woods with a lot of mud and in fact I was not wearing my panties and nothing dried at night at that level of misery I was. We arrived at a flat piece of land about 50 m x 50 metresa nd a facility with a kitchen and rooms that were quite new and only for these situations it is not a trekking route but for emergency helicopters due to bad weather that cannot reach Lukla. no one knew anything, in this I saw that a stretcher appeared from the forest and I don't know how the wounded man was lowered down the slope, then another stretcher arrived carrying an old woman with closed eyes. Half an hour later the sound of the helicopter was heard above the clouds and we all jumped… someone came out into the open space and began to signal at the same time that the helicopter descended. It landed, did not stop the engines, and the propeller making the tremendous noise. Some tourists and merchandise got out, and the injured began to come up. Gopal just told us that we were leaving. Seeing the luggage in the helicopter ... we're up ... puffff. However, with a tight stomach, zero visibility and everyone's attitude of urgency in their movements, the pilot shouting orders ... the weather, the weather changes ..., the operation lasted no more than 15 minutes between landing and taking off, goodbye hugs with Gopal and Pemba and a quick photo almost under the propellers. Gopal walked down the 4 days and Pemba lived in the region. We were in the front seat, which is more impressive and this helicopter was even smaller than the one going up. The pilot, an American or Australian, did not blink, his concentration level was intense. I pinched Rafa again, the rains were torrential and the winds with which we flew across that small mosuito. A mixture of finally leaving and nerves to cross the storm. We reached Kathmandu The old woman did not die on the trip, there were two ambulances waiting where we landed for them. There I realised that I paid all that helicopter trip for everyone, the sick, well, an indirect way of contributing to people in need, if they had told me upfront, I would have paid more willingly.

Everything will be over in 50 minutes, we would arrive in Kathmandu at a good hotel and end of the experience ..... The trekking would have ended as extraordinary but the last 3 days in uncertainty became heavy, but already forgotten. The first hotel we arrived at in Kathmandu was terrible, not what they were selling in the booking, that happens often. We went out the next day looking for one we like until we found a boutique hotel. Three days without going out, in bed, each in our own rooms, me with my music and he talking with his girlfriend in private. Huge bathrooms, extra king beds, 600-fibre cotton sheets and especially dry towels, many dry towels, new ones every day hahaha, heating and plugs in heaps ... and no more charging the cell phone in the kitchens of the tea house that they charged by the hour for. And we didn’t have to fight for the plug.

fully replenished, clean clothes and continuing the adventure to the south …… go bareback riding and bathing with the elephants.