Acclimatising on the South Side of Everest

Have been in Nepal for over ten days now but time seems to have flown by. 

After a week or so following the classic Southside Everest base camp trail in the Khumbu region of Nepal, I am now back in Kathmandu and preparing to travel across the border into Tibet tomorrow.  Apologies to those chasing an update, the communications in the Khumbu region were very "basic" and didn't have a great deal of spare time.  Once I arrive at base camp updates should become more regular.

The trek was a lot of fun and we followed the famous route through Namche Bazaar, Pangboche and Dingboche before trekking back to Lukla and flying out again.

As I had expected the flight into Lukla last Monday was an experience (and not necessarily a pleasant one).  The turbulence as our little two engined plane flew through the hills was something else, it was more like a roller coaster than a flight at times and I was extremely glad to finally land safely on the famous sloped runway.

The airport is like no other I have ever visited.  Planes only fly in the morning (before the clouds come in) and during this time they appeared to take off and land every a couple of minutes, in many ways it was more like a taxi-rank than an airport.  It was absolute chaos compared to our airports although the mayhem didn't seem to bother some of the employees.

Sleeping bank clerk at Lukla airport

We shouldn't complain though, the airport was only built in the late 1970s and before that the only way in was a two month trek into Lukla.

We set off on the trek as soon as we landed, the trekking itself was not particularly taxing and the weather seemed to follow a pretty regular pattern - bright and sunny from the morning through to mid afternoon then the clouds would arrive sometimes accompanied by snow.  As always at altitude, the sun was fierce and hot but once it disappeared it became bitterly cold.  

View of Lhotse from the trek

The route was surprisingly quiet on the way out but far busier on the way back to Lukla.  We were able to visit the centre of the Sherpa world, Namche Bazaar.  I had always wanted to visit, it is an important trading post between the Sherpa people and Tibetans who have made the five day trip over the Nangpa La pass near Cho Oyu.  Unfortunately there were no Tibetans there at this time but the town is still main hub on the Everest base camp trek and is still a busy little town.

Namche bazaar

The original plan to visit Ama Dablam base camp was aborted as the tea house had not yet opened (we are delaying our first night in a tent until we reached base camp) but this allowed us to visit Everest ER and the memorial at Piriboche.

Everest Southside memorial

And also visit Khumjung and see the famous Yeti scalp.  I am told that it is genuine but I am a bit sceptical particularly as this particular Yeti appeared to have ginger hair and a centre parting and not the white frizzy hair I expected.

Yeti scalp

We also stopped off at the famous Everest View hotel en route.  The hotel is famous for Japanese tourists flying in to enjoy the views and requiring supplementary oxygen in their rooms but is now rumoured to be one of the destinations on William and Kate's honeymoon so may soon be famous for a different reason.  The view of Everest (left with the plume) and Ama Dablam (right) is certainly quite spectacular, although I have to say absolutely nothing on the view of Everest from the North side. 

Everest and Ama Dablam from the Everest View hotel

We climbed up to 5100m on Saturday, spent some time up there to maximise our acclimatisation, then descended and began the walk back out to Lukla.

On ridge up towards 5100m