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3 Passes Trek Via Everest BC3 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
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A 18-day adventure by JGM TRAVELS 2023 Read more
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  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 1

    Prep day

    May 3, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    The day started off very early , we were both awake at 0500 and started to sort through our bags. Breakfast was at 0730 , we stocked up on very dense pancakes with syrup - they were quite nice actually!
    We then met up with Badri again to go through our itinerary for the trek ( so exciting !!!). Badri went through an equipment checklist too , followed by a trip to the trek equipment shop , where they supplied us with very thick duffle coats and -20 sleeping bags .
    Things started to feel very real when we were fitted for microspikes in preparation for the glaciers and 1 ft deep snow on the trek.
    On the way back to the hotel , we changed some of our USD to INR .
    After finishing off our packing at the hotel , we went back into town in the search for some caps . Only very few of the caps would fit James' big head , which was very amusing 😄 .
    We stocked up on high energy snacks ready for the trek too .
    We ate at a wonderful little restaurant in the evening , the meal was so tasty , and cost a measly 11 pounds for both of us .
    Now time for a shower and an early night, we are up at 6 for the flight then starting the first day of trekking tomorrow!
    Just as I was writing this , we heard celebrations for a Hindu marriage (vivaha), there were very loud drums and everyone was dancing in the street! It was amazing!    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 2

    1. Lukla to Phakding

    May 4, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    We woke up early to get to the airport to get a flight to Lukla, upon arrival at the airport our main guide announced to us that we were in fact going in a helicopter as the weather was so bad. We were both super stoked with this news. When waiting we met an American couple who were actually flying out for the 10th time to do the three passes, but they are going to be trail running! Mad right!
    The helicopter was phenomenal, we were skimming over valleys and villages and cruising at about 150mph. It was one of the most scenic things we have both ever done, landing in Lukla (the gateway to Everest) was great and we can see why it's called the world's most dangerous airport (we were rather happy we flew via helicopter when we saw how short the runway was!) We are coupled with a single Korean guy called Kim, who can speak really good English and is really nice, he has a seperate guide but doing the same programme as us. Our guide Phure Sherpa and porter are lovely, they are so welcoming, polite and very warming and attentive towards us. We chatted all the way and it's great to learn about their culture and family history.
    We had a 4 hour walk today rather short weaving up and down the Khumbu valley and crossing some awesome wire rope bridges. We stopped at Eco House Tea house in Phakding 2600mtr and had some lovely food whilst chatting around the fire, with Kim learning about South Korea and some new friends we made from France called Andrea & Elodie, who are doing the same route as us (minus the Kongma la Pass as they are not crazy like us) so hopefully we will see more of them. They are literally the French version of Gracie and I, which was hilarious- Self built camper, love hiking and surfing. We went outside when dark and could see some 6000mtr peaks with the snow glistening in the moonlight. Weather is clear and no rain about 17'c. We are having an early night as up at 6am as we have a big 8 hour challenging hike to the wonderful town of Namche Bazzarr, the highest town in the world.
    Safe to say so far we are absolutely loving this trip and the scenary is something else.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    121
    Day 3

    2. Phakding to Namche Bazzarr

    May 5, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -1 °C

    We woke up early 5.45am to get an early start as the best weather is in morning and early afternoon. It was going to be a long day upto Namche Bazzarr, neither me or Grace slept very well as we were both excited to start the trek. We befriended a lovely dog called (Garfield) who followed us for a few KM, sorry Maggie😂. It was a beautiful day and the further along the trail we went the more scenic it got. We crossed many suspension bridges but the highlight was the Tenzing Hillary suspension bridge, which is the world's highest suspension bridge, 250mtrs above the rushing river below, this was a real highlight. The trail was very steep upto Namche, but neither me or Grace were struggling which shows all those tedious gym sessions have really paid off.
    We bumped into the American couple and the French couple from the previous couple of days which was nice. The trail was riddled with Donkeys, yaks and yak hybrids (half cow, half Yak). The further along the trail the mountains started to make an appearance and they were breathtaking, we can't put into worlds how amazing they were. This included a glimpse of Mt Everest itself, it was incredible and completely surreal. Half way up the steep climb (1000mtrs today) we heard this huge rumble, sounded like thunder and big crash noises. Our guide told us that it's an avalanche happening rather close. This was really cool and the noise was unreal.
    We carried on trekking up the steep hill and suddenly Namche made an appearance, it is a huge town carved into a mountain, with schools, shops & hospitals and home with a population of around 2000. We walked up and everything felt electric, we had such a sense of achievement as apparently this was a hard day within the trek, due to the climb and jump in altitude.
    Once settled into our hotel (with an amazing view)we had a much needed sugar kick and headed down into town to have a mooch about, the shops were cool with artists and the most amazing mountain paintings (as they are rather poor they cannot photograph) so paintings were done on mountain tops and took days if not weeks to complete due to trekking high and dodging the ever changing weather in the Himalayas so they could paint from sight.
    Some local children took a huge interest in Grace and her Coca cola and ended up following us around in hand, which was adorable. They were 4 & 6 and spoke English fluently! We are both happy that we aren't experiencing any altitude sickness symptoms yet, drinking 4 litres of water is certainly helping.
    We are about to have some dinner and head back to town for a walk around at night and then an early night to catch up on some much needed sleep. Was a truly incredible day!! Big shouts to our Ngwang Gombu Sherpa he is making this trip really special!    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 4

    3. Namche acclimatisation day

    May 6, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ -2 °C

    First acclimatisation day today! We started walking at 7 am up to Everest view hotel.
    This was a very short walk compared to yesterday, it only took about 2.5 hours.
    We gained 400 metres in elevation from Namche bazaar, there were a lot of steps but the views were totally worth it.
    Along the way, we stopped off at a place called Sagarmatha, an art gallery where all the art is made out of recycled materials. It was very impressive. They also encourage hikers to collect any rubbish along their travels and drop it off at lukla to be recycled, which we both are going to do.
    From the Everest view hotel you can see Ama Dablem, Lhotse shar, Lhotse, Nupste, Tubuche and of course Mt Everest itself.
    The views were just so breathtaking, we didn't want to leave.
    We also saw lots of mountain hawk eagles too, which was just so cool.
    We walked back down to Namche just in time for lunch, which was much needed!
    Afterwards, James and I decided to visit the local monastery - which was beautiful. Along the way, we felt a very small earthquake, which lasted for about a second or two, it was very strange.
    We also visited a yak parking lot which was hilarious 🤣. Then a Sherpa museum, which was just fascinating. Learning about Sherpa history was so interesting, they really are such amazing people. There was lots of old mountaineering equipment used to summit everest on show too, how things have progressed now!
    James and I had a shower when we got back (the last one we can have for a very long time 😅) and then headed for some food.
    Quite a long day hike tomorrow, about 6-7 hours, so about to go up for some sleep.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 5

    4. Namche to Deboche

    May 7, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ -1 °C

    Yet again another 6.30 start which felt hard today due to us both having mild headaches, we set off and had a mixture of cloud and sun today, but it was a very pleasant temperature to hike in.
    We left Namche and had a steady walk up and down the Khunbu Valley, we unfortunately had to drop nearly 600mtrs to Phugitanga so we could cross the river. We stopped here for lunch and was a busy area with Yaks, horses and Yak Hybrids transporting all the expedition equipment to and from Everest and surrounding mountains. We learnt that the average expedition uses 24 tonnes of equipment and needs 600 porters or 300 yaks.
    After lunch we had a steep 700 mtr climb up to Tengboche, here we visited a famous monastery and had a look around inside. The artwork and interior was incredible, we learnt about the religion and listened to Undzi doing the prayers as he is the leader of the monks. It felt very spiritual with inscence being burnt and prayers being chanted. Unfortunately we couldn't photograph inside.
    We then carried on walking down to Debuche 3750mtrs and have stopped at Everest Rhododendron Lodge.
    We have another long day tomorrow up to Dingboche 4410 mtrs which is mostly climbing, but we are slowly edging towards the 8000mtrs peaks which is super exciting. By the end of the day we both felt fine which is reassuring as we are now climbing 500mtrs a day in altitude with only 1 acclimatisation day left.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    3
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    Day 6

    5. Deboche to Dingboche

    May 8, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ -6 °C

    We had breakfast at 6.30am again, we tried Tibetan toast for the first time which was like a fried doughnut but squashed-it was delicious.
    Quite happy to be leaving the tea house as last night an American group turned up and they were all pretty full on with many dramas.
    The weather was lovely today , sun was shining and the temperature was very pleasant.
    The walk before lunch was not too strenuous at all, very gradual incline after crossing the river. We had lunch at Pangboche- we both had our daily intake of noodles and they were very tasty. After lunch an incline to Dingboche it took us about 2 hours. We saw lots of yak heards and the scenary continues to be beautiful. We arrived in Dingboche 4440mtrs, which is the highest inhabited village all year around. It's amazing as there are shops, bakeries and restaurants here.
    After dropping off our bags in our room, we heard drums and singing coming from the central room in the teahouse. It was a annual Buddhist ceremony which involved all the local people singing prayers and offering food to the gods and sharing lots of food (they involved us aswell which was lovely and felt like something off a documentary as we are so far from civilisation-like a different world). We were given a variety of food and drank Rice alcohol from our hands.
    We both then went to a local bakery, it was so cosy in there. We stopped and watched the film Everest whilst sipping lemon tea and eating chocolate donuts.
    We decided today that we are going to attempt Kongma La after an acclimatisation hike up Chukkung Ri tomorrow 5550mtrs. O2 sats remain good for this altitude and we are both coping well so far without needing to take diamox. Pasta for supper around the Yak dung fire, and card games with our Sherpas and Kim. We may be off grid now for a while as we are getting more and more remote. So potentially no posts for a few days.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 7

    6. Dingboche to Chukkung

    May 9, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ☀️ -5 °C

    We had a lovely morning as we had abit of a lie in and set off at 7.45am. It was beautiful walking alongside Ama Dablam the whole way, which is our favourites mountain. We met a lovely group of 3- 2 brits named Katie and Galen and an Aussie names Yoshi. Katie was born in Bewdley which we found strange as so close to home. It was lovely listening to all their travelling stories, we got on so well that we decided to join forces as we will be doing similar itinarary.
    It is going to be an extremely early start tomorrow we had to be up for 5.30am. When we arrived at the Chukkung Resort Hotel after a 3 hour trek we had some lovely ramen noodles. Our trek favourites so far. We chilled out for an hour before we did an acclimatisation hike up Chukkung Ri we made it upto 5100mtrs about 400mtrs from the top, we didn't want to over do it as we had such a big day tomorrow. We really felt the altitude doing this and James had to then start taking Diamox. Every step felt like so much effort and we found it so hard to catch our breath. We are both really glad we did this in preparation for tomorrow. We are both feeling the altitude with niggly headaches, Grace started diamox in the morning and it really does make a difference. We got our kit ready for tomorrow and had a rest before dinner. Tonight we treated ourselves to pizza and chips. Then early night ready for a big day tomorrow.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 8

    7.Chukkung to Leboche via Kongma La pass

    May 10, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ -5 °C

    Today we woke at 0415, ready for breakfast at 0500. It was absolutely freezing, there was frost on the inside of our windows! We wore our wooly hats, gloves and summit coats but we soon were too warm from walking such steep hills!
    Everything felt so much more strenuous today as we were gaining altitude. On the way to the summit of Kongma La we saw a family of musk deer and also some mountain mice - they looked like mini chinchillas and were so cute! Our friend, Katie told us that the pokemon character is based on the mountain mouse.
    After 5 hours, we finally reached the top of Kongma La, it was exhausting! However, Leboche was still a further 3 hours away (more like 4 haha). The descent was very rocky, with lots of slippery skri. There was also another 2 hills we had to climb. This was by far the hardest thing we have ever done.
    We saw some beautiful glaciers along the way, they were the bluest of blue.
    We finally reached our lodge after 9 hours of walking - fair to say we are absolutely exhausted. We both sat with our lovely new Freinds and drank 3 cups of hot chocolate absolutely loaded with sugar. This really sorted us out.
    Upstairs we went to get our rooms sorted and have a refreshing baby wipe shower-this is as good as it gets in the Himalayas. Very much looking forward to our huge portion of tomato, cheese pasta and a bowl of popcorn. And then straight to bed! We are exhausted!    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 9

    8. Leboche to Gorak Shep to EBC!!

    May 11, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ❄️ -17 °C

    This morning it was a 6 o'clock start, which was rough after a 24km Route the previous day, which was extremely difficult.
    However we woke with a spring in our step as today we would be visiting Everest Base Camp. We had a 3 hour walk up the Khumbu Glacier to Gorak Shep, which was slow due to the popularity of the route to EBC. A fairly mellow walk with only a few hills today which our legs were grateful for and seeing glimpses of Base Camp and the Khumbu Ice fall spurred us on.
    We got to Gorak Shep (roughest place so far) which was 5200mtrs and had some lunch. We then set off for Everest Base Camp 5364mtrs which was super exciting. As we were walking we were having glimpses of Everest (real name - Chomalungma, bloody brits swooping in and changing the actual name). As we arrived at base camp, it was extremely busy with over 150 different teams as it was Summit Season, they only have a small gap in May when it's possible due to the weather. There was huge ice peices and the Khumbu Ice fall was extremely intimidating (we were told by Phure during April and May over 8 people die attempting to get to Camp 1, via avalanches or falling into crevasses). We had a few photos by the big rock with EBC which was exciting to finally be here and a must do. It was not as messy as we had been told and all the tents seemed strategically placed and tidy. We spent about an hour at Base Camp walking pretty close to the Ice Fall, you couldn't actually see Everest at the camp but we had some good views on the way. We left to hike back along the Glacier to Gorak Shep and had about an hour and a half before we had to Hike another mountain called Kala Patthar 5535 mtrs, to watch the sunset across Chomalungma (Everest) we climbed to about 5400mtrs and left Gorak Shep at 4.00pm. Unfortunately our guide completely messed up the time as Sunset wasn't until 6.50 pm which was a very long wait at - 10 to 15 degrees. Grace lasted about 2 hours, and then had to go down, I was very jealous she was going to get warm as it was bloody freezing. Our water bottles had frozen and then it seemed to take forever for the sun to go down. However it hit about 6.40pm and Everest literally glowed the brightest golden colour, it was so special and definitely worth the 3 hour sub temperature wait. We took some pictures and then ran back to the tea house to warm up. What an experience and sights I will never forget.
    We had some dinner and neither me or Grace could eat as being at 5200mtrs for a long period of time was making us feel abit wierd. We went to sleep and surprisingly slept really well both having a solid 9 hours.    Read more

  • JGM TRAVELS 20233 Passes Trek Via Everest BC
    Day 10

    9. Gorak Shep to Zonglha

    May 12, 2023 in Nepal ⋅ ⛅ -3 °C

    Today we were pleased to leave Gorak Shep, we found the altitude quite difficult, headaches and lack of appetite hit us hard. The toilets were something from nightmares too.
    Anyways, we had a bit of a lie in this morning and had breakfast at 0630, ready for hiking at 7.
    The hike today was so much more chill, we walked mainly downhill for 3 hours back to Leboche for some lunch-which we really appreciated as we couldn't face food yesterday.
    After Leboche, we walked a further 4 hours to Zhongla, which was a mixture of up and downhill.
    Along the way, we saw a beautiful bright blue bird and some really cute snow partridges.
    After a final push uphill we finally made it to our teahouse in Zhongla, which is just wonderful-especially compared to Gorak Shep yesterday. James had a hot chocolate and I had masala tea (my new fave, like chai tea but better) when we arrived.
    We also treated ourselves to a bowl of warm water for a wash - it felt like luxury 😂.
    Had a lovely evening sat by the fire with a lovely group of people just chatting.
    Up tomorrow for 5. 30, ready to tackle pass two of three, the Chola Pass!    Read more

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