Third Everest Base Camp Team Enjoying Luxury

Shayan Rohani here report­ing from Nam­che Bazaar with the 2012 Ever­est Base Camp group #3.

So far it has been a great trip and a great group. We have 11 par­tic­i­pants rang­ing from 13 to 70 years old, as well as a great mix of Cana­di­an, Amer­i­can, and British trekkers.

Kath­man­du was hot and rainy and a bit qui­eter than nor­mal due to a nation­al strike protest­ing the lack of a promised con­sti­tu­tion for the last 4 years. There is talk of post­pon­ing anoth­er year at the end of the month. It was kind of nice with traf­fic shut down, it was walk­ing or rick­shaw only. Rel­a­tive­ly orga­nized chaos!

With all the rain, we were very con­cerned about get­ting our flight to Luk­la but the weath­er cleared just in time and we left the hus­tle and bus­tle of Kath­man­du for the peace and tran­quil­i­ty of the Sher­pa cul­ture thriv­ing in the Khum­bu Valley.

Nam­che Bazaar. Deana Zabal­do photo

The group has been blown away by the spe­cial treat­ment MM Nepal pro­vides it’s clients includ­ing wake up tea and euca­lyp­tus steam tow­els before every meal. I must say the staff real­ly does do an excel­lent job mak­ing the jour­ney much more com­fort­able than imagined.

Today we had an acclima­ti­za­tion hike above Nam­che to the Ever­est View hotel for a cup of very deli­cious tea and our first views of Mount Ever­est. It was very clear and we soaked in the views for about an hour before the after­noon clouds start­ed to obscure the summit.

It seems to be shap­ing up to be a very poor climb­ing sea­son. They only recent­ly have estab­lished camp 4 and the lines to camp 4 have yet to be fixed to the sum­mit. It has been a very dry year mak­ing rock­fall the main objec­tive haz­ard. There have been 5 lives tak­en on the moun­tain already and we have begun to see a few climbers retreat­ing homeward.

Tomor­row we will head out for Theng­boche, my per­son­al favorite vil­lage with its beau­ti­ful monastery and rhodo­den­dron for­est tucked bril­liant­ly below Ama Dablam stand­ing as a sen­tinel high above.

I will try and make con­tact in 3 days or so but for now take care and enjoy your springtime.