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— March/April 2018WE’VE ALL READ THE BOOKS OR
seen the movies. Everest is, after all, the world’s
highest peak: it’s box office. Purists moan that
the mountain has become an entry on a wishlist
for people with money but no lasting interest in
mountains – they climb it because they can, not
because it is there, if you will. But it remains such
a daunting challenge that many are happy just
living it vicariously.
That can be done from the comfort of your
own home, but to get a proper feel of the scale of
Everest – what does a near-nine kilometre peak
look like anyway? – nothing beats trekking in
to take a look. Or better yet, several looks, from
contrasting viewpoints.
In late October, I joined a World Expedition
group on a three-week trek in the Khumbu region
of Nepal that encompasses Everest. It’d been
10 years since my last visit, when I had climbedIsland Peak. That had been such a revelation that
to return for a simple trek to Everest Base Camp
(EBC) would have been anticlimatic. Instead we
were doing the High Passes route: a satisfying
circuit rather than a there-and-back. Climbing
the passes meant a willful desertion of the literal
yak routes of the valleys: hiking against the grain
of the land. We’d be losing the crowds, and
gaining fresh views of the highest peaks and more
of a workout. It sounded just the ticket.
Like most people trekking into Khumbu,
we started out from Lukla, a short flight from
Kathmandu. With a strict 15kg weight limit for
our bags, we all stashed cameras and batteries
in the pockets of our down parkas. Still we were
overweight: an excess had to be paid. ‘Luckily’,
our aircraft then developed a technical fault that
caused a delay. Subal, our expedition leader,
bartered the lost time against the charge and witha head wobble from each party, sealed the deal.
As ever, the flight to Lukla was eye-and
ear-popping as we climbed out of the Kathmandu
Valley to wiggle between the massive buttressing
foothills of the Greater Himalayas and we slapped
down on the little inclined runway to applause.
The 11-strong group that disembarked were
a mix of Brits, Australians and Canadians. Mark
Waldbillig owned an outdoor guiding outfit; Brit
Sara ‘Frosty’ Frost was a nature guide; fellow Brit
Matt Johnson, and Aussies Clay Cox and Jen
Mason had climbed Kilimanjaro; and Jen had
been to EBC before too. Though our itinerary was
no cheap option, this was not a group of flash
high-fliers but of people who valued the challenge
ahead. Several were at crossroads in their lives
and saw this trip as a useful springboard.
That first day was the gentlest of beginnings,
mostly downhill to Ghat, our first campsite. HereLIGHT AIRCRAFT
Another plane-load of trekkers touches
down at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla.PHOTO: YETI HOLIDAYS