Day 9- 26th April, 2010- Labouche to base camp and back to Gorek Shep
We’re back.... We had a small computer problem but hey what do you expect from the top of the world. We stayed in Lobuche that is really only a small valley that holds about five lodges. We were given a tour from the owner of a lodge under construction. Tashi Sherpa , the owner, explained all the complications of trying to build a lodge at 15,000 feet with no roads and a lot of manual labour. In fact he says that he it is so difficult is like building a space craft. It was very interesting.
We left at 7:00am am as we were expecting a long day and wanted to beat all the other groups heading to base camp. We hiked for about two hours until we got to Gorek Shep which is the last place that has permanent lodges. We dropped our bags off and headed to base camp. The walk is truly awe inspiring as you are sourrounded by huge peaks on all sides.
David Brashears's Photo Exhibition
Base camp is a tent city made up of about 300 tents, 25-30 expeditions and about 500 people. We headed for the Peak promotions tent that was set up for a major expedition headed up by the famous mountaineer, David Brashears. We we given the royal treatment that included and tour of the camp, a great sit-down lunch and lots explanations of what is going on that year on Everest. For us that have read many Everest adventure books it was a memory that we will never forget. We then went to a photo exhibit that was put together by David Brashears. The exhibit showed the effects of climate change on the glaciers by comparing photes from early expeditions to today.It is the highest photo exhibit ever produced.
The biggest thrill for all of us was just being at the base of the highest mountain on earth. In seeing the truly amazing Khumbu icefall in person and in soaking up the aura of an amazing place.
We then made our way back to Gorek Shep and arrived at 4;00pm, almost 9 hours on the trail. We had a very light dinner and we were all in bed by 7:30. What a day!!!!!
