Continued from … https://musings-of-a-fiftyplus.com/2026/06/25/global-community-in-ebc-trek-part-3/

I love trekking because we as humans are back to our factory settings for few days… mostly away from the digital world, at peace roaming thru nature during the day with our own thoughts, no hurry, rest to catch breath wherever you feel like 😀 and in front of our eyes will be a helicopter flying past snow clad mountains, a river gurgling down in the valley. Yeah…. but nothing comes free.. we pay heavily to live these days and workout sincerely to get mentally and physically fit!

Everest base camp trek or EBC as it is now called, came to be in my bucket list, and I dared myself to do it as a gift to myself for being on this earth.. alive and kicking @60. All thru Jan to April, from the moment I made up my mind for EBC, every thought circled around it. There are the usual internal obstacles to jump over.. fitness being the biggest scare. Since I loved my morning brisk walk, the fitness schedule included walk/jog of 6 to 10 km, followed by some form of cardio/yoga stretches and evening routine of aerobics atleast 3 days a week, learning on-the-go from Youtube and Instagram reels. These days women over 50 is a niche target for these reels.. with weak knees, aching joints, makes us a big market. Another major internal obstacle was my finance.. I needed nearly a lakh rupees for this trek. I am retired from private sector, living in a small town, Bhilai. Do I have savings to dip in for this trek? I had read about an old Keralite couple who sell tea to finance their international trips, and another middle aged women, a tailor, who managed her own EBC trek. I was inspired by them. I didn’t want to take money from anyone. So what did I do ? 😀

Day 8 – 25.05.26 – Trek to GorakShep (5,190 m) – EBC (5,364 m) – Return to GorakShep

As you trek through the valley, from Lobuche, we have Mt. Pumori and Mt. Nuptse with us for a long time. Mt. Nuptse is in front of Mt. Everest from our view in our trek… so a glimpse of our peak – Mt. Everest is a daunting task. Its a big day, we are going to touch Everest base camp, where all Everest expedition begins. The sun shines brightly. Carrying my 10 kg backpack, we start at 6 am and reach Gorakshep, by 11-ish am. Gorakshep, last camp with permanent teahouses and lodges, no vegetation, its all dry sand around. Temperature is nearly freezing, and breathing is a strenuous activity. After lunch, by 12.30 pm, we start trekking to Base Camp, a distance of 3 km… for which I am wearing nearly 5 layers, and just carry water for the trek.

Have a look at this vdo.. This is the path towards EBC, going up, strewn with boulders, yaks and porters carrying loads to and fro. Anything needed at the base camp is carried by porters, yaks, or by helicopters, one part of the heavy price paid for Mt. Everest expedition.

All my team mates are ahead of me.. I trek slowly thru these boulders. While I am drinking water, I can feel a lurch, as if I am going to faint!! Lesser oxygen at this altitude makes one easily dizzy. It is very tiring .. even though I donot have my backpack, I stand to inhale and exhale deeply, few times after every 8 to 10 steps at this altitude of 5300 mtrs!

Lot of trekkers are on the way.. few are already coming back, and one of them is Eshan Ballal. He is moving fast, but I have time to pull out a Nepali currency by the time he is near me. I am glad I am here to return this – I tell. “You are half way” Eshan smiles, takes the currency and moves .. It was a smart move by this stranger I met – returning 100 NR chapter becomes a motivation somehow! Trekking on this route is tedious, besides drinking lot of water to keep the altitude sickness at bay, we need lots of mental strength to keep on for days together .. meeting people, a gentle nudge from strangers on the way.. goes a long way. (My watch showed me a figure 37500 steps taken one of these days!)

As I move head, snowflakes start falling slowly. Its like in movies.. soft feathers of snow flying down. But it scares me. What if this snowfall turns heavy and I am not able to reach Base camp… !! I can see our teammates as small red and black dots.

Everest Base Camp is visible now.. crowding of yellow tents amidst white glacier. This is the place where Everesters stay for days to acclimatize before attempting the summit. They practice their skills in this glacier, using all the gadgets, get fit acclimatize, finally after a sacred blessing ceremony for a safe summit, expedition begins.

Can you see Mt. Everest here ? Nope 😀

See those crowding of yellow tents amidst white glacier? I stood alone looking at them and knew I have reached. I had never seen the Base camp pictures, nor did anyone tell me .. I just knew! 😀 Somehow the tired me became energetic by this sight… the black and grey boulders I was walking on seemed like a smooth garden path and I sailed past this last patch smiling hehehehe 😀

The snow fall stopped after a while. After a steep slope down, and lot of boulders further ahead lies a huge rock which is the boundary of EBC!!! Finally I reached the Everest Base camp .. Hurray !!!!!

Fear and courage are two sides of the same coin.. quietly overcoming the negative thoughts made this EBC trek happen for me. I hugged myself, exhilarated to have reached this place of history.. thanked my Gods. Our teammates hugged each other and we were glad each of us safely made it to this point. 🙂

Few photos from the Once-in-a-lifetime-moment…

Few more pictures to tell the story ..

This is the path shown by Google to my friend Sujata, when she wanted to see where I went… I was damn glad to see this myself, our trek vis-a-vis the magnitude of actual Mt. Everest expedition.

Special thanks..

We had two porters who carried backpacks of team mates, Narayan and Arjun, who were very cordial and did their jobs sincerely. Generally a Porter in this region carries nearly 60 kg on them, in two days they bring it up to Base camp, for a payment of 10K NR. . . !! This is a good source of income for the Nepali men for 4 to 5 months in a year.

Met this young boy Dipesh Rai, 16 years old who was taking this load to Base camp from Periche.

Missed ..

After returning to Gorekshep, all of us were dead tired… most didn’t even eat dinner. I remember I was so sleepy. While walking back to room saw Eshan sitting with his team mates.. mentioned he did Kalapatthar too in the mean time! Wow! That is an amazing record. We were supposed to get up by 3 am next day for Kalapatthar trek and then come back, take back pack and begin descend to Periche. Most of us didnt go.. except one in our Team- Ranjit. Special congrats for being our sole warrior who did that – trek to Kalapatthar @5560 altitude. Originally when we had looked at the itinerary.. ascend of 200 mtrs further from the Base camp looked doable… but after reaching 5364 mtrs, suddenly another 200 mtrs (Ranjit trekked for 5 hours) looked highly intimidating… !

Returning back…

Met these Indian army soldiers, Rahul and Sunil, who had summited Mt. Everest, were so happy and forthcoming about their expedition. They were south Indians, and one looked young. I quickly checked if he is married …( I could think of an alliance) 😀 Yeah .. I know … issshhh!!!

They were a team of 20+ men, who got to live this adventure, as part of their job.

After thoughts..

The weather remained amazing. Skies were clear all thru… and we could get our glimpse of Mt. Everest. Meeting people, the times shared, memories etched.. for a long long period it remains close to our heart. The trek back was uneventful to say the least .. in three days we reached Lukla. .

Rest of the team walked fast and went on to catch the earliest flight from Lukla..

All eager to return home to cozy corners after a fortnight, for a welcome hug from family… dispersed safely from Lukla. Big thanks to Sarmila Magar and Arjina Rai for the support they gave as our guides, and to Narbin Magar- his company High5 Adventures for the pickup and drop, Lukla flights, permits, boarding arrangements, food, conveyance, every other timely service they provided.

Extremely grateful to almighty for having given me the courage to live this fortnight trekking… to have brought me safely back from that altitude – for having given this 60 birthday gift!

Till next time !!