4/14

Date: 4/14

Local time: 7:00pm

Location: Lobuche

Elevation gain: 239m/784ft

Route taken: Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp

Weather: Sunny to clouds to snow

Time: 4 hours

Highlight: Having a ‘home cooked’ meal with Roland at Everest Base Camp

Fun fact: The food at EBC was better than some of the higher elevation tea houses. 

Quote: ‘Welcome to Base Camp’ -Roland Thomas

The DHL Everest Team has ‘landed’ at base camp!  

We all went to bed last night with various degrees of altitude sickness, most common was lack of appetite and headaches. According to our leader Mungo this is typical for being over 5000 meters. While not feeling 100% there was a lot of excitement among the group as today was our final destination, EBC. 

We were off at 8:00am and continued slowly up the gradual incline of the Khumbu glacier. After the first two hours the incline increased  to more elevation gains as we followed the contours of the ridge line. At one point we could see EBC in the far distance and all the attitude sickness went away and we had enough of an adrenaline rush to finish the trek as our destination was in reach. 

As we approached EBC there was a light snow moving in and we were able to snap a few photos at the iconic Everest Base Camp marker. We all had various T-shirt’s, signs and flags to have our photos taken with. Most as a thank you to our sponsors and donors. 

Once the photo shoot was complete our Sherpa guides escorted us up into Base Camp to meet Roland at the Jagged Globe tent. It was a tremendous feeling to be invited into Roland’s dining tent for a meal. Since our last meeting in Gorak Shep was so brief it was nice to have a lot more time to ‘kick back’ and have a casual conversation with Roland. We all had items for the team and Roland to sign and photos to take. It was like meeting an old pal only but the only difference was it was in the shadow of the worlds tallest mountain. 

After a meal of steamed veggies and macaroni with tuna it was time to take some group photos and then say our goodbyes to Roland as snow and darkness were creeping in. We all had some level of emotion when saying goodbye to Roland as he was responsible for this adventure for the DEQ team and we had a great time interacting with Roland, albeit for just a short time. 

We made the long walk back in the snow down past Gorak Shep into Lobuche for the night. We had dinner and it was to bed as it was a long day for all. We drifted off to sleep replaying the excitement from the day and looking forward to our return to Kathmandu and the comfort of a warm shower and running water. A luxury we have not had in the past few days. 

Date: 4/15

Local time: 6:28pm

Location: Summit hotel, Kathmandu 

Elevation gain: N/A

Route taken: N/A

Weather: Minus zero to 22 degrees 

Time: 10 hours

Highlight of the day: Helicopter ride and flight from Lukla and arriving at the Summit hotel to me met by the country manager and local team. 

It was an early morning to wake up in Lobuche as our helicopter was scheduled to pick us up at 6:00am. As with most things in Nepal there is a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ as the first helicopter didn’t arrive until 7:30am. Once the helicopter arrived we loaded up in groups of 4 with our rucksacks and kitbags for the short flight to a lower elevation village. At a lower elevation the helicopters can load more people and luggage as the air is thicker which is why we were shuttled lower and then flown the rest of the distance to Lukla. 

Once we all arrived at the helipad we stoped in a tea house for a quick breakfast and tea before heading to the airport. 

Thankfully the airport was not very busy and our luggage was weighed and security checked quickly. We then boarded quickly and were airborne on our way to Ramnchaamp airport. Once to the airport we transferred to private vans for the 4 hour drive to our hotel in Kathmandu. Upon our arrival to the Summit hotel the Nepal country manager welcomed our safe return back to Kathmandu and congratulated us on our A’int No Mountain High Enough spirit. 

We all then got cleaned up with warm showers, using free WiFi and recharging our electronics without a fee. 

Our Everest trek is now complete and we get to enjoy a free day tomorrow then DHL day on Wednesday.