After arriving at Namche Bazar and spending an evening exploring the maze of streets and alleyways that make up this wonderful little town in the mountains, it was time to get ourself to bed to get a good nights sleep, ready to head up to nearly 4000M the next morning, to get our first good glimpse of the tallest mountain in the world! The legendary mount Everest!!
Acclimatization day in Namche - Hike to Everest View Hotel
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We awoke around 6 to our windows frozen on the inside, and the bottle of water next to our beds as solid as the brick wall that was separating us from the still sleeping village outside. After 5 minutes of mental preparation, we climbed out of our sleeping bags and got dressed as quickly as possible, then made our way down to the dining room for breakfast, where we were greeted with a spritely `good morning` from our guide, Uttar. The fire was still smouldering from the night before, leaving the faint smell of smoke lingering in the air, but unfortunately, offering little warmth to our chilled hands and feet. A cup of tea and a big bowl of porridge was soon brought to us by the lovely old lady who owned our guest house. As I got stuck in to my breakfast I thought to myself `she must have been up very early to make us this food! People who live in these conditions are just built differently.
We did a few stretches and a little warm up, before heading out in to the cold to make our way to the Everest view point hotel, where we will be able to stand and admire the highest mountain in the world for the very first time. As we started our ascent up a small trail behind the village, I could feel the excitement growing inside me. I have been a fan of mountains for a very long time, looking at many pictures in books and on the internet, and now I am on my way to see the mother of all mountains! Mount Everest! It almost felt surreal, like a dream that was too good to be true, but the cold breeze blowing against my face reminded me that I was there, present, and on the way to fulfil one of my life long dreams.
As we reached around 3600M, the landscape opened out and we were treated to a view of Ama Dablam, one of Everest’s neighbouring mountains. This mountain, slightly less than 7000M was an amazing sight to behold! Like a snowy, sharp knife cutting into the sky, it was exactly how a mountain would look in a fairy tale. I was told that even though the mountain is nearly 2000M smaller than Everest, many climbers consider it much harder to summit, due to the technical nature of the climb. Amazed by what we were seeing, we pushed on, eager to catch our first glimpse of the king of mountains.
We continued towards our goal along a path, traversing along a steep slope, when suddenly we heard a noise. It was the sound of a helicopter starting up, and it sounded close by! We carried on a little further around the corner to see a group of people walking away from the helicopter that was just taking off around 25M away from us! I had only seen helicopters pass by in the sky, so to see one up close was a little unexpected treat. Our guide told us that it was rich clients on their way top have lunch at the Everest view hotel. This meant that would couldn’t be far!
Another 5 minute’s walk and we reached our destination. After a quick photo shoot in front of the sign of the hotel, that stated our altitude to be 3880M, we made our way inside. The hotel was warm, and at first glance was very up market. Definitely not the kind of place I expected to see nestled in the middle of the mountains! We were greeted by a member of staff as we made our way through to the balcony viewing area.
Stepping outside onto the balcony, I was awestruck. There it was, the mighty mountain around which this adventure was built, Everest, nestled behind its smaller, but equally impressive younger brother, Lhotse. Our guide explained to us that to the left was the 7000M ridge called Nuptse, which the famous North Face jacket was named after, and to the right was the formidable, Ama Dablam. Seeing this mountain range in all its glory was truly a spectacular moment that will stick with me forever. As we sat and enjoyed a well-deserved coffee in the presence of these wonderful mountains, it became quite apparent that although we were close, we still had a long way to go to reach our target destination, the world famous Everest base camp.
Content with what we had seen for the day, and having spent some time to acclimatize, we started to feel hungry, as it was approaching lunch time, so we made our way out of the hotel and back down towards our guest house in Namche. Our guide had pre ordered a Dal Bhat in the morning, just before we left, which to his credit was ready within 10 minutes of us arriving back! It was almost as if he’d done this before!
We spent the rest of the day exploring more of the wonderful village in the clouds, aptly nicknamed` the gateway to the Himalayas` before heading back to our guest house to get some rest and sit in contemplation of the sights we had beheld, just hours earlier.
As I was winding down before bed we talked with our guide about the days ahead. We knew a lot of hard work lay ahead of us to reach our final destination, but the thought of getting closer and closer to the beautiful snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas filled us with so much excitement, we couldn’t wait to get to sleep and continue on our adventure the next day.
