Base Camp Boogie

This blog has enabled us to keep our families up to date but I am conscious that not all of them know who we are so from left to right: Charles Whitbread, Ruadhri (Rory) Duncan, Nicholas Bewes, Richard Pemberton, Michael Findlay and Simon Hirtzel:   What a day!   We all slept pretty poorly last night as the altitude was beginning to catch up with us.   The accommodation was pretty average as well which didn’t help and it was freezing cold!  The rooms were pretty basic: There were some long faces at breakfast but we all dug deep and headed out from breakfast eager to get going.   We headed out down a rocky and sandy valley heading for Gorakshep which is the last town before base camp.   The weather was stunning and although it was pretty cold we made good progress.    The surroundings became rockier and sandier but we still had stunning views of the mountains.   It was beginning to get busier as this was the choke point for EBC.  ...

Another cold night but we were prepared this time so lots of clothes were donned before turning out the lights.   Mr Findlay at bed time! Today was meant to be a shorter than normal walk going from 4,400m to 4,900m and we set off after breakfast at 8:45am.  One of the children befriended Charles and we also had a closer inspection of how the locals boil their kettles.  Local girl taking something of an interest in Charles' binos: Local way of boiling kettles -it is remarkably efficient: We are a day away from our walk to Everest Base Camp (EBC) and so well above the tree line.   The landscape was definitely new and the higher we trekked the rockier it became.   Not surprisingly there was nowhere to have a mid morning tea break as the landscape became more arid and lunar like.   Just before midday we crossed a stream to the small village of Kala Pathar where we had lunch.   There was a stunning view down the valley that we had just walked up from t...

  The accommodation has certainly dropped a notch and some of the gang didn’t have the best of nights.   That said we had a reasonably early night yesterday and then everyone departed for their rather bare and very cold room with loos that don’t flush and no sink (to speak of)!   It was really cold as well and we were sent to bed with hot water bottles (!).   Most of us are now in our sleeping bags and some were even wearing clothes.   The heat and accommodation didn’t dampen spirits however and we were all up well before breakfast which was at 7am.   Breakfast, unfortunately, had also taken something of a dive and I think some of us may be sticking to toast and coffee in future. The plan for the day was to hike (almost vertically) up behind the lodge to a level of c.5,000m to get acclimatised.   It was a busy trek with various altitudes achieved before descending back to the lodge for lunch.   It was undoubtedly busier than we had experienced h...