Day 12
The hike to Lobuche took about 2 and a half hours. The triail took us to the y intersection at Thukla which connected us to the classic trail of Everest Base Camp. There were some interesting landscapes as we walked along the glacier bed. Overall, it was a “travel” day, not much to write about.
Day13
Today we headed to Gorak Shep from Lobuche. The trail cut across the old glacier bed which took us to Gorake Shep in just 3 hours . We arrived at Gorak Shep before lunch time with lots of energy to spare.
On the way to Gorak Shep
Gorake shep was a pretty big tea house cluster. Being the focal point of the EBC trek, there were hordes of people around all the time. It was also intentionally established at the shortest distance to Kala Pathar, so practically people could crawl out of their beds and run towards the trail. Some tour operators choose to hit Kala Pathar at lunch time, while some prefer to go in the morning.
From Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp
Our guide figured it was better to go to the base camp after lunch and do Kala Pathar next day in the morning. Personally I think it made sense because people generally do not like climbing up a steep hill after 3 hours of hike.
The walk to Eversest Base Camp was only an hour and a half. Since the base camp is established on a flat patch in the middle of a glacier, the trail basically runs along the ridge line on the side of the glacer, until it reaches the base camp. The trail was rocky and interesting to walk on. It also offered many scenice views of the different features of a glacer.
Glacier Pond near Everest Base Camp
To be honest, the base camp itself was not that impressive if you expect impressive sceneries. Most of the moutains were covered by clouds anyways. Most people were more interested in posing in front of that big piece of rock with the inscription ” Everest Base Camp”. In my opinion, the walk to the base camp itself was more interesting than the base camp itself.
Just outside of the Everest Base Camp
