Not all travel company would be able to deliver such a wonderful service, I am really grateful to Challengers Hub Team and to our trek Leader Mr. Ratnesh Pandey who helped us out from start till the end.

We have started our Journey from Delhi to Kathmandu. We spent 2 days in Kathmandu, explored the local market and enjoyed the lovely food and tradition. We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla which was a 40 min flight, which is itself the most challenging and adventurous flight I have ever had.

Lukla is the busiest domestic airport and for trekkers intent on seeing Mt. Everest, flying here is a vital part of the adventure. Landing really is the terrifying part of the whole flight experience as it is a very small runway with the upgradient so that planes can stop easily.

The trek starts from Lukla to Mount Everest Base camp and then to Mt. Kalapatthar at about 18,196 meters. The trek was pretty challenging. It was spanning for about 17 days.

Everest Base Camp trek is really a lot different than the treks we are used to here in India. Full of luxury, different variety in terms of food. Liquor is available at every lodge. You get paid internet access, satellite phone if you feel like talking someone. After a day’s long trek want a nice hot shower, you just need to pay some extra money for this.

To enjoy your free time, they also provide pool and snooker tables along the trail for you. Most of the lodges were run by sherpa guys who had summited Everest and other nearby high peaks. In the dining area, you could see their summit images proudly hanging.

It took us in total 13 days to finish this trek, ten days going up and three coming down. Gaining altitude slowly is wise as it supports in acclimatization. We faced no altitude sickness, letting our bodies adjust to altitude naturally without the help of any medicines.

The memory of Everest is going to be in memories forever; Everest base camp at the world’s highest mountain is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires endurance, agility, and stability to survive the whole way through, which is what I have learnt from the trek.

From Lukla the trek begins and then we reached to Phakding, here we stayed in a lodge enjoyed our dinner, and stayed here for one night and early morning around 6 AM on, we started to trek towards gateway of Everest, Namche Bazaar. Uphill and downhill trek over here was simply remarkable, for some legal paper work we had to stop at Jorsale, which was taken care well by our guide, we crossed the alpine vegetation and suspension bridge and after a long stretch we reached to Namche Bazaar, after stayed here overnight, next day we started our acclimatizing walk towards the Everest view hotel from where we caught such a amazing view  of various peaks, Kusum Kangaroo, Amadablam and the gigantic Mt. Everest. Then we trekked to Tengboche, Dingboche, and then towards Lobuche. Then we reached to Gorakshep (5100m) the last camping place.

From Gorakshep the final lap of trek to Everest base camp initiated, after trekking for around 2 hours I finally made it up to the Everest Base camp. Thanks to Challengers Hub team for making our experience more wonderful by giving us a chance to stay at EBC for 2 nights with Expedition members and enjoyed the amazing hospitality & interesting stories of these mountaineers.

The feeling can’t be described in words, the feel being at Everest Base Camp with an altitude of 18500 feet was for us, like being at top of the world. I was waiting for this moment to share it with my friends, relatives and other trekking admirers.

 

-Nyasa Bhatia