Everest Base Camp: The Fun Begins!

This is the sec­ond post from Deana Zabal­do, who is lead­ing our sec­ond Ever­est Base Camp Trek of the sea­son. Deana is joined by Pem­ba Gyal­je Sher­pa, who will be tak­ing four mem­bers of our team up to Camp 2 on Mount Ever­est for our Khum­bu Ice­fall Exten­sion. We wel­come you to fol­low Deana, who will be lead­ing our fall Bhutan trip as well, and enjoy her reports from high in the Himalayas!

Blan­dine Fay­olle photo

The trail to Ever­est Base Camp begins with an ear­ly morn­ing flight into Luk­la and then a hike down into the val­ley. Up and down the trail, we pass through bright­ly paint­ed vil­lages, around piles of black and white stones carved with Bud­dhist mantras, and across long sus­pen­sion bridges draped over the churn­ing Dudh Kosi…the Milk Riv­er, named for all the glacial sed­i­ment it con­tains. Along the way, you nev­er know what you’ll find…

(Watch videos of the Lama and prayer wheel here and of the porters here.)

The weath­er in the Khumb­hu Val­ley has always been a bit unpre­dictable, and even more so now with the cli­mate change of recent years. As we climb toward Nam­che Bazaar, our sun­ny day turns to snow. It’s a mag­i­cal entrance to this famous way­point, and the town is beau­ti­ful­ly striped with patch­es of snow begin­ning to stick.

Bud­dhist gates mark the edge of towns or sacred val­leys. Pass­ing through the struc­ture (paint­ed with gods and man­dalas) cleans­es us of any evil spir­its as we enter the area. 

See a video of the snowy weath­er as the group enters Nam­che here.

Stay tuned for more updates as we hear from our group on the Ever­est Base Camp Trek!

~ MM Guide Deana Zabaldo