Everest Base Camp (intro)

।। श्री आशापुरी देव्यै नमः ।।

Towards the top of the World.. Everest Base Camp (intro)

himalayan treks 🏔️ २ झालेत, बस झालेत.. सह्याद्रीतील मजा, सह्याद्रीतच.. तिथल्या बर्फापेक्षा ☃️ इथलं ऊन बरं 🌞..

that's an excerpt from the article on family trek to कळसूबाई, about 2 years ago, which may sound now contradictory 😬..

I always had this impression of 'EBC' being off limits 🫣, only for expert trekkers (having some qualified fitness 💪) and likewise kind of stuff.. but when I recently watched the 'uunchai' movie 🎥, the perception / anticipation changed in the direction of it definitely being not beyond reach 😃 and more fascinating than dramatic as depicted (in the motion picture) 🤞.. then, 2 of the pune agencies posted their April schedule in this very same region, and this was signal enough ℹ️.. the homework kicked-in (via YouTube) and the journey began 🎒..

and now, himalayan treks 🏔️ ३ झालेत, बस झालेत..

and I still believe.. तिथल्या बर्फापेक्षा ☃️ इथलं ऊन बरं 🌞..

and, to add to this, तिथल्या rice पेक्षा, इथली भाकरी बरी ☺️.. 

there is absolutely no going back 🚷..

I have moved on..

not to unnecessarily elongate the main article, this article will simply highlight / elaborate some of the surrounding terms.. so, let's start 🏁..

Himalaya 🏔️ - him-alaya - literally translating to "the abode 🏠 of snow ❄️".. home to world's tallest mountains, including all the 14 8-thousanders, this mountain range attracts the trekkers 🧗 ⛷️, the most.. probably, also the only place, where one can find people of various nationalities, at once ⏱️.. spanning across borders of 5 nations 🇵🇰 🇮🇳 🇳🇵 🇧🇹 🇨🇳, this range offers exquisite views of .. .. do I even need to mention? 🤔

Nepal 🇳🇵 - only country to have a non-quadrilateral flag.. as per one of the videos (non-verified fact), it hosts 8 of those 14 8-thousanders, has 127 peaks above 7000m levels and 1167 peaks above 6000m.. so, if at all we want to relate it, कळसूबाई (highest peak in the महाराष्ट्र state) is nothing more than उंबरठा 😐 for people who live / are born 🐣 here..

om mani padme hum
(outside Tengboche monastery)

om mani padme hum - the 6 syllable matra 🧘 with tibetan origins, actually has a meaning to your interpretation of a jewel 💎 and a lotus 🪷.. during the trek, one can find this scripted on numerous stones / rocks, popularly called as 'mani stones'.. it is a good practice to cross these stones / rocks from the left.. but, would that not mean, one will have to read these from right to left 🔙, when the text is actually written in the other direction? 🤨.. so, even if I did not find that logical enough 🥺, I simply followed the said practice, as told, same as many more rituals, we just do for the sake of it, in our motherland 😔..

this mantra is also observed to be printed on many rotating wheels ☸️, which are supposed to be rotated only clockwise ♻️ - this sounds logical 😊.. and every rotation (normally supplemented by a ringing bell 🔔) is believed to be equivalent of reciting the mantra, the number of times, it is printed in a single rotation, mostly once 🔂..

similar to these wheels and stones, one can also find quite a number of tibetan flags enroute.. blue 🔵, white ⚪, red 🔴, green 🟢, yellow 🟡 - finally, I could remember the fixed sequence.. the colors representing the पंच महाभूत - sky, air, fire, water and earth - also believed to be the prime constituents of our body 👽..

tibetan flags (Lukla)

variant with a mani stone

Everest - the tallest amongst the giants 🦕.. standing at 8848m, recently, re-measured / re-calibrated 📏 to be 8848.86m, this peak is shared by the countries Nepal and China, same as few other peaks which lie on the international borders 🌏.. named so in 1865 after a British surveyor, this peak is also known as Chomolungma, Sagarmatha or Peak XV.. in May 1953, it was conquered first time by a New Zealand 🇳🇿 citizen, supported by a sherpa.. the duo are known as Tenzing-Hillary, after whom the Lukla airport 🛫 is also named after, which we'll visit in next article, also popular as one of the world's most dangerous 👻 airports..

movies 📽️ - while surfing one of the videos, (vlogger) at Thukla pass, I heard about Scott Fischer and a movie, based on true events from 1996, named 'Everest' (released in 2015).. needless to mention, the urge cooled down only after I watched it 🤳.. it's a must watch by the way, to very much understand the importance of turnaround time ⌛, and not be over-confident about any feat, you may have / not already achieved before ☠️..

more or less, at the same time, another movie was OTT released, christened 'fall'.. as the poster itself is enticingly intriguing, one cannot just keep it on-the-shelf 🙈 for long..

EBC trek (from South) - this comes in 2 variants.. one is probably the easier one, which we followed.. the other one is popularly known as '3 passes trek', that takes one through the slightly challenging 💪 🧘 route via Renjo La pass, Cho La pass and Kongma La pass, including Gokyo region and various lakes 🏝️.. both the routes start from and end at Lukla, with a summit 🚩 at 'Everest Base Camp', with an option to also summit 'Kala Patthar', from where one can experience the golden variant of Mt. Everest 🌄 (sunrise special).. at EBC, the trek ends at the famous hook-shaped 🪝 grey-colored rock, till a few metres before the actual base camp, where the probable summiteers hope 🤞, pray 🙏, stay 😴, wait ⏲️ and acclimatize 🌬️..

our entire schedule was of 15 days, ex-Kathmandu, which basically comprised of 12 days of walking ~130 kms 🚶‍♂️.. 2 of these were acclimatization days (keep reading to know more about 'acclimatization', if you don't know already).. additional 2 days of rest days 🛌 in Kathmandu (before and after the trek, one each) and a buffer day, in case a change in schedule was inevitable, had the weather ☃️ not complied.. did the weather behave / misbehave?, was the complete itinerary religiously followed? by each one of us?, we'll learn in the next article..

THE suspension bridge

suspension bridges 🌉 - one of the major attractions of the trek are also the suspension bridges, which immensely help you cross the rivers 🏞️ enroute in quick time, saving you fortunes in many ways.. if my counting and memory 🧠, both are correct, there were 8 of them.. first was across a valley, partially caused due to landslide.. next 6 were across the river 'Dudh Koshi'.. and, the last one was at the highest elevation, over its tributary river 'Imja Khola'.. most of these, may be all of them are not more than 20 years old.. these are constructed from metal plates, 2-3 running abreast, depending on their individual widths and are connected to each other by metal strings 🔩.. each plate is about 4 feet long and around 80 (x 2-3) plates tied together, complete the bridge.. implying the bridges are about 100 metres in length.. truly amazing 🤩 !! is it not?.. 

tea houses, food and temperatures - the stay on all the scheduled days was in tea houses 🏫, of course in different villages.. it's very fascinating 🫡 to observe, how these people have built these tea houses in this region, when the modes of transport are only limited to humans, animals and helicopters 🚁.. there is absolutely zero road transport (cars, bikes, buses etc. ❌)..

check this amazing establishment (Namche)

the tea houses do not offer any heaters 🌡️ though (except the common area) and one needs to survive through the negative temperatures at night 🌃, only via blankets, comforters or sleeping bags.. may god bless 🙏 the ones, who spend it all inside the tents ⛺, in an outside open area.. 

eating options are obviously limited, and majorly comprise of rice 🍚, bread 🍞, eggs 🥚, pasta 🍝 and pizzas 🍕.. they even call it here, 'दाल-भात power, 24 hour'.. but, you cannot disagree - that's all junk, except eggs, which we did not resist at all - on every single day.. when we discourage eating white (sugar, rice, bread, मैदा etc.) in our area, we don't have a choice here 😰.. (unfortunately) must have definitely consumed these, more than what would have done since the first lockdown 😭, i.e., in last 3 years.. drinking min. 3 litres of warm water is highly recommended to avoid any potential issues caused due to AMS 🤕.. that reminds me,

AMS - Acute Mountain Sickness - one can suffer AMS at higher elevation levels due to lack of oxygen in the atmosphere 🌀, which is generally termed as 'thin air'.. to prevent AMS, or to get used to these levels without much discomfort, one has to be slow while going up.. a few times, also needs to spend more than a day, at the same location 💤, termed as 'acclimatization'..

acclimatization day at Dingboche
(Ama Dablam in the background)

apps - here again, while surfing one of the YT videos, learned about 'PeakFinder' ⛰️ app.. the first app, I ever paid 💰 for one time subscription, after getting some second / third / fourth opinions.. and mark my words, 'totally worth it' 👏.. meantime, वैभव also sent an insta link with a few more app recommendations, but opted to leave them out for a latter point in time.. if interested, this is the link..

first view of Mt. Everest, credits: PeakFinder

currency 🪙 - almost everywhere, Indian Rupees ₹ are accepted (mostly of or below denominations of 100 💵), did not enquire about other currencies though.. the conversion rate 💱 is flat 1.6.. 100 INR is equivalent to 160 NPR..

agencies - not to blame / praise any specific names, it will just be 'pune agency' and 'nepal agency' throughout the next article 📑.. while 'pune agency' did nothing more than tying-up, the 'nepal agency' actually took care 👍 of every possibility and every small / big thing needed for the successful execution of the trek, especially leads / guides 🤠..

leads - in any activity, we need to have some experts who can guide us safely and confidently through the entire process.. in some cases, even we are offered these leading roles.. theoretically, there was one person joining us from पुणे as a representative of 'pune agency'.. practically, we were only 3 participants on the trek.. everything related to 'why I said / wrote / typed so?', is upto your free and wild imagination 🤷..

दाइ vs भाइ - in नेपाली (language), big brother and small brother are respectively called as दाइ (dai) and भाइ (bhai) 👬.. so, our leads (from 'nepal agency') will be referred as दाइ in the next article 🤛, just in case, you find it inconsistent with the previous articles, you may have read so far.. and this also reminds me, नेपाली is another language, similar to हिंदी and मराठी, which is written in देवनागरी script 🕉️.. if not exactly the same, at least very-very close 🤏..

with all of that, ending this article and starting the next one (on actual EBC experience) with a one-liner from the movie 'Everest'.. 

The last word Always belongs to the mountain.. true that.. 🙇

..see you on the other side