We woke up very early (5am) to get ready for our trek to Gorak Shep. This is expected to be the hardest day of the trip after Cho-La pass. After a quick breakfast of rice pudding, we were on our way to Gorak Shep. The trail has fantastic views of Nuptse and Lobuche as well as the Khumbu glacier.
It took us just under 2 hours to arrive to the (very nice) "Snowland Highest Inn" (which at 5180m was our highest sleeping place). The Inn claims the highest internet cafe in the world... too bad that they don't have computers or internet access for that instance yet (but they do sell coffee).
After a quick "second breakfast" with prices as high as the altitude ($4 for a cheese omelette), we headed to Everest Base Camp. The trail follows the Khumbu glacier on a lateral moraine with lots of ups and downs. There were lots of Yak traffic on the trail, carrying supplies to Everest Base Camp.
We got nice views of the Everest summit and the Khumbu ice fall from the trail. In the picture above, Everest is the black rock towards the right of the picture with some snow blowing to the left of it. It's ironic that after you get to basecamp, the summit of Everest is not longer visible.
After a while, we needed to cross the glacier on a well defined trail. We reached an overlook of basecamp which was supposed to be the end of our journey. However, Raj, our assistant guide, had friend on Everest Base Camp proper so I tagged along with him.
After crossing next to the massive Russian camp (no visitors allowed), we got to the first tent in the camp, "The Everest Bakery," selling from sour bread to apple pies and everything in between. From there, we took a circuitous route to the Japanese camp where Raj's brother in law works as the head cook.
Everest Base Camp is just a collection of tents on a relatively flat area of the Khumbu glacier next to the Khumbu icefall. There are some well marked crevasses between some of the camps, a reminder that we are on a glacier.
At the Japanese camp, we were welcome with a hot lemon drink and a cheese omelet. There I got to meet a climber from New Zealand which summited some years ago from Tibet. I also met 3 of the climbers from the Japanese team (which has a total of 6 Japanese and 6 Sherpa climbers; plus the support staff). The Japanese team and the Sherpas built a shrine for good luck. Note the offering to the gods... in addition to the traditional rice, there is a can of beer and a bottle of Coke. After several cups of coffee, we moved to the British camp (9 climbers, no sherpas) where Raj's brother-in-law brother works. I got to see one of the climbers (who wanted the head cook to trade for 3 packs of Marlboro), but I didn't get to talk to him.
It was getting stormy, so we decided to head down to Gorak Shep. We were told that the weather forecast was calling for heavy snow in the next 4-5 days and that all the climbers were coming down. I could see several climbers descending the Khumbu fall, including 2 skiers (I wish I had a lens powerful enough to photograph them).
Half way down to Gorak Shep, it started to snow, but we still make it back by 1:15pm. Not long after we got there, the snow become more heavy and started to accumulate.
While relaxing in the lodge, I met a group of Sherpas that summited Everest a few days ago (note their sunburned faces). All of them has summited twice, with one of them having being to the summit 4 times! There were relaxing (and drinking heavily) as no more climbs were scheduled for the next 5 days. They were really nice people that made me feel very welcome when I approached them to ask about taking a picture with them.
After a relaxing time by the stove, we had dinner (garlic soup and a cheese sandwich) and I headed for a not-so-restful night of sleep (it's hard to sleep at this altitude).
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