Day 10: Ghorekshep / Base Camp
Hiking time: 4-5 hours.
The trail winds through the high tundra and glacial moraine to Ghorekshep (16,924 ft./5,158 m), the last inhabited area before Everest Base Camp. Ghorekshep presents a rougher environment and gives the trekker the true flavor of the rigors of mountaineering. While at Ghorekshep, depending on weather conditions, we make an ascent of Kala Pattar (18,300 ft./5,577 m) This is a small peak with excellent views of Everest, Nuptse and nearby Pumori and will be the highpoint of acclimatization. Many well- known Everest photos are taken from the summit of Kala Pattar. Base camp lies beneath the sweeping ridges of Everest and Nuptse.
Day 8 of EBC Trek
Daily Gratitude:
We all made it to Everest Base Camp today!!!!! We are grateful for our guides, sherpas, and porters who, in Mike’s words, “delivered on their promise to get us there and back safely.” Their knowledge of what to eat (shoutout to the copious amounts of garlic soup we’ve consumed over the past week), the acclimatization hikes they took us on, and the pace at which we trekked — all were keys to our success.
Other points of gratitude from today:
⁃ People on the trail we recognized (that we’ve seen at different tea houses along our route) who encouraged us along the way today! Today was the final stretch of the EBC trek for all of us.
⁃ Ansley appreciated the pauses for donkeys to pass us. These pauses gave us time to rest and breathe!
⁃ Gratitude for our crew — 5 Beyond Adventures folks, 2 guides, and 3 porters. We’ve experienced the beauty of strangers uniting to achieve a common goal, and how we can grow together while doing it!
⁃ Snickers bars on the trail! Chocolate is always a good idea, especially on Base Camp day.
Daily Highlights:
⁃ Symone’s highlight was building a cairn/rock memorial for her grandparents at EBC.
⁃ We all got to experience snow in the Himalayas! We had sunshine on the trek to EBC, and snow on our trek back.
Daily Reflections:
Symone said she continued repeating “be gentle on yourself” while making her way to EBC today. This Beyond Adventures EBC trek was only her second time trekking! She and Mike did Beyond’s Machu Picchu trip in 2023, and that was her first time trekking.
I (Mary) felt really inspired by Symone sharing this with our group. It reminded me of Brené Brown talking about “FFTs” (“freaking [edited from another f word for the sake of this blog 🙂] first times”). It gets harder and harder for us to try new things the older we get, and there are a couple of folks in our Beyond crew who came to hiking/trekking/spending time outdoors later in life. It all goes back to the George Mallory reading we started our trip with — “what we get from this adventure is just sheer joy.” FFTs often lead to new sources of “sheer joy.” Maybe our EBC adventure will inspire y’all reading this blog to try a FFT, and experience new sources of joy in your lives. Heck, Beyond’s got a March EBC trip y’all can sign up for 😉