Day 18 28th February 2011

Today they leave Kathmandu for the UK.  Happy Birthday Dave!!!!!

Day 17 27th February 2011

A free day in Kathmandu followed by a celebratory dinner.  They must be so pleased with themselves!!!

Day 16 26th February 2011

Hopefully the weather is better today than when they arrived at Lukla.  They catch their internal flight to Kathmandu to rest and explore the capital

Day 15 25th February 2011

From Namche Bazaar, they descend to Monjo crossing the Dudh Koshi.
Through the pine and rhoddenron forest to Lukla where they spend the night.
A farewell dinner with the porters, and drinks and dancing with the sherpas to celebrate.

Day 14 24th February 2011

Re tracing their steps, with slight diversion to witness more breathtaking scenery. Crossing the Khumba Khola and seeing stunning views of the Imja Valley.  lunch at Tyangboche and then onto Namche Bazaar to spend the night.

Day 13 23rd February 2011 - Gorak Shep to Pheriche

If they wake very early, they will be tackling the summit of Kala Patthar at 5545m. a great photo opportunity!

Well well, we didn't!  From our group of 17 only the brave & hearty Welsh contingent got up early & summited Kala Patthar.  The rest of us had a lie-in!



Breakfast time for the Yak

Still plenty of snow around, temperature with the sun now risen 2-3 degrees.




 

Trekking down to Pheriche about a 5 hour walk, following the moraine of the Khubu Glacier.  The walking becomes easier, as you are losing altitude and there's more oxygen available



Pheriche for the night, nestling in the Khumbu Khola.  Pheriche is famous for the location of the emergency health centre, run by the Himalayan Rescue Association http://www.himalayanrescue.org/ which is dedicated to the treatment & prevention of altitude sickness.  Usually aided by western doctors in the full climbing season.  They also give talks at 3pm every day, educating trekkers of the risks of AMS.

After our evening meal Dawa, our guide, gave us a few facts & figures about Everest & its climbers. 

Like the fastest climb - 8 hours

The youngest climber - Tibetan side age 12, Nepalese side, age 14 - now I'm feeling older!!

Day 12 Tuesday 22nd February 2011Gorak Shep & Everest Base Camp

The big day!!

An early wake up call, before 6, it's still dark and certainly very cold -8 or 10 degrees c.

We head off after the normal porridge and eggs breakfast, it's twilight, cold and windy.  You really have to make sure that all your clothing and kit is on properly fitted, all buttoned & velcro'd up.  You don't want to stop to sort anything it out it's tooooooo cold, brrrrrrrrrr!

The sun hasn't fully risen yet & we're off trekking!

Sherpa Dorje & great young man, like all the sherpas helpful & considerate - even he's feeling the cold

There's another Dorje -  Dorjee Pemba Sherpa, who holds the Guinness book of records for the fastest ascent of Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, in May 2004.  He has summited 8 times (maybe more now). He also guided 76 year  old Minbahadur Sherchan to everest summit (he was 77 when he returned) - there's a chance for me yet!!

This is a 3-4 hour trek to Gorak Shep, surprise surprise, it's uphill; even worse we're walking into the wind. Never mind it's all a case of positive attitude, when I'm struggling to walk, I get my inspiration thinking of my friend Sue, who is suffering from motor nueron disease; in comparison I've got nothing to worry about.

See how the wind has shifted the snow

Just a bit desolate

The first section of the trail follows the glacial moraine & the mountain wall, to the right the Khumbu Glacier gurgles & moans under a blanket of ground up rocks.

We reach Gorak Shep (5160m) for lunch, it's a remote spot, but it has a huge telephone antenna with a large array of solar panels - just to help with the communications during the main climbing season.  This was the base camp for the 1952 Swiss Everest expedition.

We repack our day packs and set off again after lunch for our trek up to base camp, a further 3 hour trek with a 200m altitude gain and of course 3 hours back.  Hilly to start with, flattening off after an hour

You can see that it's still cold, even now, early afternoon

Even the sherpas have more layers of clothes than I've seen them with before

We're now walking on the Khumbu Glacier, which has a couple of inches of snow in places.

Look at those incredible ice formations on the mountains.  The rocks in the foreground - some as big as houses- have been churned around in the glacier

More views of the glacier

Even more!!

We plod on and on, the sky is still clear and it would be warm without the biting wind.  In some places it is like a lunar landscape, unlike anything I've seen before.

Another rest stop

Lets just stop to get some oxygen into the lungs

The winds on the summit probably 80-100mph

Up & up & up

Some places walking onthe glacier, your foot falls through a crack in the ice, luckily only a few inches deep, unlike the real icefall beyond base camp where they can be 20' deep!

There weren't many trekkers at this time of the year, but later in the year as they build up to the big climbs it gets a lot busier.

Ice seracs in the glacier

The last section over the glacier

Seraks near base camp

We've made it

Next best thing to a sherpa on the mountain is a welshman.  Proudly flying the Welsh flag, Richard, Phil & Steve

Lots of hugs and hand shakes, tears and laughter. We read some letters and messages from friends & family at home.  A very emotional climax to the days trek.

 A little Everest picnic and then the trek back to Gorak Shep, another 2-21/2 hours.  We probably walked for 12 hours that day

Still magnificent sights on the return walk

A day to remember for the rest of my life. 

Day 11 21st February 2011

Dingboche to Lobuje ( 4928m)

A gradual climb above the Pheriche Valley then descend to cross the Khumba Dughla.  From here we witness the huge terminal moraines of the Khumbu Glacier flowing off Mt Everest.

Onwards to a tea house at Lobuje.

The scale of the mountains and the distances are incredible

A 6.30 am wake up call, revealed an overcast day.  We set off just after 8, from or Dingboche lodge.  We took the track, we had climbed the day before, then veered off to the left, for a hard pull for an hour.

What was that Who song - I can see for miles and miles and miles...............

As you can see we are well above the tree line now

The day was still generally cloudy, interspersed with some clear patches.  The route followed the Kongma La Trek, which took us up to a height of 4800m. We stopped for lunch at the bottom of the valley - lots of carbs again, chips , toasted cheese sandwich and tuna, of course all washed down with a few more cups of tea.


This is the lodge of our lunchtime stop

The trek after lunch was tough, quite rocky terrain.  In England you would do this distance in 30 minutes, here it took 3 times that.

A rather icy cold river

The last half hour was flatter and finally down to Th Eco Lodge at Lobuche - which was originally a summer village for yak herders. We probably trekked for 6 1/2 hours today.

Still plenty of snow to contend with!

The Eco Lodge is named because it is constructed from stone and aluminium rather than the more traditional timber.  This lodge and the previous one are solar powered, the ones prior to that being run from hydro-electric power.  The little led lights will only keep going until about 10pm - if you can stay awake that long!!

Day 10 Sunday 20th February 2011

Today is an acclimatisation day at Dingboche and exploring Chukung Valley

A breakfast of porridge, tea, fried eggs starts the day off well.  We head off for an acclimitisation walk at 9.15, up the hill beyond the stupe, up to an altitude of 4750m.  Even at that height we are still in the valley & everywhere you look you are surrounded by magnificent mountains, absolutely stunning.

Starting the walk from Dingboche

Our lodge is to the far right of the stupe

Still plenty of snow about

Mountains, mountains, mountains

When you are still acclimitising to the altitude, you're only able to walk 30 paces before you have to rest, to gain your breath.

Another group of trekkers coming up the mountain

We took about 2 hours to climb to the top, but only half am hour to come back down

The clouds rolling up the valley

Back down for lunch, chips and a toasted cheese sandwich and of course more tea. Carbohydrates and liquids, the perfect diet for altitude.  We had a free afternoon, some stayed at the lodge, sleeping, playing cards, reading.  We stayed for a while then went off to explore the village.  Not much to see other than yaks! Most of the lodges are still closed, too early in the season for much trade.  We saw more snow leopard prints in the snow.

The park sign at the end of the village

Nellie the nak with her pretty earing

It stayed clear most of the day, the mornings were generally very clear with the deepest blue skies, today it stayed clear most of the afternoon.  A cloud rolled through us at about 4.40 and the temperature dropped from 16degrees to 7.  Back in the lodge for tea and biscuits.  It cleared at about 6pm for 10  minutes, just in time for us to catch the sunset

Day 9 19th February 2011Climb from Deboche to Dingboche

A very cold night in Deboche, probably -10°c or colder.  Even if you get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, the lack of oxygen means that you get back to your sleeping bag breathless.  There isn't much insulation in the lodges if any.  If you leave a drinking water bottle out of your sleeping bag it's frozen in the morning.

A relatively easy walk to start our morning, dropping down the valley with a few climbs, but we're getting more used to them now.

 

We stop at a lodge for tea at about 10.30, with a magnificent view of Ama Dablam.

 We then walked on to The Everest View Lodge for lunch

As it was still sunny & bright we can see everest.

The cloud starts to follow us up the valley

A walk down the valley after lunch, cross the river (Imja Khola) and then a steep climb up to Dingboche (boche means flat), quite a large village nestled in the valley.  We arrived at the Paradise Lodge at about 3pm.  We are now above the tree line at 4400m