glaciers

The town of Lukla

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Still full of endorphin from the flight over and now standing in the shadows of the mountainous Khumbu region I could only now begin to feel the gravity of the challenge in hand. I’m a man who enjoys his home comforts and here I was with only 3 spare pairs of boxers ready to spend the next 14 days trekking through the mountains. The airport town of Lukla which serves as the entrance to the region was where I was first introduced to my porter. This man would be carrying the brunt of the my pack weight leaving me to carry around 10-11kg a day myself and whilst I struggled with my daily weight the 25kg he carried supported only on his back with a headstrap (that can’t be OSHA compliant) seemed almost non-existent to him. Whilst I love my current camera setup, the body and lens combination served as a rather large proportion of that daily carry weight a lesson I had clearly not learned well enough on my last trip and one I will no doubt forget before my next trip.

Cattle crossing a suspension bridge

Having already gained a serious amount of elevation to reach Lukla, the first day of the trek would not see us getting any higher but just getting as far as possible before we would turn in for the day. Every ridge I crossed and corner I turned introduced new and stunning vistas from small towns to glacial rivers cutting their way through the mountains. The trail itself often jumps back and forth across this river through the use of some slightly terrifying suspension bridges. Whilst I may trust their structural integrity that isn’t going to stop me gripping on for dear life as they bridge bounces up and down with every step; gripping made somewhat difficult by the razor sharp metal that would sometimes jut out on the rails where it had been worn away by the weather. As we passed from town to town and the hours passed I found myself hoping each village would be the one we would stop in, a worrying thought considering it was only my first day but after a rather sleepless night in anticipation of that flight to Lukla I was ready for a bed.

We ended up stopping in the small village of Tok-Tok at the Friendship Lodge, a small tea-house run by husband and wife and their infant son who revelled in running up to us and high-fiving me continuously. Admittedly I had no idea what to expect from the teahouses, this one, despite its brick exterior seemed to be entirely fabricated of plywood on the inside causing everything to blend in to one continuous visual palette of wood. The room for the night barely fit the two beds that had been crammed inside and the building seemed to creak under every step but there was something quaint about it all and as I sat down for my cup of lemon tea and dinner of Dahl Baht I was optimistic about what would come. I was probably slightly less optimistic a few hours later lay in bed wrapped in enough layers to suffocate myself though; perhaps if I’d known just how cold it would get over the next week I may have just turned around then.

First view of the summit of Everest

Thankfully I’d actually been able to sleep that night and after filling up on a breakfast of coffee and pancakes (with some questionable mixed fruits jam) I was feeling somewhat ready for the day. Day two however had been described to me by many different sources as one of the most difficult days of the whole trek. It falls within that time-frame where your body hasn’t quite got warmed up to walking every day and the route requires a 4 hour trek followed by a seemingly unending 2 hour climb 600m up to Namche. Namche is one of the most famous settlements in the area and serves as a hub for other villages in the region. It’s also the last settlement with cheap WiFi or a card machine should you find yourself a little short on cash. The tiered town seems to cling to the side of the mountain from a distance and being so remote suffers from none of the drawbacks of the main cities like the smog, litter, or a barrage of vehicles attempting to run you down.

The beginning of the climb to Namche is marked by the iconic highest suspension bridge in the region, a dramatic span I had been eager to reach having seen it so many times researching the trip (and also in a short segment in the film Everest I had eagerly watched the weekend before heading out much to the horror of my parents who were already nervous about my plans). The climb is also the first time that you are able to see Everest and as I stared across at the highest mountain in the world it was boggling to think it would take a further six days to reach the base. Looking at the state of myself it was doubtful I’d even be reaching Namche at the sweaty exhausted rate I was going but I kept going, climbing a little higher with every step I took until finally rounding that corner and seeing Namche Bazaar for myself. Only six more days til base camp.