Nepal Trek - A Journey to Everest

This Adventure Report comes from Backcountry.com customer Baxter Gillespie who recently spent 3 weeks in Nepal trekking to Base Camp.

It'’s almost Halloween and I'm lying awake at 5:00am in my sleeping bag listening to the rain hit the tin roof of the tea house in Phakding, Nepal realizing that I'’m about to spend the next 3 weeks trekking in the Himalayas where all my mountaineering heroes have past.

Mallory, Irving, Norgay, Hillary, Messner and Boukreev have all spent time on theses trails and in these villages. After 35 hours of traveling from our home in Salt Lake, my wife Molly and I finally landed in Kathmandu several days ago. We spent time visiting most of the famous Hindu and Buddhist sites before catching a 23 passenger DeHavilland Twin Otter into the small mountain of Luklu where the trip really began.

Our plan was to carry all our own equipment but to hire a guide and stay in the guest houses for the three week trip to the 18,192' summit of Kala Pataar which overlooks Everest Base Camp. Over the course of the trip our guide, Depak, became a great friend and ambassador to his mountain world.

The Nepali people were very open and taught us much about their culture. The scenery was overwhelming. Even after seeing photos of the Himalayas for years, I was awed by the magnitude when viewing them in person. Overall, on the rolling trails in the Khumbu just to get to the top of Kala Pataar we ascended around 15,548' and descended 7874' each way which got us into good shape for the opening of ski season we returned to Salt Lake.

The trip turned out to be a fantastic experience. We had incredible adventures from snake charmers in Kathmandu to dealing with Maoist rebels on the trail and bargaining with Tibetan traders in the town of Namche City. We are completely hooked on traveling in Nepal and are now planning a more technical climbing trip back for next Fall.

If you are even contemplating going to Nepal, do it. I'll see you there next year!


All photos courtesy and copywrited by Baxter at www.ChaseTheFun.com
Top photo - Baxter at summit of Kala Pataar(18,192') with Mount Everest and Nupste in the background and Everest Base Camp and the Khumbu Ice Fall in the left lower corner

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