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Trekking to Everest Base camp

Tigers!

Tigers!

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On the wing, waiting for a kick.
Basic Beliefs
Bible believing revelational redemptionist (Baptist)
Tomorrow, Thursday 29th Feb., I will be off to Everest Base Camp.
Considering I have never been to the top of Australia's highest mountain this might be suprising. Indeed the base camp is approx. twice the height of Mount Kosciuszko.
The training is over and now I go with a good friend David G. This is his 13th trek to Base Camp (really likes it up there he does).
Bit late to ask for advice now.
We hike for at least 11 days from Lukla, Nepal to Base Camp. One of the stops has been registering -15C 🥶

I will be gone > 3 weeks.

So while I am gone the following rules apply
1. You are all in charge
2. Don't burn the place down while I am gone.
3. Do not change the URLs while I am gone.
4, Close the door when you leave
5. Ignore the cat
6. Continue being kind and polite to one another.

See you when I return

Tigers.
 
Please take care Tigers. That’s way high up for someone not acclimated, and altitude sickness takes many insidious forms besides the obvious cerebral and pulmonary edemas that are relatively easy to detect.
Have fun, and pay very close attention to your own physiology!
 
Elixir said:
Please take care Tigers. That’s way high up for someone not acclimated, and altitude sickness takes many insidious forms besides the obvious cerebral and pulmonary edemas that are relatively easy to detect.
Have fun, and pay very close attention to your own physiology!
Click to expand...
You take it slowly. I've been that high, three days of acclimatization was enough for me but not for 10 out of 12 of our group. The two of us who attempted the Kilimanjaro summit stage failed because of time, not altitude sickness. Without time spent acclimatizing you're looking at a time of useful consciousness of around 30 minutes. Note, however, that there are machines in the few thousand dollar range that allow you to do full acclimatization at home. You have to spent most of your time with either a mask connected to the machine or under a tent the machine supplies air to. It works because in reality your body doesn't give a hoot about altitude (other than if you go fast enough to get the bends) but rather oxygen. If you're breathing sea level pressure with mountain oxygen levels your body reacts the same as if you really were in mountain air.


I like walk-up mountains but Everest Base Camp is not a place I would want to be. It's nowhere near as dangerous as what comes after but the avalanches do occasionally hit it. I NOPE avalanche terrain.
 
One of our Company’s medical advisors did some rotations at Base Camp. Of course his perspective is skewed but it sounds horrible! 😐
 
Elixir said:
Please take care Tigers. That’s way high up for someone not acclimated, and altitude sickness takes many insidious forms besides the obvious cerebral and pulmonary edemas that are relatively easy to detect.
Have fun, and pay very close attention to your own physiology!
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it is still 1000 times safer than being in Australia.
 
bilby said:
Be sure to annoy everyone by pronouncing the name of the mountain correctly; It is named for George Everest, who was Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, and he pronounced his surname "Eve-wrist", not "Ever-rest".
Click to expand...
Chomolungma to be safe.

I advise my friends who take semi-dangerous sojourns to be safe and have fun. Hope to see you back soon. Don't get eaten by Yeti.
 
Sounds exciting! Have fun.
 
I made it back to Oz.
It was magnificent wandered along the edge of all those ridges and seeing God's creation laid out before us.
18 days of trekking from Lukla and back. Greater than 135kms in total.
The sad news is that I did not quite get to where we planned. We were aiming for a place called Kala Patthar. I fell about 500m short, only got to 5030m. I was diagnosed with mountain sickness and had to go back to 4200m to recover. My friend keep going and made it. We met up again after a day and half. It fell to -16C that night.
LoBuche.jpg
I am on the left and my friend David is on the right. He kept going the next day and made it to KP.
The mountain shown is not Everest but rather Ama Dublan. It is only about 6500m high. This mountain was seemingly always on our right and just ahead of us. This was the only time we actually passed this mountain.
After 6.5days trekking we finally passed the 1/2 mark (4420m) to Everest.
Thukla4620m.jpg
The shot you have been waiting for. Everest is on the highest on the left and Lthose (4th highest) is on the right. Most of the time Everest is unfortunately largely hidden behind other mountains or cloud. Taken at 4000m.
Everest_Lthose.jpg
After 11 days we returned to Lukla and I had the coldest shower I ever wish to have in my life. I had a choice of very freezing water or just freezing. I then realised just how much my mate and I stunk.
Hiking clothes.jpg
A bonus of the trip was that I lost 5kgs. Now to keep it off.

Got the Delhi belly back in Kat and had 2 days feeling crook. then jet lag going home. The first 5 days back were a blur of feeling ill and tired. But Swhmubo seems to be glad I was back.
 
Tigers! said:
It was magnificent wandered along the edge of all those ridges and seeing God's creation laid out before us.
Click to expand...
Don't blame your God; That view is a result of India smashing headlong into Asia, and the accident investigators have put the blame squarely on the bickering between the various Hindu Gods over who should be steering.
 
Tigers! said:
I made it back to Oz.
It was magnificent wandered along the edge of all those ridges and seeing God's creation laid out before us.
18 days of trekking from Lukla and back. Greater than 135kms in total.
The sad news is that I did not quite get to where we planned. We were aiming for a place called Kala Patthar. I fell about 500m short, only got to 5030m. I was diagnosed with mountain sickness and had to go back to 4200m to recover. My friend keep going and made it. We met up again after a day and half. It fell to -16C that night.
Click to expand...
Really sucks to fail on something like that.

I was ok with altitude on Kilimanjaro, but failed on time--it was effectively impossible to summit after sunrise.
Tigers! said:
The shot you have been waiting for. Everest is on the highest on the left and Lthose (4th highest) is on the right. Most of the time Everest is unfortunately largely hidden behind other mountains or cloud. Taken at 4000m.
Click to expand...
Love it! Wish I could have been there. Even if I can't actually climb them I like big mountains.
Tigers! said:
After 11 days we returned to Lukla and I had the coldest shower I ever wish to have in my life. I had a choice of very freezing water or just freezing. I then realised just how much my mate and I stunk.
Click to expand...
That part I would not have liked. I'm fine with wrapping up against the cold but I hate a cold shower.
Tigers! said:
A bonus of the trip was that I lost 5kgs. Now to keep it off.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you expend a lot of energy on something like that. I never feel enough hunger to offset the calories expended on a long hike. Eventually your metabolism will figure it out but that takes a while.
 
Looks like an amazing trek!


I would never call 500m short a failure, though! It’s the journey. 18 days of trekking beautiful country can never be a failure.

The journey changed a bit due to altitude, but you win, nevertheless.
 
T.G.G. Moogly said:
bilby said:
Be sure to annoy everyone by pronouncing the name of the mountain correctly; It is named for George Everest, who was Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, and he pronounced his surname "Eve-wrist", not "Ever-rest".
Click to expand...
Chomolungma to be safe.

I advise my friends who take semi-dangerous sojourns to be safe and have fun. Hope to see you back soon. Don't get eaten by Yeti.
Click to expand...
Yeti is Australian. Wouldn’t it be the Abominable Snowman?
 
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