Nepal

Well, first off I'm sorry for not posting in a month, I feel like I've done so much and there is so much to tell!

The trek to Kala Patthar and Everest Base Camp was simply amazing and by far one of the best experiences of my trip so far. We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla where the elevation is about 2800m (thats about 10,000 ft to you Dad). This airport is insane. The runway is maybe 300m and it's on a very steep slope up a ridge that they use both for slowing the planes down when they land and for airspeed when they take off. A little hair raising landing here? Bah, I love that shit! From there we climbed for 8 days to reach the highest camp, Gorak Shep, elevation ~5100m. Gorak Shep is the hub for day hikes to Kala Patthar and Base Camp. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Base camp, at ~5350 meters, I have to say, isn't much. The walk there was stellar, a trail is cut through an enormous moraine and you're only a few meters away from the ice flow, often walking over buried ice along the way. The camp is nothing more than a bunch of tents full of mountaineers and their guides and due to the size of the surrounding mountains, there is no view of Everest from here. Seeing the ice flow they have to cross to reach Camp 2 however, was impressive. This is the most difficult part of the accent and they will have to cross it 3-4 times. To put it simply, it was massive. We had apple pie at the German bakery they constructed made our way back.

At 4am the morning after we arrived in Gorak Shep, we left to summit Kala Patthar (elevation 5550m/18, 200ft) and catch the sunrise over Everest. This was by far the most spectacular place I have ever been. The sky was very dark blue, the darkest I've seen, and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. Kala Patthar is completely surrounded by many of the tallest mountains in the world. Everest was certainly not the most beautiful mountain, but seeing the sun rise from behind it's peak was breathtaking.

To put things in perspective, mount Robson in BC is just under 4000m, Everest is 8900m. At Kala Patthar, we were only a few hundred meters short of the highest mountain in Canada (Logan) and the surrounding mountains were still several thousand meters above us.

The weather was great, it was definitely cold at night but certainly not as cold as our trek in India. The climb was somewhat difficult but I loved every minute of it and enjoyed carrying my own pack this time. I was eating three solid meals a day but I still think I lost over 10 pounds.

Food was expensive. A bottle of water, that might cost 30Rp (50 cents) climbed up to 300Rp ($5) at Gorak Shep. But I understand it, there are no roads or anything so everything has to be carried in by the Sherpa people. These guys and girls are amazing. They carry the loads on their heads, many of them over 50-60Kg. I met one man carrying 92Kg on his head. Unreal.

The trekkers atmosphere was great. We met tons of people from all over the world from all age groups. But by far the funniest (or weirdest) thing we saw was the world record attempt at 'The Worlds Highest Cricket Match' held at Gorak Shep. This was funny. I will never understand, nor do I want to understand, how to play cricket. British people do some really strange things sometimes.

Oh, and no altitude sickness! I think Jess and I were probably still acclimatized from our trek in India 2 weeks earlier so we felt great the whole way up. But I'd say more than 70% of the people we met had symptoms, including our travel companion.

So, after 9 days of climbing, we descended in 3 very long and tiring days back to Kala Patthar and caught an early morning flight out to Kathmandu. We spent a few days there exploring more of the city and then moved on to Pokhara, a quiet lake town and the general starting place for the popular Annapurna Circuit, something I hope to do one day when I return. Pokhara was a nice place to relax for a few days. Jess then took off on a kayaking trip and I went to the jungle on safari in search of Tigers. Didn't see any, but I got to play with elephants in the water and managed to spot a few crocodiles and rhinoceroses.

Nepal was amazing and I loved every day that we spent there; all 30 days of our allowed visa. I'll save my next post for describing the shear insanity and chaos that is Varanasi.