Reunion in Gorak Shep

Location: Gorak Shep
Altitude: 5100 meters
Weather: Low cloud / fog for most of the day.

Hi guys Beck here, reporting from Gorak Shep. Our big news is that there’ll be only one posting tonight as we’ve finally met up with Paul! After getting down from Camp 2 to Basecamp by around 9:30am, he had some breakfast, showered and trekked out to meet us.

A Slow Start
We left Lobuche this morning after a long breakfast, expecting a relatively easy walk to Gorak Shep to catch up with Paul.

The group was generally feeling better, maybe it was because we had spent two days at Lobuche which is at a fairly high altitude.

We left Lobuche, starting off very slowly (which is common for our group), and after only an hour walking, we were all still going pretty slowly, so Fiona raised our spirits with a block of Cadbury chocolate! It did the trick and soon enough we had climbed up Lobuche Pass and were all posing for silly photos. As we were trekking, some of us took advantage of certain ”toilet rocks” that our Sherpa suggested.

First Views of Base Camp
A little further along and we had our first glimpses of Everest Base Camp and the ice fall. We could even make out a few of the tents of EBC. My thoughts very quickly turned to Paul, as we knew that he was making his way down to BC from C2 today.

Gorak Shep
Eventually we arrived in Gorak Shep, with the aid of another chocolate break. We all agreed that our day’s trek was a lot harder than we initially expected… maybe it was the football sized rocks that we were constantly having to step over or the first trekking day of cold weather, but we were all very happy to finally make it to our lodge.

Reunion with Paul
In Gorak Shep we received word from Paul that he had made it safely back to BC and would be joining us at our lodge later in the day. We all sat by the window eagerly waiting for Paul to appear. After a few false alarms Paul finally arrived wearing, to our dismay, only pants and a t-shirt – as we were tucked-up inside wearing numerous layers, drinking tea and complaining about the cold (obviously he is better adapted to the cold than us). It was lovely to see Paul looking so fit and well, especially after only returning from his rotation this morning. We spent the afternoon catching up with Paul and swapping trekking stories.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a clear day as we are going to get up early and climb Kala Pattar, where we should see great views of Everest. It will be great to have Paul along for the trek, although he will have to slow to our pace of walking.

Cheers,

Beck

PS – We heard today on the porter-wire that our guide Ang Nima had to go to the hospital in Khunde and will be out of action for a least 5 days. Sounds like it was lucky he headed down when he did. We hope to see him somewhere on our trek out.

Messages

Tamara and Boris –
Hey Mom and Dad. It’s nice to hear your motivating messages. Only a short time left before I will be home. This simply has been just an amazing trip and experience as well. See you soon in Jacksonville.
– your daughter, Julia

J and M –
Thanks so much for the lollies, they have a been a big pick-me-up along the way. It’s also nice to see your messages and especially, Mary’s input from her trek. Nice… ”Hills are alive from the sound of your voice…” We thought of you when we did took our jumping photos.
– American(Australian) daughter, Julia

Hi Dad from Denise,
Great news about your PSA levels! Thanks for letting me know and great message. Having a great time, see you in a few weeks. Love Denise.

Thanks Gary (gazzanic) for sorting out the GPS readings! Sounds like everyone’s really appreciating having this info available.
Paul.

Hi Lou, Good question re the audio recordings. I actually have a separate device – an Olympus voice recorder which I carry on me as well and record these updates onto. Also, you might be interested to know that now that we’re in Gorak Shep, there’s a dog here that looks exactly like the one that made it up to Camp 2 last year (and ate the 30 eggs!). There’s still no dogs hanging around basecamp (or climbing) this year though. Paul

WMPopper – we’re not sure exactly how cold the streams here are but they’re waaayyy too cold to swim in up here! No need to pack bathers…

Thanks everyone else for your messages – I am really pleased to now have this Camp 3 rotation behind me. Now for some rest and then waiting for the right time for a summit bid. Paul.