E.B.C.
Everest Base Camp…
Every Blessing Counts…
Weather- so good! The whole 8 days up we had sunshine and minimal wind. For me even that was chilly so anything less could’ve been really discouraging. Once we made it to base camp, took our pics and got ready to leave the weather turned. The wind was no joke and it snowed/rained on the two days trekking down the mountain. Even that was a blessing. We were able to experience what our entire trek could’ve been, considering we did it in off season, winter! It added another level of gratitude. The mountains looked completely different and it seemed like we were in another world for those last two days. It was cool to be able to experience both sides and both types of views for the trek.
Food- wayyy better than anticipated. It didn’t make us sick (except for racer Rach one night)! It was all included in our trip price so we could order whatever we wanted each night, which for most trekkers is super out of budget. I’ve also never been so thankful to eat meat as I was on day 9 when we could order meat again. (It goes bad the higher up the mountain you go because everything is transported by donkey or yak). Trekking with minimal protein was not my fav but our food experience was probably about as good as it could get.
Lodging- pretty boujee. I use that term loosely because mountain bougie is still super cold and minimal. We slept in rooms with next to no insulation and multiple enormous down blankets, plus our sleeping bags and ALL THE LAYERS. The lodges were heated by yak poop fires that would run for a couple of hours TOPS each night. However, we had 3 nights with warm showers and heated blankets which is insane for the Everest trek!
Off season hiking- relaxing. We encountered plenty of people at lodges and restaurants but didn’t see many people on the actual trail. We were able to enjoy the trek without getting stuck behind mega-groups or constantly being around lots of people. I’m pretty sure we saw more yak and donkey trains than actual humans while hiking.
Health- no one got altitude sick. There were moments, I think, each of us considered tapping out but health-wise we were good. We had some minor coughs, some gnarly blisters and one food poisoning incident but all things considered, our group made it out relatively unscathed. Considering that a decent chunk of the people we met had someone from their group get evacuated before the end of the trek, I’d say the Lord definitely blessed us in this area BIG TIME.
We were able to bring lift, positivity, encouragement, and fun to the trail and it was noticeable to the people around us. We were able to show community in a really cool way to the people we encountered. We even witnessed a miracle ( ). We were able to be an example of Christ to everyone we met on the way and we were privileged to make a lot of friends in the process.
All in all Everest was as epic as anticipated.
Dad I made it off the mountain-like three months ago- and I’m good!”
Other blogs on Everest:
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/trekking-mount-everest
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/mount-freakin-everest
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/wanna-see-everest
http://amberpharazyn.theworldrace.org/post/i-witnessed-a-miracle-on-everest
