Everest Base Camp (EBC) for Christmas

[mesha]

I finally have some time to post up about our winter trip. Our family decided to spend Christmas in Nepal hiking to Everest Base Camp otherwise known as EBC. Yes, I know, going in the winter is cold and dumb. We did it anyway.

My wife, Jami, and I have wanted to do the trip for a long time. We are usually against the whole, my kids aren’t old enough to do things motto, but in this case we thought it was valid. Kids can do hard stuff, much harder than adults give them credit for. Everest is a high, long, hard hike so we waited. We finally decided our kids were old enough now that my son Davy is 12 and my daughter Cedar is 9. Before you read any further please realize that just because a 9 year old did it does not mean it is an easy trip. My kids are extra tough. We put a ton of preparation into the trip and felt like we were as prepared as we could reasonably be. We hiked a lot, backpacked, climbed kings peak, ate right, lifted, selected gear, watched videos, etc. My wife and I even lost 10% of our body weight each before we left.

We left mid December and flew into Tribhuvan international airport in Kathmandu (KTM) Nepal after 36 hours of travel. On our way we stopped for a couple of hours in china and the airport snacks were rough. If you love spicy instant fish or duck necks then this is the place for you. If you want chips or candy you should bring them from home. We waited for our luggage to come out and we waited and waited. Eventually we realized it wasn’t coming. Our luggage was lost. Every. Single. Piece. I always travel with some back up stuff in my carry on and this time was no different, but we were a little concerned how we would hike the mountain without our warm clothes. We filed a claim and then went outside to meet up with our guide Ganesh. He has been guiding for 19 years in the Himalaya so we felt lucky to have him. He got us in the taxi and we left for the hotel in the Thamel district. I have never driven anyplace quite like Kathmandu. 3 million people and 2 stops lights in the whole capital city. We discussed our no luggage predicament with the Ganesh and he called the airport and they assured us it would be on the next flight at 11pm. I caught a taxi back to the airport that night and our luggage finally came. Having a guide for this kind of stuff was so nice. He made everything so much easier. The trek is absolutely doable without a guide, but I feel like it was money well spent.

 

[mesha]

The next morning we woke up at 4:30 am to catch our flight to Lukla. It is touted as one of the most dangerous airports in the world. Our guide purchased our tickets for us and even though we weren’t the first people there the plane service workers passed all people with no guide and grabbed our stuff and got us situated. I walked out to the runway and boarded a rickety 14-passenger plane. The air was pretty smooth and so that part of the plane ride was good. The later in the day the worse the air gets. The plane is super loud, but luckily they give you cotton balls to cram in your ears. We had earplugs though so they did the trick. While we were flying my son noticed our first glimpse of the Himalaya and pointed it out to me. I leaned my head against the window of the emergency door I was sitting next to for a better view and it popped open about an inch and the air came rushing inside. I peed a little and closed the door. I decided I could wait a bit to see the mountains. We began to descend toward the ground and it literally felt like the pilot turned off the engine and went into a free fall.

The runway is the shortest I have ever seen and on quite a slope. I seriously thought, “Where is the rest of it.” The landing, despite being really abrupt, went off without death or dismemberment so that was nice. We grabbed our bags and headed out of the airport and into the town of Lukla. Most of the town is carved out of stone native to the area and each one is cut by hand. I really enjoyed the look of Lukla. During peak season 1200 people per day land in Lukla to start their trek. We walked most of the day only seeing locals. We started hiking right after we met our porters. There are some people that think it is bad form to hire a porter. I am not one of those people. We hired only guides and porters that were part of the Sherpa union and feel like adding to the local economy is important. Especially considering we paid each of them roughly a year’s salary in a low-end job for 12 days of work. They were really grateful and that cash went straight into their pockets. I was glad to do it. Plus, we pack pretty light compared to most. We stopped for lunch and our first traditional Nepali meal called Dal Bhat. It is rice, curry, some veggies, and lentil soup. It was darn good and to my 12-year-old sons delight it is always all you can eat. We hiked a short way to Phakding for the night. We stayed at a teahouse lodge called Hotel Beer Garden. Our rooms were freezing, but the food was good. We got too cold to be in the rooms and so we went for a walk around town. We passed a little girl, maybe 1 year old, getting a bath in a tiny bucket of cold water. We realized, not for the last time, compared to Nepali people we are wimps. Maybe 100 yards further into the village a little girl maybe 2 years old took cedar by the hand and walked her all around and showed her all of her favorite things like a rock, a goat, a piece of string, and a door. It was a neat experience. The little girl eventually gave Cedar her prized piece of yarn from her pocket. Not getting a picture of that little girl leading my little girl around is one of my few regrets. It was cool to see all of the prayer flags, prayer wheels, and rocks carved with mantras. We got to cross our first suspension bridge, which is kind of iconic for this trek. It was a little weird to feel it swaying around as the wind blew and of course our footsteps made it bounce. I also, learned that jokes about bridges breaking are NOT funny at all to my wife or daughter.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 2-Phakding (8700 ft.) to Namche Bazaar (11,283 ft.)
This is a BRUTAL day. 6 hours of walking and 3 hours of it was straight up. That hill was huge. Namche is a really beautiful town. Built right into the hillside at over 11,000 feet. A stream rapidly spinning 8-foot tall prayer wheels and one of the largest stupas in the mountain areas greeted us. Absolutely stunning place to visit and we were happy to stop walking up hill. There is everything you need here. If you forgot something Namche most likely has it. There are a lot of good restaurants, bars, and bakeries. Plenty of shopping if that is your thing. We stayed at the “comfort inn” clearly not the same as the one we have here in the U.S. it wasn’t comfortable. It snowed on us during the night, which was cool to wake up to. This night was not terribly cold. Normally Namche is super busy, but since we were there in the off-season it was not crowded at all. We were the only people in several of the places we went.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 3-Acclimatization day at Namche Bazaar
Some people mistakenly call acclimatization days rest days. We put in a solid hike up to the Everest view hotel. It is a very upscale hotel considering where it is located. It is fairly expensive at about 100 per night. That is a ton compared to most teahouses at 5ish per night in the off-season. I could really feel the altitude on this hike, but mostly shortness of breath. No headache or lung issues. We got our first view of Mount Everest! We hiked back down a narrowly missed getting run over by a bunch of donkeys. We ate some chocolate cake at the Everest bakery. It was darn good. They burned shoeboxes in the stove for heat.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 4- Namche Bazaar to Pangboche (13074)
8 hours walking today. We were originally going to stay at Tyangboche, but our guide convinced us to walk further that day so we could have a warmer night in Pangboche. ALL of the water in Tyangboche was frozen. There is no running water even in the summer months. The monastery here is absolutely stunning. Most of the monks have left for the winter, but the lama was still there. We went inside and meditated for 15 minutes while he chanted and did some blessings. It was a really cool experience. The monk really enjoyed cedars blond hair. We only hung around for maybe an hour total and then moved on to our destination. The hill into Tyangboche was a pretty good climb, but after we got some downhill for a while. People were carrying the water from a frozen stream up to the monastery and teahouse. The water is carried by locals in 10 gallon jugs strapped to their heads hanging down their backs. 10 gallons of water is 83 pounds! I really liked the teahouse in Pangboche. The Sherpa who owned it was a climbing Sherpa for a while on Mount Everest. He has been to the south col 3 time and even summited Kachenchunja the 3rd tallest mountain in the world. He then spent time as a monk and after that he opened up a teahouse. He burned a lot of incense chanted a lot and cooked good food. There was only 1 working toilet in the village due to cold weather and we had it. The owner of the teahouse would pour hot water down the toilet once in a while to keep it from freezing up. Don’t get to excited it wasn’t a handle flushing toilet, we had to use a bucket to pour water down the pipes, and we had to break the ice in the barrel of water to get to it, but at least it didn’t just sit on the ice in the toilet like a gross display case(this happened a few times). We met some cool people from Australia and we all marveled that we were so excited for a fire that burned poop. Wood is scarce up this high so they mostly burn dung from cows or donkeys. It is stacked up like firewood and dumped (haha) in the stove. It doesn’t stink at all and puts out quite a bit of heat. I called the heat BTU or butt thermal units. This was our first teahouse to feature some kind of carpet on the floor and I can tell you it is the best thing ever in a freezing cold room with a shared toilet.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 5- Pangboche to Dingboche (14295)
4 hours walking today was a really short day since we hiked extra the day before. Dingboche was quite a bit bigger than I expected and the walk wasn’t particularly hard. It was Nepali flat. Which means a whole bunch of up and down. Flat doesn’t happen in the Himalayas. Our teahouse was pretty decent. The best part was the sun. it had been out all day making it a balmy 20 degrees. The main dining room had the sun shining in the windows all day and it was pretty toasty in there. It felt really nice to be above freezing. I bet it was 50 in the dining hall for a couple hours. Our lodge sleeps 50-70 people per night in the peak season and sometimes many more. The first night we were the only ones there. We had some time to hang around which was nice.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 6- Acclimatization day in Dingboche
We got up around 7 to get ready for todays acclimatization hike. I say got up because we woke up much earlier. Sleeping for me would usually go something like this. Go to bed at 8 and sleep till 9 or 9:30. Wake up till 2-4 am and fall back asleep till 6ish. We started the hike up and didn’t see too many other people. We knew there were others on the same schedule as us, but didn’t see them out and about. The hike was pretty rough. Steep and up, up, up. My lungs were really protesting today, we were all pretty worn out. The wind was blowing pretty hard, maybe 30 mph. We headed down and got back to the teahouse and had some lunch. There was no warmth to be had there so we went in search of some. We literally walked down the road looking for a chimney with smoke coming out of it. Finally, close to the end of town we found one. It was a bakery so we didn’t have to feel awkward asking some family if we could sit in their house for a bit. The bakery was called café 4410. It had good Internet, which we didn’t use, a blazing stove, board games, and decent snacks. If you were ever in Dingboche I would recommend café 4410. We hung out here for like 5 hours in the warmth and chatted with people that came in. Most of them were cheering for, but betting against the kids making it to base camp especially those that were one the way down. I would recommend this place since they kept the fire going the whole time and had free cell phone charging with purchase. Most places this high up charge 300-400 Nepali rupees (3-4 bucks) to charge a cell phone. I didn’t really sleep well any of the nights on the mountain. My appetite got a little less starting in Dingboche, but I didn’t have a problem eating my food I just wasn’t excited about it.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 7- Dingboche to Lobuche (16164)
7 hours walking. We woke up to a decent amount of snow on the ground. No wonder the night was so warm. The guide pulled us aside and asked if we wanted to continue on or wait till the next day when it warmed up and some of the snow was gone. We told him we didn’t mind hiking in the snow and he checked the kid’s boots to make sure they were waterproof. He was satisfied so we continued on. Many people decided to stay in that day. Right out of town there is a pretty good-sized hill and we had to make it to the saddle there before we headed out across side-hilling it for 3 hours to the lunch place of Thukla. We passed several groups of people on the way because we were feeling really strong. I think a big part of it was we do a lot of hiking in the snow so we were used to stepping up and sliding back a bit. The people we passed weren’t used to the snow so they seemed disheartened by the slipperiness. It snowed hard all day long. It wasn’t too windy thank goodness, but the snow was pretty wet and unrelenting. We hit the pass and headed our way across the side hill. We dropped down into some rocky areas where the a few rivers and streams met up. Walking across bridges of steel and a few of ice got us across. Up a short hill to Thukla where we were to eat lunch. I started get losing my appetite in Thukla. I had a really hard time getting down the food I ordered. It tasted good I was just not hungry. I also started getting a pretty good headache.
After lunch we headed up Thukla pass or what we called Lobuche hill. It was about 1.5 hours of straight up with a few switchbacks. While we were cranking up the hill and resting every ½ hour or so we got passed by a couple porters and one of them was wearing a pair of huarache sandals while carrying 70 to 80 pounds up a gnarly hill in a decent amount of snow. I had a pounding headache most of the day. The air was thin and we were all having a hard time breathing (a normal amount of hard). My son had a bad headache starting in Dingboche and continued for several days. My daughter started having some blister issues while climbing up the pass. She asked if we could take a look at her feet because they were a little uncomfortable. We pulled her boots off with her trying to stand up so she didn’t get wet in the snow. She had a couple blisters so we did our best drying off her feet and then put on some moleskin. Jami, my wife, had no problems except her quads got a little tired. This hill would probably been a 20-30 minute hill if it was here in Utah, but at over 16k feet it took us 90 minutes. Several times we ran into large groups of Yaks and we had to step off the trail so we didn’t get ran over. They are really kind animals and can carry a crazy amount of weight. Interestingly enough CHE is means the place of yaks. So all of the villages that have CHE in it were once small ranches that raised yaks. Some still do and others rely mostly on tourism now. We hit the top of Thukla pass and there we hundreds of monuments built to the people that died attempting Mount Everest. I looked around for a while and were able to find some names we recognized, but couldn’t find Scott Fischer, which is the one, my son really wanted to find thanks to into thin air. We were there all alone and it was kind of surreal to wander around in the snow looking at all the people that will never leave the mountain. After we left the pass we weaved our way though another large group of yaks. One was standing out on a frozen lake just liking the ice forever. I am not sure what that is all about. Eventually we made it to Lobuche and I was pretty cashed in by that point. I was really sick. I felt like I had the flu and food poisoning at the same time. I was very weak, lots of sweating, headache, nauseated, grumbly bowels, etc. I had zero appetite. I couldn’t eat since I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up. I had a hard time even drinking water. It was cold in Lobuche, like really cold. As soon as we got to the teahouse I changed into dry clothes and started shivering. I climbed into my bed under my sleeping bag and could not get warm. Jami had to climb in with me and eventually I warmed up. Davy had a serious headache and cedar was feeing very well either. We all went to bed and my son woke me up and asked me if I was going to die, haha, apparently I seemed pretty sick. I assured him I would die in the night and Jami and cedar slept in the same bed to stay warm. It actually snowed on us during the night. I mean it snowed on us in the room while we slept. The wind blew the snow through the walls and windows of the teahouse.

 

[mesha]

Trekking day 8- Lobuche to Everest basecamp (17601) to Gorakshep (16930)
Woke up early because we had a long day ahead of us. It took me about 5 minutes to stand up. I was pretty weak. It was exciting to be shooting for base camp this day. The hiking is at a snails pace at this point. The wind was howling and it was bitterly cold. We had all the clothes on we could and as long as we kept moving we were barely not cold. Each day starting in Pangboche we would put on frozen boots and usually it was a few hours before we felt our toes. Fingers were on and off whether we could feel them. This was the coldest day of the trip. My son started hiking next to me and we looked at each other and got really big smiles. He asked me why we were smiling. I said, “Son, something is wrong with us. The worse it get, the more fun I am having. “ I was so happy that the conditions were so stupid right then. He said dad, “Our family can do hard things.” We stopped for a bit and worked on Cedars feet again. This was becoming quite a ritual for us. She never complained about them, but was honest with us as she understood the need to keep them in good shape if she wanted to make it. After a few hours we made it to Gorak Shep. I was crazy sick and felt like absolute garbage. The kids were sick though not quite as bad. We all really struggled to get any food in our bodies. Jami killed her pasta and then licked her plate clean. Our guide commented that she must have been Nepali in her past life. The altitude had little effect on her. I couldn’t feel my toes even in the lodge. For some reason they just don’t use the stove. This was the case in most lodges. The stove would be burning from about 5pm to 7pm. You would struggle to dry off your clothes and then the fire would die out and it would be frigid again. Once mealtime was over we left for the final push to base camp. Every couple years base camp gets pushed a little closer to the mountain due to receding glaciers. Our hike was only a few kilometers, but it was scheduled to take us around 5 hours to get there. We ended up hiking at a pace of less than a kilometer per hour. We were all really pushing ourselves. I enjoyed hearing nothing but encouragement and positivity coming from you children. At one point about 1 hour from EBC we were cranking our way up a small but seemingly insurmountable hill and my daughter stopped and leaned on her trekking poles. She shook her head and wonder aloud if she could make it. My son bent down and said, “Cedar you can do this you are the strongest little girl I have ever met.” We were all impressed with the absolute sincerity in his voice. Cedar perked up and marched on. I hit a serious wall about ½ hour from EBC. I know there are people out there that do the trek without much problem. My wife was one of them, but for me it was a serious battle within myself to make it. I had altitude sickness, a kidney infection, stomach issues, and what I believe was strep throat. Without my family there I would have quit. It boggles my mind that some people can climb all the way to the top. I certainly can’t do it. Finally we arrived at the bottom of the top. It was a surreal feeling to be able to look up and see the khumbu icefall and the path toward the top of the world. Base camp was very clean which surprised us because of accounts we have read about how dirty it was. We spent some time there as a family and of course got pictures, lots of pictures. There were only two other people there with us so we had it was nice and peaceful. In the peak season it would have been packed. My son stripped off his outer shell and was wearing a full grumpy bear onesie. I couldn’t help but laugh at how cool kids are. We sat down on the ground and talked about what it meant to each of us to accomplish such a goal. My son and daughter both had some very poignant things to say. I will spare you the churchy stuff. My daughter brought up her struggles with math in school. She is a very bright young lady, but sometimes it takes her a little bit to grasp a new math concept. She said dad, “sometimes I think to myself that I will never be good at math. Today I climbed to base camp of Everest. I can do anything. Math will be easy compared to that. No one can tell me I can’t do something.” Those types of lessons are the main reason we do things like that with our kids. I am sure it meant way more to me than it would to someone that wasn’t partially hallucinating from altitude sickness, but I will never forgot the honest conversations we had together there on that spot. We headed back down to Gorak shep where were slept for the night in the highest village in the world.

Final thoughts
Talking with our guide he mentioned that he had been speaking with the other guides we passed each day on our way up. Of course, most of them gave us slim chance of making it to EBC with the kids. The rest talked about how rough conditions were. We feel like we got pretty lucky to make it. There was about a 25% success rate for the people that we talked to along the way. The only other family we met along the trail that had kids the youngest was 11. They did not make it and 3 of the family got helicoptered off the mountain and eventually flown to the hospital in KTM. Each day we watched at least 4 or 5 helicopter rescues as people were pulled off for different reasons. We were really grateful for the so many little things that added up to our success on the mountain. We had the right guide, equipment, weather, training, preparation, luck, etc. If this is a trip that has been in the back of your mind for a while now you should make it happen. It was life changing to say the least. A friend asked Cedar what was the number one thing she learned on the trip and she replied, “ You don’t need much to be happy.” None of us will ever be the same after the lessons we all learned while there. We chose to go in the winter and it was stupid cold. I would still recommend it over peak season because of the smaller crowds.

 

[Tebbsjeep]

This is so cool!

 

[Unimog]

This is awesome! EBC has been on my bucket list for a while now!

 

[Herzog]

Man... that's an epic adventure right there. Thanks for sharing this Davy!

 

[bryson]

@mesha I love you and hate you all at the same time... Looks like an amazing experience.

 

[moab_cj5]

Wow! What an amazing adventure! So awesome that you were able to do this with your kids.

 

[Pike2350]

Wow. That's amazing. Your kids are pretty impressive. It makes me feel like a slacker dad....i can barely find places to wheel/hike with my kids.

That's a trip they will remember for ever. Very jealous

 

[pELYgroso]

Awesome. Your kids are tougher than most grown men.

 

[mesha]

Yes, my son is wearing Grumpy Bear pajamas at base camp. 12 year olds are fun! It was really freaking cold at the higher elevations. He bought big puffy onesie PJs to stay warm at night(he also had merino). He decided he didn't want to take them off up high so they stayed on all the time. The sherpas loved them.

 

[Stephen]

Very cool!
You need a shave, though...

 

[mesha]

Very cool!
You need a shave, though...

SO true! The Nepali people loved the beard. They aren't known for growing facial hair . I heard a lot of comments about yak, yeti, etc.

 

[johngottfredson]

Uh...pretty sure I took my kids to the Bean Museum for our winter adventure. This is amazing. Coolest Parents of All Time.