Everest Base Camp Trek

uttam

Congrats!
Eagrly waiting to see photos.

patrickday

this is really not a difficult trek .. never done it as too many people doing it .. so many tourist , however last year i done the annapurna trek twice ,,, but again not as hard as lonely planet makes out ..you can cut thier time in half.. but the one for me is the manasula trek.. cost a bit of money so i done it the other way around.. on this you come across a tibet village called samdu cut away from nepal and the chinese ..its is still a real tibet village in the sense of the culture ,, but woow is it harsh ....how the live thier no idea...

AvidTrekker

Congrats KS!!

Waiting to see your pics and hear you in person....
,
,
,

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amarshah

That great KS...awaiting your return ... lets catchup post his return for dinner in Nov 1st week so we can hear him out as well.

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Cheers

Amar

Year 2008 Trips - http://amards14.googlepages.com/

Sadanand Kamath

Great idea, Amar. Let us pursue it.

Sadanand

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Sirf ek kadam utha tha galat rahe shauk mein
Manzil tamam umr hame dhunti rahi.

[Just one wrong step on the way of the quest
My destination looked for me all life long]

capt_mahajan

Congratulations, ksb.

Joining the chorus for photographs

ks_bluechip

Hi IM wellwishers,

I am back in Kathmandu and to affordable internet .. its only NR30 per hr here! not Rs 15 per min as in Namche!

I can't believe I could get to KTM so fast .... I reached Lukla airport at 9:45AM today; after two days trek down from Namche. I was thinking I have to wait in Lukla for 2-3 days as flights had been weather disrupted a few days ago and backlog of waiting passengers was bound to be piled up there.

But surprise ... The backlog had been cleared yesterday with 50+ flights! After reaching Lukla airport I was lucky to take-off within in 10mins on a return flight with only 6 pax. It seems the incoming pax are far outnumbering returning pax!

I landed in KTM at 10:30am! 45mins after completing my trek to Lukla. Flt time 22mins! I am really lucky and God is constantly taking care of me! My porter Bhavnath was astounded and rendered speechless to find himself in KTM even before the sweat had dried off his T-shirt from the climb-up trek to Lukla airport!

I must say there are far too many foreign trekkers here for EBC ... often I had to let cross a lines of 20-30 trekkers and 20-30 yaks on the narrow trail!

But it is not surprising, as the sight of mighty Mt. Everest in all its awsome height and snowy glory has to draw some good number of people from all over the world.

I even saw a group of 6 trekkers from Bombay and another 3 from Pune! So a total of 9 Indians (+me = 10) amoungst 6000+ trekkers expected in October-2007. I saw statistic of 20,000+ trekkers (excl climbers) for whole of 2006 in the Park entry office notice board at Monjo/Jorsale.

More details of the trek later. My Pics will take another 4/5 days to upload, perhaps after reaching Mumbai. I have to see how my KTM-Delhi flight (unbooked so far) works out.

Yes we can do a Meet-up in Nov-07 and will share my experience face-to-face. BTW: I am told it is easier to do MT.Kailash and Mansorvar from Nepal without any govt permit bureacracy etc. I will try and gather those details before from here if any of you are interested in that. In fact, the Bombay Group i saw on the trail had done that thru Nepal last year .. so we can get that from them too.

- KS

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Sadanand Kamath

Yes... I was also told during my trek to Chhota Kailash in '93 that it is more convenient and hassel-free to trek Kailash-Mansarovar via Nepal. If time permits, would you get some details about this trek ?

Sadanand

ks_bluechip

Hi SK... how are you? .... yes, will try and get details .... KS

Sadanand Kamath

I am fine. Waiting to hear your experience of EBC trek .

Sadanand

ks_bluechip

SK and ALL others interested in Mt Kailash & Mansarovar via Nepal:

I talked to my agent one Mr Pura of Nepalguidetrek. he say the total all inclusive package kathmandu-to-Mtkailash-to-kathmandu for a 14D/13N night package is INR 55000 per head. This includes everything i.e. food (indian), stay, travel, visa, etc. etc. 4 people per Landcruiser. You need to bring your Passport & INR 55K Money.

See the link below for full details, he says everything is explained in detail there:

http://www.nepalguidetrek.com/14days...lash_yatra.php

- KS

k_cborty

More details of the trek later. My Pics will take another 4/5 days to upload, perhaps after reaching Mumbai. I have to see how my KTM-Delhi flight (unbooked so far) works out.

- KS[/quote]

Congrats KSB....we all are waiting for a more detailed update and some great pictures.

You are simply awesome!

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Sadanand Kamath

Thanks for quick details. I will go through the link in detail and compare with that of KMVN trek to come to a conclusion as to which one is preferable.

Sadanand

ks_bluechip

I came back home to Mumbai late evening yesterday ... a total of 28 days. But the actual Trek was for 21 Days i.e. from Jiri to Kalapathar/EBC and return to Lukla.

Here are some overview comments:

I think, I goofed by planning too much (for myself, at my age) in trying to do all three i.e. (1) Jiri-Namche, (2) Namche to EBC/Kalapather & (3)Gokyo Lake and Ri. In the end I had to skip Gokyo.

I guess, I underestimated the strenuous and tiring stretch (of 10days) from Jiri to Namche! The daily Ups and Downs were pretty steep, the LP Guide books does say that; but there is a large difference in reading it and actually doing it! Most trekkers (98%) skip Jiri and fly straight into Lukla. I understand now, why they do that.

But in the final analysis, I must say the greenery, scenery and local culture available on the trek from Jiri to Namche was exceptional, and I am glad I did it. Another point is; Jiri to Namche (Green, forests, Middle Hills) is quite different from Namche to EBC (Grey-brown, scrubby, barren, High-altitude). So you do two different kinds of treks, actually!

Another Overall point. The comparision between Annapurna Circuit and EBC. My original question in this thread, that no one answered.

Annapurna Circuit is (1) Easier because it is a steady gradual rise in altitude from Besi-Sahar 900M to Thorang-La at 5416M over many days and after Thorang-La, a gradual descent to Beni (2) It is circular with no retracing over already walked trail stretches (3) passes thru culturally diverse villages & scenery (4) you get to see the south and north stretch of Himalayas (5) food/stay less expensive

EBC trek is pretty (1) strenuous with steep daily Ups & Downs (2) More dramatic and breathtaking views of Everest & other high mountains (3) have to retrace Namche to EBC portion of trek (4) mainly Sherpa culture & territory (if you don't do Jiri portion) (5) costs of stay/food are pretty high, pushed up by thousands of foreign trekkers on the trail, with daily costs rising to at the least NRs 1600 at higher altitudes + KTM-Lukla flight costs.

Actual trek details and pics in subsequent posts.

- KS

Sadanand Kamath

Also, the trek from Jiri to Namche has given you the necessary acclimatisation without which you would have felt trek from Namche to EBC more strenuous than what you have experienced .

Sadanand