Reader Report: Trekkers beat the crowd on Everest Base Camp climb

Second of three parts.

LUKLA AIRPORT, Khumbu Valley, Everest Region, Nepal, May 6.

Our flight to Lukla was only half full, and my trekking partner, April Thompson Egbert, and I were the only ones on board who intended to climb to Everest Base Camp. The others on our plane, a short takeoff and landing De Havilland Twin Otter, were locals returning from Kathmandu after checking on their relatives following the 7.9 earthquake that hit Nepal hard on April 25.

As we approached Lukla, we could see to the north, from the left side of the plane, the mighty Himalayas with the world’s tallest mountains. We lucked out with perfect flying weather: good visibility and little or no wind.

As soon as I saw the short runway, which is not much longer than an aircraft carrier flight deck, I felt a rush of adrenaline. At the approach end, it drops off down a steep cliff for a couple of thousand feet to the river below. At the far end is an 8-foot brick retaining wall and a steep mountain side rising above that for another couple of thousand feet.

It is like a scene from a James Bond movie.

There is no room for error. If the pilot lands too fast or too long, a go-around is impossible. Even if there is as little as 12 knots of tailwind (and there is never a headwind at this airport, which is what you want for a landing like this), the tower closes the runway for safety reasons.

The captain must have the proper airspeed for the landing, get the wheels down on the numbers, and brake hard to avoid running into the retaining wall at the end of the short runway.

We made it. April and I, along with all the other passengers, applauded our captain, very thankful and much-relieved for the perfect landing.

Our Nepali guide, Ratna Lama, picked us up early that morning at our hotel in Kathmandu and joined us for the flight to Lukla. His first order of business was to hire a couple of Sherpa porters. One porter would be with us all the way up to Everest Base Camp, carrying our two backpacks.

The other porter would go ahead of us, at his own pace, carrying the large duffle bag of first aid and medical supplies to be delivered to the Everest Base Camp clinic at Pheriche.

From Lukla, Pheriche is a four-day climb up, from 9,200 feet in elevation to 13,900 feet, and then a two-day climb down.

From the money I pay him for his services, the porter must pay for his own room and board in trekkers’ lodges along the way. We quickly settled on a fee of $100, and he was off, carrying the entire 50-pound load on a sling rigged across the top of his head — as if it was nothing.

A Sherpa porter named Avinash Rai was hired to carry our two backpacks. After the customary cup of tea at a lodge next to the airport, we started out on our big adventure.

Our goal that first day was simply to reach the village of Phakding (8,560 feet), a relatively easy four-hour hike, much of it downhill, for the night.

In the high season — and the first week of May is the peak of the climbing season on the Everest Base Camp Trail — typically, as many as 1,000 to 1,200 thrill-seekers a day will fly from Kathmandu to Lukla to start their 38 mile (one-way), 13- to 14-day roundtrip pilgrimage to pay their respects to the highest mountain in the world.

However, just before leaving the village of Lukla, we came to the Everest Base Camp trail checkpoint and learned that there were only seven of us, including April and me, who registered to climb the trail.

Lonely Planet lists 32 trekking companies that take clients to Everest Base Camp. That day, our outfitter, Earthbound Expeditions, was the only company to register at the checkpoint. The other five trekkers to start up the mountain that day were on their own, without a guide.

The trail was exciting and gorgeous, and it didn’t take long for us to meet our first yak train, going the other way. Our guide, Ratna, told us to always stand on the uphill side of the trail as the yaks pass. Every year or so, a trekker will make the mistake of standing on the downhill side and accidentally get bumped off the steep trail by a passing yak, sometimes with deadly consequences.

In Phakding, we stayed at the aptly named Trekkers’ Lodge and had lemon tea followed by a nice dinner and then turned in early for the night. None of the lodges on the Everest Base Camp trail have heating, so a warm down sleeping bag is essential, as overnight temperatures typically dip into the 30s.

Most lodges have only a wood-burning stove in the middle of the dining room to take the chill off. Just one problem: there is little or no wood to burn. But there is no shortage of yak dung, which gives off a distinctive odor, as you can imagine, and makes for a nice hot fire.

I was a bit nervous about my knees holding up, having injured them many years ago. But I had trekking poles to shift some of the weight from my knees to my upper body, and also knee braces and plenty of ibuprofen. No problems at all from my knees. So far, so good.

The next morning April and I took off with Ratna leading the way. Our goal that day was to stop for lunch at Monjo (9,325 feet) and then press onto Namche Bazaar (11,220 feet).

There must be at least 3,000 exhausting stone steps to climb between Monjo and Namche. Ratna said we would be staying at the Hilton in Namche, at least that’s what it sounded like. But it is spelled Hill-Ten, in honor of Hillary and Tenzing. I rate it a minus-one star. There’s no heat, no showers (it would be freezing cold anyway), the building is slightly damaged from the earthquake, the rats are noisy, and on arrival I killed a weird looking bug crawling on my bed, which was really just a plywood cot, a foam mattress and a well-worn blanket.

In the morning, a centipede the size of my middle finger crawled out from under my boot.

All of the staff at the Hill-Ten was sick, coughing, sneezing and spitting, even in the kitchen while making our dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. It was disgusting. I’ve never seen a hotel, restaurant or other public place with such poor health and hygiene.

The next day, May 8, was a mandatory acclimatization day, and we stayed a second night at the Hill-Ten to allow our bodies to get used to the high elevation. The brochure said that second day was also supposed to be a “rest day.” Not.

Ratna marched us up a steep trail for an hour and a half. Our reward when we reached the ridge was a spectacular view of Namche down one side and, on the other side, we gazed in awe up at Mt. Everest.

When we got back to the Hill-Ten, around mid-afternoon, Ratna said, with a smile, “Now it is a rest day, what’s left of it.”

On the morning of May 9, we departed Namche at about 8 and climbed for four and a half hours to Tengboche (12,530 feet), where we saw the famous monastery, established in 1916.

All but one of the buildings at Tengboche were damaged or destroyed in the April 25 earthquake. The one that was spared was a lodge made almost entirely of wood, and that’s where we stayed the night. The monastery suffered moderate damage, but was open.

The next day we pushed onward and upward for about four hours to Dingboche (14,500 feet, the same as elevation as Mt. Whitney).

At Dingboche, we stayed at the Good Luck Hotel. The name was apropos. All other lodges in this village, about 20 of them, were now closed, either due to earthquake damage or to the lack of visitors due to the quake-shortened season.

The day before we arrived, the owner of the Good Luck laid off all but one of his 14 employees for the rest of the season. Before the earthquake, he averaged 45 guests a night, but we were his only customers.

We stayed here for two nights to acclimatize to the elevation. During our day of rest, April and Ratna hiked over to Pheriche (about a half hour away) to see if our duffle bag arrived at the Everest Base Camp clinic. The duffle bag was received by the next door neighbor, who agreed to store it until the doctors returned to the clinic in the fall.

We knew the clinic had just closed for the season because we bumped into the four doctors and two medics as they were coming down the mountain, and we were going up. We told them about our donation of medical supplies, and they were absolutely thrilled and very appreciative.

They looked exhausted, and teared up as they told us amazing stories of the 7.9 earthquake, the deadly avalanche, and their rescue efforts. They worked around the clock for three days, with little or no rest, treating 79 injured climbers.

After Dingboche, on May 12, we climbed for four and a half hours to Lobuche (16,170 feet), arriving there at about 12:45 p.m. We had just taken a few sips of our tea when the second big earthquake hit.

It was a 7.3 quake that lasted about 40 seconds, with the epicenter at Namche Bazaar, just a few miles away. The ground shaking was intense. It was followed by four strong aftershocks of, I’m guessing, about 5.0 or better over the next half hour.

Having grown up in Southern California, I’ve been through more than a dozen quakes, but none this strong or lasting this long.

We ran outside and saw a huge avalanche up near Base Camp, and wondered if anyone was still up there.

Bad news travels fast, and within a few minutes Barbara saw the news reports of this second huge quake. She knew we were close to the epicenter at Namche.

Our lodge at Lobuche was modest, but it was a wooden-framed building, so we felt somewhat safe. But that’s only a relative term. Most of the other structures around us were built of stacked stones, and several of them had collapsed.

We were thankful to have a roof over our heads that night, but slept a bit uneasily, worried about another aftershock.

What we really needed, but didn’t get, was a solid, good night’s rest in Lobuche, after our long hike that day, because the next day we would hike much further and higher, for eight and a half hours up to the Everest Base Camp (17,600 feet).

For more information or to make a donation to the Everest Base Camp Clinic, please contact https://www.himalayanrescue.org.

Part III will be published Wednesday.

MICHAEL LAWLER is a Newport Beach attorney