Everest Base Camp trek - Nepal TR

[moish]

Exactly, people coming down on stretchers is usually a result of someone being overly macho saying "it won't happen to me" (which prob explains the Israeli army dude )

but you mentioned you were with a group. will the group wait for you while you descend? (im assuming that the descent is not a mere 5 minute event)

[SuperFlyer]

Very very nice !

[Achas Veachas]

I'm curious how much such a (6 weeks) trip costs?

It depends, an Israeli on a budget would probably pull it off for 3-4 hundred $, our group through an organized company, it cost us 6000 a person including airfare from NY

but you mentioned you were with a group. will the group wait for you while you descend? (im assuming that the descent is not a mere 5 minute event)

I'm not sure what would have happened. When we signed up we were told that they would make every effort to make sure that we would all reach Base camp but that there were no guarantees. Going down is usually for a day or 2 so depending on where we were holding would probably mean missing Base camp, but then again sometimes the goal is in the journey, not necessarily the destination.

[Achas Veachas]

Part 3
About our trek

The way most people trek the route is by walking from town to town stopping at lodges along the way to have a meal and spend the night. The Everest trek is so popular amongst westerners that it got the nickname “The apple pie trek” because most lodges learned to cater to the western taste and many do indeed serve apple pies.

We did it differently; we hired a company (World Expeditions) that supplied us with a guide, a cook, 2 kitchen hands and 6 porters who schlepped our tents, kitchen, bathroom and overnight bags (our daypacks we nebach had to carry ourselves).
For sleeping the company supplied us with tents (2 to a tent) and heavy sleeping bags (they were so hot that on the coldest nights (-15c) I had to open my sleeping bag halfway).

For eating we had a special “Dining room” tent to eat in and a “Kitchen tent” where the cook made all our meals. Usually the porters and cook would run ahead of us so that lunch would be ready when we got there. Every day one of us would take a turn being Mashgiach, so he would have to run ahead with the cook to supervise, check eggs and leaves and turn on the fire.

     -As a side note; speaking of checking eggs, while in America I probably saw 5 bloodspots in my 15+ years of egg checking, in Nepal anywhere between 1/3 to ½ of the eggs had blood in them.

Of course the most important amenity was the bathroom. For the first few nights our campsite had a permanent bathroom, albeit of the squatting variety. For the rest of the trek we had a special tent -nicknamed the “Rocket Tent” due to its shape- set up with a bathroom seat and a hole dug underneath. You can imagine we kept bathroom use to a minimum (I only used the tent 2 or 3 times, the rest of the time I used lodges we passed on the way; which weren’t much better…)

Our schedule on a regular day was as follows: wake up with the sun (Mashgiach for the day wakes up an hour earlier to turn on fire, check eggs and flower etc.), get a bowl of hot water to freshen up (the closest we could get to a shower), Daven, eat breakfast. Then we would walk for 3-4 hours, stop for lunch, walk another 2-3 hours and arrive at the camp (even though this was only early afternoon, the weather tended to get nasty in the late afternoon). When it got dark we would have supper, socialize a bit in the dining room and go to sleep.

That was only on a regular day though. Some days were longer, in fact on the last day of our trek we walked for 12 hours straight! But by then we were on the way down already so we felt like we had enough energy to run till New York.

To be continued....
 (don't worry next time we start with the actual trek, I didn't realize how many details I would remember as i was writing)

[Achas Veachas]

13. Our camp.
Actualy on that night there was another group camping next to us. Our camp is the one on the right, the 2 blue tents near the bottom right corner are the kitchen and dining room.
14. The Dining room
15. The "Rocket Tent"

[Achas Veachas]

16-17. Waking up with the sun

[Fan of Dan]

Nice pics! Which part of the trekking season did you go?

[Achas Veachas]

after Pesach (probably the highest Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration that year )

[DrDanny]

How many people were in your group?

[Achas Veachas]

8

[Fan of Dan]

What would you say to doing such a trek by yourself with one of the local outfitters. I had got a quote for a 2 people private 10 day hike of the Annapurna circuit for 765 a person including a sherpa per person. Or 865 with internal flight to the base of the hike. We would bring our own food dehydrated etc. no chef. Instead of tents on the Annapurna you can sleep in guest houses along the way.

Do you think that would be a complicated thing to arrange with kosher, logistics and all? It is just way more affordable for my budget.

[Achas Veachas]

its def doable in fact thats how most ppl do it. youl just have to shlep along most of your food (you can prob buy rice along the way. thats a staple in Nepal) and cooking equipment (small pot and gas stove, i noticed some of the israelis had, you can even buy it in nepal)

[moish]

wouldnt shabbos be an issue?

[Fan of Dan]

wouldnt shabbos be an issue?

At least on the Annapurna trek since it is at a lower altitude they have small Nepalese villages where you stop every night, which kind of makes it easier trekking. You would simply arrange to skip a day of hiking for Shabbos which would give you a well deserved break either way. When I was looking into it we had planned to spend Shabbos at this pleasant and scenic village way up in the Himalayas.
Talk about Oneg Shabbos!

[Achas Veachas]

Talk about Oneg Shabbos!

yup! wait untill I get up to the shabbos report..

[Yaalili]

yup! wait untill I get up to the shabbos report..

keep this report coming, def sounds like a crazy trip!

[Fan of Dan]

keep this report coming, def sounds like a crazy trip!

This is more than a report more like a story as it is getting updated chapter by chapter.

[Achas Veachas]

Yeah didn't think it would come out this way but the more I wrote the longer it kept getting and the more fun I was having!

[SamDaMan]

Truly amazing TR (aka story) I would say when your done the whole story write it up and make a book (or at least a pamphlet) for your self its definitely something you would want to be able to read later on

[Achas Veachas]

Not quite big enough for a book, but yeah I'm happy that I finally got it down. At the time I wanted to write it down but never got around to it. (and fan of dan my wife thanks you too, she never did get a fully detailed report the way i did it now:) )