After we got down from Kala Patar we went back to the tea house for lunch and to rest. By the time we got down the climbers had met back up with us at the tea house for the final push to base camp. I still felt bad from the altitude and the climb up kala Patar, but I was excited that our final destination and goal was in sight.
The trek from gorak shep to base camp isn’t too bad. It only took about 2.5-3 hours. The landscape on the way to base camp looked a lot like a lunar setting. Mostly gray rock with lots of boulders and mounds you have to scale up and down. At this altitude, there is no vegetation so the backdrop is rock and ice. As we got closer to base camp the weather continued to get colder and the snow began to fall lightly. No matter. We were finally arriving at base camp.
Base camp is pretty big. It is probably a half a mile long or more and has many different camps for different climbing companies. Ours, alpine ascents, was all the way to the back or towards the highest point – the ice fall. It was exciting to arrive at the entrance and to congratulate each other. At that time, we said goodbye to one of our guides, Carole tajas, who was heading back down to lukla.
While it was great to be at base camp, we still had a 45 minute hike to our camp. It was very icy and slippery as we worked our way through the various camps. It gave you a good feel for the organization of the camps. The thing to note is that base camp is built on a moving glacier. While it looks rocky, it is actually moving ice with about 1-2 inches of rock and dirt on top of it. You were reminded of this at times as you would step on pure ice and slip as you walked
The thing I learned is that each year the Sherpa have to carve out flat spaces for each and every tent that is placed at base camp each year. That is hard work as they have to move rock and dig into the ice. That includes my tent which was dug into a spot near the ice fall. When I booked my trip and negotiated staying at base camp I had to pay more because they said that they would have to build a platform for my tent. I thought they meant a wood platform, but they meant an ice bed for my tent.
We finally arrived at alpine ascents camp set up I which was cool and nice. 3 main tents – dinning, kitchen, electrical/communications. The dinning tent is the main tent where you eat and hang out. It has one long table in the middle with about 30 chairs around it. Other than your personal tent, it is the only place to hang out and get warm, if the heat is on, which it only seems to be at night.
They also had 3-4 tents as rest rooms. Just small tents set up in the rocks with buckets buried in the rocks as toilets. I actually preferred these to the tea houses because they were so much cleaner. Cold, but cleaner.
Then there were the tents for the climbers spread about. Nothing fancy. For me, just a 2 man tent that I shared with my roommate mike MacNair. Tight quarters, but you don’t want a lot of space due to the cold. Less area to heat up.
It was snowing and cold as we arrived so everyone stored their stuff in their tents and got settled in and then headed to to dinning tent. There we were met by the camp cook Ali. She is this cute little blond with these big sun glasses. Not what I expected. She had prepared these salmon and capper appetizers and this amazing meal. Vegetable chili and salad. Wow, I hadn’t eatin a raw vegetable since I had been in Nepal – not advisable. But here, you knew you were safe as safety and health are the top priorities. I gobbled it down even though I had lost most my appetite due to the altitude.
After dinner, you usually hang out, talk, play cards, write on your blogs, and try to keep warm until you go to bed. We have a large and diverse group which made it interesting as you could move from one group or individual to another each night. I tended to be one of the later night owles, but that isn’t saying much. Most people started to bed about 8 pm. Altitude makes you sleep more but I couldn’t sleep anyway so laying in a cold tent didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Once you were ready for bed you filled your 2 waters bottles with hot water to put into your sleeping bag. It was cold when you get to your tent so you basically wanted to throw your bottles in, strip down to base layers and jump in and zip that sucker up over your head. It was so cold in our tent that the condensation from our breathes formed snow in the tent roof and on our bags and heads. When you moved in the tent, the snow would fall on you. By morning, I was covered in the snow.
The other thing about the night there is the sounds that keep you up at night. First, the sounds of avalanches and rocks slides. We were right below the ice fall. The avalanches sounded like they were going to come through our tent. Very scary. Unfortunately, it was a sign of things to come. However, these avalanches and slides are a normal occurrence as the ice refreezes at night and expands. Again, we are camped on a living moving thing – the glacier.
The other sound at night was that of the the climbers walking by on their way to the ice fall. They go at night from 12-5 am to climb in the dark. They have to start early in the morning to get a start on their climbs. Imagine climbing on ropes on the side of ice and crossing over crevasses – all in the dark with a small headlamp on your head. Then imagine hearing the sound of an avalanche and not knowing where it is coming from or if it is going to hit you. That is what these courageous folks deal with regularly. All night I could hear the sound of their footsteps in the ice and the clank of their gear as they went to and from “crampon point”. The place they gear up for as they enter the ice fall.
I wasn’t actually cold in my sleeping. The hot water bottles really helped. Unfortunately, when you wake up at some point you have to get out of your bag and try to get dressed as quickly as possible. Then off to the dinning tent. Cool, my first night at base camp completed.
