Sagarmāthā Zone

Everest Base Camp may be what everyone sets out to do, but in my opinion, Kala Patthar is the real jewel in the trekking crown. Kala Patthar is a 5,645 m vantage point with gorgeous vistas over mahoosive peaks in every direction. It sits some 300 metres above Base Camp and comes with an even more stark view of Everest unlike any we'd seen before. So with the hour barely 6 am as we departed Gorak Shep, we were delighted to bear witness to the perfect conditions: shimmering snow, unblemished blue skies, and the sun's rays gently easing in the day from over the Himalayan horizon. It was peaceful bliss. Or at least it would've been if not for the punishing ascending altitude we were about to undertake.

As we began our ascent, we were surprised to see other trekkers descending already, at 6 am? That's keen, we thought, as we continued to shuffle our way up the icy incline. Thomas seemed to be coping okay but I've got to say, it was the hardest 'easy' climb I've ever done; wheezing for breath after every few steps and ascending in painful slow motion. I say 'easy' climb because, if not for the altitude, it really should've been. But my god, altitudes that high can be crippling not only on the legs, but on the lungs, and even the brain too, taking sheer determination to stagger to the summit. It had taken us three hours to complete the 500 m of ascent, and our prize: front row seats in an amphitheatre of dramatic snow-capped mountains, headed by its showpiece: Mt Everest, the tallest on Earth. Perhaps ironically though, Everest was probably one of the less impressive views, with Pumori, Lingtren and the nearer Nuptse jarring into the sky, all appearing larger. Still, we lingered on the view out in every direction, and gawped at the climbers' route up to Everest's summit via the wild Khumbu icefall and lumpy Hillary step. Here, we also enjoyed some more enthusiastic celebrations and snapped plenty of photos in the still solitude of the summit. I also got to wave my Kala Patthar hat from the very place it described.

The descent back down was much more brisk, and upon returning to the teahouse, we decided on the first food of the day. I knew something wasn't quite right: I'd felt hungry, but also that I didn't want to eat. Still, I picked away at a pancake and we eventually set off on our way back down. We'd made it barely a few steps out from the front of the teahouse when I then paused to put on my sunglasses, turned, and threw up both violently and repeatedly. Shit. Vomiting isn't a particularly good sign when it comes to altitude, and combined with the symptoms both Thomas and I had been experiencing over the previous couple of days, we decided we needed to take more responsible action and adapt our plans. We had previously intended on attempting the giant Cho La pass over a glacier to Gokyo lake, thus hoping to end today in the village of Dzongla. But feeling rough in ourselves, we instead descended back to Lobuche, where we'd evaluate our plans going forward.Read more