The long and winding… trek – to Everest’s Base Camp; Day 7: Lobuche to Gorakshep.

The “Long” in the title is spot on – we’d already been on our trek up to the Nepalese Base Camp of Mount Everest a full week – and we’d still a few days to go. And it was those few last days that worried me a little when I opened the curtains in my guesthouse room early on this morning. Now, of course, I’m no stranger to snow and fog, but I’m used to having to directly experience it just between my front door and that of my car, and between said car and office door. However, here… – yikes: we had a day’s trekking with low oxygen (from Lobuche to the next village of Gorakshep) – upward – out in this! ->

It made me want to go back down to the snooker hall and lay low there instead of forge ahead )…

I was comforted a little when I learned we had just four kilometers to cover this day, but still – this weather: what the actual fog?!

Off we set – most of us grumbling that we didn’t sign up for snow + zero sun + rough morainic debris at 5000+ meters!…

Here’s an old moraine line to the right of a fresher one:

Just like the previous day – the going was tough, but this day: more so. But at least there’s a back-up option: if someone can’t make it to Gorakshep, or needs to head back down, some enterprising Sherpas offer a service to cover this: for a hundred USD you can go by horse! ->

On and on and up and up we trekked. Once again I asked myself why I’d brought three rechargeable batteries for my camera. One would have sufficed for the entire trek.

After schlepping some four kilometers, our mood brightened as Gorakshep came into view; as to the weather – we’d given up all hopes of its doing the same…

Everest – that way, apparently. So that’s where we were to be headed the following day…

Up there to the left is the much-anticipated South Base Camp of Mount Everest ->

Our lodgings for the night – the Everest Inn Gorakshep. Up around these parts accommodation has been known to be extremely basic, if not brutal; however, things have changed in recent years, and our stay here was really rather comfortable. Sure, it doesn’t look too cozy from the outside; inside: perfectly adequate ->

Since this was our final stay en route to the Base Camp, my next post in this series will be dedicated to Nepalese places to stay…

The rest of the photos from our trek up to the South Base Camp of Mount Everest are here.