Day 9

Everest Base Camp

Finally the day was here. We had brought out our fancy, customized T-shirts, that Latha had so painstakingly made. Of course, they were the last piece of clean clothing at this point! The trail to EBC from Gorak Shep is relatively easy, just a few climbs over the moraines, and it only took about two hours to get there. The weather was good but not perfect - in hindsight it had been an excellent decision to push on to Kala Pathar the previous day.

Heading off to EBC from Gorak Shep which is in the distance. Mingma was getting cell-phone coverage even here!

Although the climbing season was in full swing, we saw a number of yak trains returning with gear. Perhaps the expeditions had started to send back non-essential stuff.

We saw several yak trains on this day

EBC is spread out over a large portion of the Khumbu glacier.

And just like that we were there. Of course, EBC (or the end of it we walked into) is marked by a huge tangle of prayer flags.

This memorial is full of pictures, trinkets, and of course, prayer flags.

We made it! Check out the sunburn ..

Just a few shots for the family album...

All smiles, of course.

OK, last one ...

We had entered EBC at approximately the southern end. We could probably have spent a whole day exploring the other end closer to the actual start point of the climbing route - the Khumbu icefall. Of course, that would have meant scrambling over the glacier, which is anything but flat. We weren't too keen to go much further and the views were not too great either. So we just hung out for a while at the helipad nearby while Mingma and Pemba took off to find friends who were attached to various expeditions. Here's a panoramic view from the helipad.

At this point, it's safe to say that we perfectly understood Lonely Planet's advice to keep expectations low with regard to EBC itself. There's not much to see there and really, the only reason to visit is to be able to say you've been there. Personally, the only thing I was hoping for was to perhaps speak with some climbers and maybe peek into an expedition HQ tent, sort of like they show in the movies. We did wander over to an area occupied by an Italian Lhotse expedition to get a refill on our water bottles but we could neither find a control tent nor meet any climbers. I did learn that they had climbers on the peak at that time.  

After spending about an hour at EBC we began the walk back to Gorak Shep. After a quick lunch, it was time to pack up and head back down the trail to Lobuche. Having made up our minds about attempting Cho La Pass in two days' time, we were fully cognizant of the fact that the hardest day on our trek was yet to come.

At Lobuche, we checked into the Alpine hotel where we had made reservations on our way up. That evening, I bumped into an Englishman, whom we had seen on the way up to Tengboche, and we started up a conversation. He later joined us at our table in the dining hall and as we were chatting I began to suspect that he'd served in the British special forces. Imagine my surprise when he said that he was a paratrooper and had served in the Royal Engineers. To this, of course(!), I replied "I'm a paratrooper too!". Needless to say, the rest of the evening passed delightfully as we swapped stories of our time in the paras. He had the girls in splits of laughter and they remember him fondly. For the paratroopers reading this, you'll be happy to know that para probation in the British army is no different than ours! 

All in all, an eventful day with a 'happy landing' to boot!

With Grant Scott of 9 Para Sqn R.E. I guess we'd look much better in maroons ;-)