Self Experience

My Travelling Experience to Everest Base Camp (2017)

Firstly, I would like to let you all know that travelling to Mountains has always been in my bucket list and it will always be because you never get tired of seeing the beauty of mountains and it never disappoints you.

My dream of travelling to the mountains came true after joining Wongchhu Peak Promotion (WPPNepal) which is one of the top-ranking company of Nepal and has a biggest international network that offers a variety of tours, treks and adventurous activities throughout Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. I was appointed as a Sales Manager and being in the tourism field is very challenging in itself and adventurous as well, where you get to know much more about the places which you haven’t known before and also dealing with trekkers and welcoming them in our country Nepal is always the best part of it.

Everest Base Camp Trek was such a great trek and it would be one of the most memorable treks of my life. This trek to EBC was with the Students group from India of age 8 - 18. It was the longest and the highest trek, I have ever done in my life. Ever since I heard that I was joining EBC trek with students group, I was more than stoked to hit the trail. I trekked for the first time and I wasn’t pretty sure whether I can make it or not. As we all know that Everest Base Camp trek is one of the most famous & most chosen trekking routes of Himalayas. Being on the base of Mt. Everest and getting chance to see it with your own eyes means one of your dreams come true of seeing Mt. Everest.

Our Journey begins right after we get off the flight. We hike around 3 – 4 hours and reach Phakding. Since this was the first day of our trek and we wanted to have a steady start. Phakding is situated at a height of 2,610 m from sea level. It is located to the north of Lukla and south of Monjo and is a popular first-night stopover for most of the trekkers. You will come across the beautiful scenery of the mountains during your hike from Lukla to Phakding. Some notable mountains that you can see are Karyolung (6367 m), Gongla (5813 m) and Nupla (5885 m). Several suspension bridges are another familiar thing you can find in this trek. The Rimishung monastery is a popular monastery that you can find on the other side of the Dudh Koshi River. Later, in the evening we had our dinner very soon and went to nap because tomorrow trail was a bit long & kind of tough for the students. 

We woke up very early had coffee and breakfast at Phakding. All the students were ready with full of energy. Me too was all set to start my hike to Everest Base Camp for the day. The plan was to reach Namche Bazaar also popularly known as the gateway to Mount Everest. On our route from Phakding (2610 m) to Namche (3440 m), we came across several bridges. The crystal clear water from the Dudh Koshi River will keep you going through the steep trail. In the peak season, you will come across many trekkers which can be interesting. The trail wasn’t easy at all and we’ll be going through a steep trail for almost three hours. During this trek, you will be going through Sagarmatha National park area where you are required to have passed. We all had lunch in Jorsalle and after three hours of the walk, we reached Namche Bazar. Namche Bazaar is Gateway to Mount Everest. We’ll be staying extra days in Namche Bazaar to acclimatize. We passed the extra day of our time very well in Namche by a hike up to Everest Viewpoint from where we can see many snowcapped mountains, along with Mt. Everest first look which is just amazing, buying the things we liked in Namche Shop, explored the Namche and many more. Stay at Namche was awesome with these lovely students with many gossips, laugh and so on.

Next day we woke up early in the morning had our breakfast and got ready to set our ascending towards another place close to Everest Base Camp, Tengboche. We’ll see fascinating scenes of Mt. Ama Dablam, Mt. Everest and Mt. Tabuche and much more. We’ll be passing through the rhododendron forest which is the national flower of Nepal.  Tengboche trail is also somehow steep trail. It is the place for the day where we’ll be spending a night. In Tengboche, we can visit the monastery which was built around 1915 AD. This monastery is very near the lodge where we stayed. Many monks can be seen in the Tengboche monastery. Tengboche lies at an elevation of 3,860m.

As we climb get closer to Mt. Everest the weather become colder and colder. Our next destination is Dingboche which lies 4,410m above the sea level. Our starting to Dingboche will be very smooth as we have to descend through the rhododendron forest and crossed the Dudh Koshi River to reach lower Pangboche. From Pangboche we head towards Syomare where we’ll have our lunch. We continue to walk through coming across yak and Nak to finally reach Dingboche. As my journey of Mount Everest hike continued, I could feel a mix of excitement and tiredness. It is also another place for acclimatization. 

During our rest day after having breakfast, we hike up to Nagarkarshang. From the top, we can see the beautiful views of Dingboche as well as Pheriche also much closer look of snowcapped peaks. The day was very sunny with a chill wind.

Our next destination is Lobuche. I felt that Thukla Pass between Dingboche and Lobuche is saddest trekking pass in Everest Base Camp trail also one of the popular viewpoints. This is the saddest point because there are more than 100 memorials built on different time who lost their lives during the Everest summit. These memorials statues are built-in memory of lost lives with many prayers flag. Most of us will feel very emotional after seeing their photos with their name. This pass is also the best viewpoint. It always pays to look back at where you just came from a long climb over rocks and boulders. During the main season, it’s really hard to get a room. In Lobuche, there was only one room available & we were 5 including the guide. We all shared the room but it was like impossible to move. We were like a statue . Somehow, we managed that night. 

We woke up very early because this was the day where we’ll get a chance to see close to Mt. Everest.  We all were super excited for the trail. In this part of the trek, we will be hiking across grassland that had no trees. It got colder as I walked past Lobuche and continued my journey towards Gorakshep which lie (5,170 m) from sea level.

From Gorakshep, one trail went towards Everest Base Camp and another to Kalapathar. The trail from Lobuche was much more comfortable compared to the previous one. This made me more excited and I could sense my victory on reaching Gorakshep. We visited EBC in the evening. OMG finally ✌️ dream come true, here I’m just below the Mt. Everest ⛰️. What a feeling . Don’t have a word to express my feeling. It is just WOW.  I also had a chance for the extra achievement of going to Kalapathar as well. We got back to Lodge had breakfast and trek back to Pheriche. We were super tired so had dinner very soon and went to sleep.

Next morning, we planned to fly by Helicopter 🚁. Isn’t it's cool 😎? It was my first ride on Helicopter so, I was super excited for it. We were flying directly to Lukla so, small thanking giving program was held in lodge.  All the students including teachers thanked guides for guiding so well from starting date to end, thanked porters for carrying all luggage very safely. All the students & teachers offered Khada for to Guide, Sherpas and porters. Our trip to EBC had been possible only due to the help and support of our very experienced guide, sherpas. 

Finally, we flew from Pheriche to Lukla. And the helicopter ride was just relaxing & comfortable. It was a very wonderful trip of my life. Thanks, everyone for joining us.

Ang Diku Sherpa

General Manager