EBC – Everest Base Camp, this trekking has been in my bucket list for many years now. Finally, when my alumni senior based in Kathmandu, Nepal, Prabhat Dantre called up that he would like to do this trekking in October 2022, I readily agreed. And then I discussed with Vinay Rathi ( colleague and senior at my work) if he would be interested for this famous EBC trek. He also readiy agreed and we booked our Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi ticket promptly. Thus our preparation for EBC trek started somewhere in July 2022.
Preperation for EBC:
The preparation for this EBC trek started with booking air tickets from Delhi – Kathmandu – Delhi. And then we started finding out information for either trek to Lukla or Flight to Lukla. Finally, decided that, its better that we fly to Lukla and experience this world famous airport, flight instead of trekking for 4/5 days either from Jiri or Phaplu. So, finally booked tickets for Kathmandu to Lukla and then while returning Kathmandu to Ramechap. The distance bwteeen Ramechap to Kathmandu is approx 180KM and it takes approx 5 hours by car.
After all these ticketing done, my final ticket from Udaipur-Delhi-Udaipur was pending. As Vinay and me live in Udaipur, we decided to book tickets for this sector later dates nearing to our Delhi – Kathmandu travel date.
Thus after ticketing is done, we created a WhatsApp Group and started sharing information about what to do as preparation, tentative itinerary, things to do during trekking.
Physical Preparation:
While I suggested Prabhat and Vinay to run 3KM within 20minutes and peak just before the start of our Trek from Lukla, I decided myself for these two:
1. Sleep at least 8 hours for at least 2 months prior to start of the trek.
2. Play Table Tennis for at least one hour daily.
3. Walk/run whenever possible.
4. No other preparation.
Mental Preparation:
We have discussed about how to prepare mentally. We have concluded that, we should take insurance for mental peace.
Our preparation continued as we discussed in the WhatsApp group. We discussed and I suggested all that, if anyone is buying new hiking shoes, then he should buy one size bigger as that helps during descent.
Finally, the the week approached when we were supposed to fly to Kathmandu. Vinay had to cancel his trek as he injured his knee during a practice trekking in Udaipur to a temple ona hill top. So, I baught a train ticket to Delhi from Udaipur.
Thus my journey from Udaipur to Delhi began on 27th Sept 2022 by Chetak Express. I was about to miss my train as I was under impression that Chetak Express starts from Udaipur at 5:30PM while it actually starts at 5PM! But thanks to my known auto rickshaw guy, I could call him urgently and 4:30PM and could manage to board the train on time!
And then, I found the compartment very hot as AC was not working. Train had started and I promptly tweeted as well as called 139 to complaint about the AC not working situation. As usual, Indian Railways responded promptly and fixed the AC problem. My co-passangers who were unaware about such complaint management system were impressed and I felt good! Hahaha!
The rest of the Train journey was uneventful. I reached Gurgaon and reached home of my friend at Sector 41. He was sleeping at 5AM on 28th Sept 2022 so I had to call him couple of times before he let me in to his flat where I slept till 8AM again.
My friend and classmate Praveen took the below photo as a record how I look at the start of the trek and promised to take another photo at the same place at the end of the trek while on way back to Udaipur!
Kathmandu
The flight to Kathmandu was uneventful and Prabhat kindly came to the wirport to pick me up. Prabhat put me in guesthouse in Kathmandu. Then we got report that, our flight to Lukla was postponed by one day and pushed back to 30th Sept 2022 from the original date of 29th Sept 2022. Incidentally, it was the last day for flight from Kathmandu to Lukla as from 1st Oct, all flights to Lukla would start from Ramechap, approx 150Km from Kathmandu.
Kathmandu to Lukla Flight
This flight is quite famous to be one of the most dengerous flight on Earth. The aircraft is a small one, TWin Otter DHC-6/400 which has three seats in one row, left side one and the right side two seats.
My friend from US, Sanjay Veerkar told me that, the pilot must be a rockstar to fly to such an airport which seems very, very challenging! HE asked me to take a selfie witht the pilot if possible.
The landing was smooth and uneventful as the weather was nice. But, when I was looking around, it seemed scary as the runway seems very short, small and not plain, but at inclination approx 20 degree or so.
When the flight lands, it climbs up and while taking off, it goes down on the slope. Here is the URL for landing video in youtube :
https://youtu.be/2YqR2XVnk3M
Our trek started as soon as we landed at Lukla. and we started walking towards Phakding, our planned night halt for the first day of EBC Trekking.
Next part coming soon!
Awesome…
Thanks!