Day 9 - Gorak Shep/ Kala Patthar/Everest Base Camp

Not to worry - we will update you on the days before the climax of the climb soon!

But here is the update for that day...

The team was split up into two groups. The first group - which was made up of boys (James Crabtree, Jared Martin, Calvin Chuang, Aaron Bartlett and James Carson) went up to Gorak Shep from Loubiche the day before as they were all feeling good despite the high altitude (4910m). The others (Desiree Lawson, Jody Lawson and Beryl Hartmann) went up early this morning since they felt they needed an extra day of recovery from suspected altitude sickness (more on group sickness later!). Anne and Philip decided to descend as they weren't feeling great with the altitude, but they did a great job making it as far as they did!

The girls left at 5.30am and made it to Gorak Shep at 7.15am which was really fast, but thanks to the porters and our guide. When we arrived at Gorak Shep, the boys were around after some had climbed Kala Patthar to watch sunrise over Mt. Everest. We had some tea, then went up Kala Patthar (viewpoint most people get to other than Base Camp itself) again as a group to get photographs while the weather was clear over Everest.

The boys went to Everest Base Camp the day before, so we didn't go again as a group. Instead the girls walked close to Base Camp to get a look at the tents which will be filled with Everest climbers in the next few days.

Sorry this is short, but will update more soon! Internet is expensive in Namche Bazar! But we're on the home stretch now, even flying back to Kathmandu a day early so everyone can put their feet up and get some nice foot massages... =)

Day 3 - Rest day in Namche Bazar

Today we got to have a sleep in (yay!). We woke up at about 8am for breakfast, and then got ready for our small trek up the hill above Namche for acclimatisation. We started off slowly as the little trek was steep. We stopped often, as there were many photographic opportunities with the white tipped mountains getting bigger and bigger and around us we could see about 5 different peaks. We did a few jumping photos which our porters joined in on. It was fun, the team got to enjoy each other's company without the huffing and puffing of the previous days!

At the top of the hill we saw a helicopter take off which was quite exciting, and then climbed back down to Namche. Only a 2-3hr walk today which was great. We all had lunch then it was free time to explore the Friday market or sleep!

Day 2 - Phakding to Namche Bazar

After a great sleep, the team got up and had breakfast fairly early. We all sorted ourselves out with water purification tablets (which made the water taste like iodine!). Today was going to be our hardest day of walking. We were going to be walking for 7 hours and were going to ascending about 700m.

The first hour of the walk was a pleasant stroll through a valley lined by huge mountains with a gushing river flowing beside us. Eventually we arrived at the entrance to Sagarmatha National Park where we paid our entrance fees. After this we had lunch by the mighty river to recharge our energy. From now on we were going to be walking UP! We crossed a few bridges and then the ascent started. At first it wasn't so bad, we tried to take regularly breaks at each bend. But the walk up didn't seem to end for a long time! We stopped at this little point where we got to see Mt. Everest peaking out from behind the other white tipped mountains. It was pretty spectacular! Most of said that since we'd seen it we wouldn't mind going home now :p

We were all puffing and red faced by the time we reached Namche Bazar, but the colourful roofs were a welcome site and the surrounding mountains were also amazing!

After today's walk, we are all very much looking forward to the rest day tomorrow!