EBC

We bit our nails and nearly peed our paints anxiously waiting for our plane to Lukla, the trail head of the Everest Base Camp trek. This was try number three and Mylinh said that if we didn't get there on the third try then it was a bad omen and she wasn't going.

That wasn't a concern though because we walked out on the runway (for the second time) and boarded our two propeller plane and got into the air. The flight was a little bumpy (you feel everything in a small plane) and the landing was a little scary as it was a short uphill runway that ended with a flat dirt hill that the plane could potentially crash into. I thought the flight was fine, but those with even a slight flying phobia might feel differently.

The details of the Everest trek were very similar to those of Annapurna, so I'll refrain from repeating myself too much. As to be expected, the mountains were beautiful, the people friendly, the porters amazing, and the hikes challenging.

The only day that probably deserves particular attention is the day we actually hiked out to Everest Base Camp. First we got up a 7am to hike into Gorak Shep, the village before EBC. We got there around 10am and had an early lunch. Our guide insisted on getting on the trail to EBC by 11am because the weather can be treacherous later in the afternoon. He was right. Within an hour of hiking to the camp it started to snow. Usually, snow is not an issue. We lived in Boston, we've walked in the snow before - nothing to worry about. However, the hike to EBC is up and down (called "Nepali Flat") and requires jumping rock to rock. This poses a problem with slippery snowflakes.

I should also mention that the last 45 minutes of the 2.5hr hike is on rocks that are on top of the Khumbu Glacier. This means that the rocks we are jumping on are resting on ice and often covered in ice. As we hiked, the snow began falling harder and harder. It was cold, but not unbearable, so we kept moving toward base camp. In the end, base camp looked a lot like the trail 30 minutes before base camp - essentially, a big pile of rocks, except that at base camp there are tents set up for the people preparing to ascend Everest. At about this time Mylinh got a stomach ache, followed by an urge to take care of some business - let's just say that she definitely left her mark on EBC.

By the time we got to the camp the snow was really coming down. As there isn't much to do but take a picture of some tents and grab some rocks as souvenirs (the only ones I got the whole trip, so don't expect nice presents) we spent less than a half hour at base camp. Luckily, the LIG South Korean Expedition team was preparing to summit Everest so there were actually tents and people at the camp; sometimes base camp is just a pile of rocks.

We headed back to our tea house and were glad to do so, as the snow kept getting worse. By the time we got back we could barely see 15 ft in front of us. Thankfully, our guide knew the way.

The rest of the trek was good, but also a little boring because we went down on the same trail we went up. However, now that the busy trekking season had started we did get a chance to meet a cool group of travelers consisting of canadiens, a recent GW law grad, a doctor from Germany and a couple crazy brits (one of the brits' father wrote the song "Downtown"). Once we joined the bunch it was definitely a motley crew.

At the end of the trek we were very glad to have done it, but were very donewith trekking, as we had been doing it for 26 days. We were craving all sorts of random food (a taco bell mexican pizza for Mylinh) and just wanted to get back to civilization - namely, Kathmandu. Of course things didn't work out as perfectly as we had hoped. The day we were supposed to fly out of Lukla the weather went from bad to worse and only four of seventeen flights took off. We were stuck once again, but this time in a small mountain town. Luckily, some of the friends we had met on the trail got stuck as well so we all bought bottles of whiskey and some overpriced cokes and sat in some random room behind a storefront and drank away our sorrows. Looking back it was a lot of fun, but we wetre pretty annoyed at the time.

I must make a specific mention of the terrible airline - Agni Airlines - we flew and how they screwed us. After having our flight cancelled we assumed (wrongly) that they would give us priority to fly out the next day. Our guide made it clear to them that we had to catch a flight later that afternoon. The first (of two) Agni planes landed and we all rushed to go outside, but in all their wisdom the airline decided to let passengers who did not have a previous flight cancelled go ahead of us. Then when the second plane came the weather got worse in Kathmandu and that plane couldn't take off. We were pissed. Both, Mylinh and I, and our guide started yelling at the pilot as he got out of the plane to drink his fucking tea. After much frustration and arguing the airline finally sent a different plane to pick us up that could handle the bad weather. It was a shitty experience and I warn everybody to NEVER fly Agni Airlines into Lukla. Try Yeti Airlines instead, all their flights took off fine.

As for a comparison of Annapurna and EBC, there were more similarities than differences. Overall, I probably liked Annapurna better because of the significant changes in scenery throught the trek and because it was our first. We thought that the hiking was more challenging on Annapuran and that the mountain villages were more authentic. The villages along the EBC trail felt constructed solely for the purpose of tourism. Everest probably had better views of mountain peaks and, of course, the accompanying bragging rights.