Overnight low in tent vestibule 16F. Altitude 5260 metres
(17260 ft).
After continuing on from Gorakshep, the trail takes an
abrupt right turn and starts crawling through moraine covered contours of the
Khumbu Glacier. Before long, the hiker reaches a monument, “Trekker’s Base
Camp”.
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| Base Camp! Hooray!! |
The monument is there to give trekkers something to have
their picture taken by, to signify that they have arrived at base camp, and
accomplished the objective of their trek. The tents that are visible in this
photo are actually, in fact, part of the Himex base camp. However, the whole of base camp is huge. It
extends along the entire moraine covered portion of the crescent below the
icefall.
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| Bird’s eye view of EBC |
The lowermost camp, IMG (International Mountain Guides) can
be seen just above and to the left of the circular glacier lake to the right of
center at the bottom of the photograph. Himex is just to the left of IMG. To
get to the Himex camp coming from the direction of Gorakshep, it is necessary
to skirt the IMG camp, along a wall that IMG has built that marks the borders
of their area.
The “Trekker’s Base Camp” monument is maintained as part of
a strategy to minimize trekker traffic through the actual expedition camps.
It’s not that trekkers are unwelcome, per
se. It’s that these camps are home to climbers for roughly two months
before they make their summit bids. Trekkers are as welcome as any other
uninvited guest would be.
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| Let me know you’re coming first |
More on the overall EBC later. Here are some particulars of the Himex base
camp. One of the nice amenities are hot
showers.
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| Shower picture |
The showers are fed from blue barrels full of water above.
The tent below contains two showers, with on-demand gas-powered hot water
heaters. The shower tent contains two showers, each itself divided into two
compartments – a dry compartment and a wet compartment. Showers are available
from roughly after breakfast to right around sundown. Translation: from when water
will not freeze when flowing through the water lines (which are drained
nightly) until such time as the water will
freeze.
The day I was going to take a shower, it never got hot
enough that water wouldn't freeze. However, I was able to get a nice basin of
hot water from the kitchen and carry it down to the shower tent where there was
a sink and a mirror, and grab a much needed (hot!) shave.
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| Storage tent and duffel picture |
As mentioned previously, base camp is home to the climbers
for roughly two months before summit day. And, of course it is home as well to
Himex personnel, support staff, climbing Sherpas – everyone necessary to
support the summit push. Pictured here are two large supply tents. Stacked in
front are climbers’ duffels that have been sent directly to base camp. In
addition to duffels carried by porters during the trek up to the camp, the
climbers have additional duffels that contain additional gear and other
personal items they will need for the climb and in the intervening weeks.
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| Dining tents, Tiger Dome, climbers’ tents |
Unlike the terrain at Lobuche BC, the surface of the glacier
is uneven. Individual tents are pitched in areas generally designated for
personal tentage, but the surface must be leveled, and it is of course not
possible to create a uniformly flat surface on which to pitch all the tents.
Here you can see tents pitched as close together as reasonable, but on
different levels, where terrain permits.
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| Our tents |
Tents for the trekkers are set up in the same manner, though
in a slightly different area. This picture was taken after an afternoon snow
shower, and included here for dramatic effect. Do you feel dramatized? Good.
It’s pretty interesting sleeping on a glacier. At least, I
find it so, never having done it before. At irregular intervals throughout the
night, you can here deep ‘pops’ that occur as the glacier slowly makes it way
down the valley. Several times each night it is also possible to hear the sound
of avalanches and rock falls from the surrounding mountains.
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| Tiger Dome picture |
This is the fabled Tiger Dome. A place for gathering to
socialize, chill out during downtime with some television, video games, a book,
a movie, etc. I find it a relaxing place
to review photographs and draft blog entries.
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| Tiger Dome Interior |
These chairs are perfect for napping
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| Moar Tiger Dome |
This is a magic place. The kitchen at the Himex base camp.
It’s worth noting here that everything here at the camp was brought here on the
back of a live human being. Including those stoves in the center with the huge
gas burners, and the canisters of gas that power them.
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| Food Porn is produced in this tent |
For dinner, for instance, we had Lasagna, accompanied by a
green salad with a nice Asian sesame dressing.
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| Some food porn |
This a reason why one treks with Himex.
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