My Journey to Mount Everest Basecamp - The Full Story.

The story of my journey to Mount Everest Basecamp and how I powered through my most difficult physical challenge yet!

Last week, my friends and I successfully reached Mount Everest Basecamp in Nepal, which is 5,364 meters or 17,598 ft above sea level. The trek took 8 days, over 120,000 steps, sweat, tears and a lot of physical and mental fortitude. I fought off food poisoning, aborted the climb to recover, caught up, and managed to finish the trek. This is the most difficult thing I have done successfully (yet!) and I returned with a renewed sense of grit. I trekked to Mount Everest Basecamp and therefore, I can do very hard things.

Our guides: Ram and Manoj were excellent as were our Sherpas. They came from the company called Nepal Hiking Team.

Before I share my story, it is important to clarify something. Mt. Everest Basecamp is different from the summit of Mt. Everest. It is called Basecamp because that is the camp where people acclimatize before they attempt the summit. If you look at the map below, I trekked from Number 12 at the bottom of the map to the red dot near the top. Because of the high altitude, thin air and avalanches, the journey from the red dot to the summit of Mt. Everest requires mountain climbing equipment and supplementary oxygen. I recognize that all of us (including me) are some degree of ‘crazy’, however, I have no desire to attempt the summit because of how dangerous it is. For me, anything that is so dangerous, takes away the fun and I do not wish to do things, especially things that dare or challenge nature, if there’s no end purpose for wanting to do them. I have much respect for those brave mountaineers who are defying physical and mental limits to reach the summit of the world. It is the ultimate adventure and it is not for me. Lol

So for those who keep jokingly encouraging me to attempt the summit, no thank you, Mount Everest Basecamp was challenging and is rewarding enough for me :)

Front: Suzanne, Back (L-R): Ibinabo, Boma, Ginika and Funmi.

Before the Climb

I first set my sights on Everest Basecamp a few years ago. Previously, I had climbed Mount Cameroon, Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro and Nigeria’s Chappal Waddi. This year, I climbed with a group of my girl friends, most of whom I had climbed one of the above mountains with before. Many of the girls have passports that allow them get Visa on Arrival in Nepal. The visa process was a nightmare for those with Nigerian passports and living in Nigeria. It should have been a simple process of email the Nepal embassy in Cairo, pay, send your passport and have it shipped back but because of payment restrictions and shipping restrictions (of important documents), it was an expensive hassle. And all of that for a sheet of paper that could have been delivered by email or e-portal. If you live in Canada or any other country where there’s a Nepal consulate, the process is easy peasy.

On previous climbs, I had struggled with severe Acute Mountain Sickness(AMS). It sucks! This time, I got a prescription for Diamox from my doctor and it worked wonders for me. If Diamox is running for president, I will be voting. The side effects are significantly better to deal with than AMS itself. I am so thankful we all had Diamox. Anyway, we booked a trekking package, bought our tickets, trained our bodies, and used this incredible packing list by Short Girl on Tour to pack. Then we flew to Nepal!

The Climb

I arrived in Kathmandu on a Saturday evening in early May. The other girls had arrived earlier but Suzanne and I were together on the last leg from New Delhi to Kathmandu. After a welcome briefing from our trekking company - Nepal Hiking Team - we were given duffel bags to put all our stuff in. We had to keep ALL our stuff in our daypacks and duffel bags to 15kg or less. This was not easy because when you’re going mountain climbing, you don’t want to feel like you left anything behind. I was slightly nervous and my memories of AMS kicked in but I powered through the night.

The next day was officially Day 1. We should have woken up, gone to the airport for a flight to Lukla (one of the world’s most dangerous airports), and started our trek at about 9am. Instead, we got to the airport and waited 8 hours because the weather was too bad for flights. By the afternoon, we opted to take a helicopter instead so we don’t lose the day. Fun fact: the airport in Lukla is named Tenzing-Hilary, after the first two men to successfully summit Mt. Everest. The aviation documentary geek in me was so excited to see this airport live. At Lukla, we ate lunch. I had chicken and chips with the understanding that this was the last safe place to eat fresh animal products. It was so delicious. We started trekking late in the afternoon and ended up at our first camp at nightfall. It was pretty easy, I ranked today’s trek 3 out of 5 on my Strava.

On Day 2, I woke up early with food poisoning. Food poisoning? Apparently, my delicious chicken and chips had done some damage. I know I am susceptible to food poisoning, which is why my dad sent me a huge pack of kilishi as a meat source and which is why I decided to not eat meat after Lukla. But even Lukla was too late. I was throwing up quite vigorously and I had no energy. We set out on the trek for the day but within the first hour, I knew I could not do this. I asked my Sherpa (porter and guide) if I could stop at the nearest teahouse for the night. I wanted my body to heal but I had no idea how long it would take and I was already one day behind the girls. Early the next morning after hours of sleep and replenishing lost fluids, I felt like I was ready to go. I even told my Sherpa that I could leave at 2am. He told me to farabale. At sunrise, I set out with all the energy in the world, and caught up with the girls…thanks to the fact that there was an acclimatization day that I could forfeit without completely falling behind.

Days 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were progressively more difficult with steeper inclines and thinner air. Breathing became a laborious difficulty and I came down with a slight Khumbu cough. For the first few days, the lemon-ginger-honey tea was divine and we had it at every meal. But as we went higher, they started making the tea with lemon powder and sugar and it declined in taste so we drank good ol’ green tea or just hot water. The teahouses also became increasingly less comfortable. I feel like the teahouses deserve their own blog post. Some had excellent customer service and others were just…bleh. We would end our days with a video diary of all of us sharing how the day felt. We also toasted Starburst gummies at the end of each day. Whenever we found good weather, we took photos and with so many peaks in the region, we were always excited to glimpse Everest summit. Everest is tall and she’s a baddie so many times, she would hide behind the clouds or just not show herself at all. But her presence was ever so intimidating, ever so inspiring. I was also very thankful that even though it was more and more expensive, there was always Wi-Fi to purchase so I could keep in touch with my family and friends everyday. They shared my real time joys and pains with me. Who wants to guess how many times my parents said: ‘we are proud of you and you have already accomplished a great feat, listen to your body and start descending if your body tells you to?’

The trail to Everest Basecamp is busy. There are as many yaks, horses, cattle and donkeys as there are humans. I wager that there are more animals and we quickly learned to share the trail with them. They always had bells to alert us when they were coming. When you think about it, everything that is brought up to the mountain is brought by helicopter, humans or animals. Everything. From the materials used to build the lodges and teahouses to the food that is cooked in them. On Day 7, it was solemn to see a memorial that had been set up for all those who had lost their lives to this mountain.

On Day 8, we were mentally prepared to reach our goal even though our bodies were sore and weak. By this time, all of us had come down with something: chest infection, cough, difficulty breathing…name it. We were operating on sheer willpower at this point. It was very difficult to watch even the most fit among us battle something that seemed out of their control. But on this day, nothing could stop us. We took an early hike to Gorakshep for lunch and then continued on to Basecamp. It rained, it hailed, it snowed and it seemed to never end. The more we climbed, the more we saw helicopters which made me feel like lots of people were getting evacuated. In reality, some helicopters were offering scenic flights of the mountain and others were evacuating trekkers or summiters. But when you’re on this climb, your mind can become a pretty tough battleground. I was so excited to see all the geographical landforms I had read about including Khumbu Icefall. At some point, we could see the yellow and orange tents at Basecamp and I remember the joy in my face when I saw this.

Look closely, you’ll see Basecamp with the orange and yellow tents. Somewhere at the top of the image, behind the hazy clouds, is the summit.

The Sun came out for a brief period and I was able to take off my outer layers for photos.

After the Climb

Our team decided to airlift after the climb. We spent a night at the hospital in Kathmandu treating a variety of things but we were good to go after we got some medical attention. I also feel like the whole evacuation episode deserves its own post but I have not found a way to tell the story without being unkind to everyone involved. So we shall keep it as one of those stories for the grandkids. Now, for insurance, most of the time, you won’t use travel insurance. However, this is one of the times when you are thankful that you have insurance. As I always say, if you value it, you will insure it. Please do not ever skip insurance.

One more time for my women, my women, my women! It was so beautiful to share this moment with the girls. They were such a great group of women to climb with. A 100% excellent group!

So, what’s my next adventure? Plenty. Most of my personal trips don’t make it here but the expeditions do. For mountains, I am thinking of Mt. Fuji (Japan), Atlas Mountains (Morocco), Drakensburg Mountains (South Africa) and Mts. Rainier and Denali (USA). I guess, we’ll see.

I will also publish an FAQs post about Everest Basecamp that answers all the questions I’ve gotten about this particular climb.

I would love to hear from you in the comments or as a reply to this e-mail. Before you go, please share this newsletter with other curious minds. There’s usually something pretty cool to discover!

Love,
Funmi!