Our trek to Everest Base Camp

Our trek was very challenging, but it was really good. We were gone for a total of fourteen days. It felt like being back in Africa, not showering for that long. The first adventure of the trip was the thirty five minute flight from Kathmandu to Lukla airport. We had heard many horror stories of past flights that had crashed on this route and how it is considered the most dangerous airport in the world. We all made it safely, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was the most tense, but also beautiful flight I have ever been on. The scenery was absolutely incredible, from the numerous rivers to the towering Himalayas. From Lukla we began our hike, that same day. That evening we got our first look at the type of accommodations we would have for the next 2 weeks. They were small “tea houses” which normally had fifteen rooms and a small dining hall. They were not insulated, so they got extremely cold at night. There were places where I wore my long underwear, sweats, fleece, down jacket, and then got in my down sleeping bag just to stay warm. The food was not bad at first, but every place had the same menu so that got a little boring. We all had our problems on the trip. We first had to leave Stuart for a couple days because he had a bad cold and leg cramps. 5 of us went on to the next village. At that village
Dawson got really bad altitude sickness and had to be escorted back to the last village, in the middle of the night by Steve and our guide. Steve then rejoined with Stuart, who was now feeling better, and came back up to us a couple days later. So Dawson's trip was over, the other five of us pushed on for our last village. We all made it there just as it started to snow, so we could not do Kala Pathar that evening. I was still feeling pretty good, so I asked our guide, a
climbing Sherpa who has summitted Everest 6 times, if he would take me to base camp. He said yes, but no one else had the energy to go. So we set out in the middle of a near white out snow storm. Normally it takes people 3 hours to reach Base camp, and 2 and a half hours to return, but because of the storm the guide wanted to go fast. So he said we are going to go Sherpa speed. I was feeling pretty good so I said ok, and we did the round trip from Goarak shep to base camp in just under three hours. It was so cool being at Base camp. Our guide
took me right to the base of the Kumbu Ice fall (the furthest point you can go without an Everest Permit and crampons). We saw a huge avalanche and you could hear the huge towers of ice, in the ice fall, shifting as temperatures changed. By the time we got back, there was 4 inches of snow on the ground. The next morning it was Brendan and I who were really sick. Brendan had very severe altitude headaches and we didn't know what was wrong with me. We made it down to the town where we had left Dawson and fortunately they had a Himalayan Rescue clinic there. I checked in there at 4 oclock. There was two high altitude doctors there from Scotland and one from Canada. I had major chills, but my temp. was 39.9 and I had an extremely high heart rate.
They did a lot of tests and determined I had some sort of chest infection. They said I had had it for probably the last week, which explained why I always felt short of energy and why I was cold at night. They kept me in the clinic for 6 hours giving me lots of shots, IV's, nebulizer machines, and oral medicine. At this point the doctors said I probably wouldn’t be walking off the mountain, and we were considering plans for a helicopter rescue but miraculously, by the next morning, I felt great and they said I could walk off the mountain. I did walk off and I am feeling much better. We are now in Kathmandu. On the way down though Nathan got really sick so we left him and Steve behind for a day. They did manage to catch up with us and we flew out of
Lukla together. Some parts of this may sound a little negative, but the trek was really fun and it was even kind of cool being in the Himalayan Rescue center. Everyone kept a great attitude even when they were not feeling well and when you did feel sick everyone else was extremely encouraging. There were two people who died while we were up there. So we didn't have it too bad. We are all safely in Kathmandu, getting ready to leave for Bangkok tonight at 11:30. It was
soooooo cool to see Everest!

Thanks for your interest in our trip.

Chris