Lobuche Base Camp to Everest Base Camp

On Friday the 7th, we left Lobuche base camp heading for Everest base camp.  This will give us a chance to acclimatize at over 17,000 ft before coming back down to climb Lobuche peak.  It was a good 6 hour trek with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain and we felt it.

Coming over a hill outside of Gorak Shep, we got our first good view of base camp.  It's a sprawling affair with teams from all over the world.  International Mountain Guides has a great spot and already there are 40 or more tents set up, including those for cooking, dining, etc.

Saturday the 8th was a rest and recovery day.  We had a chance to take a hot shower which was fantastic.  We also did some laundry and got organized.

Sunday the 9th was a great day.  We had a Puja ceremony in the morning with the entire team.  This is a blessing ceremony for our camp, gear and for a safe climbing season.  We had a lama present and the entire thing took over two hours with chanting, singing and dancing.  Everyone was in such a great mood afterwards and we could tell this was a very special day.

After the Puja, we had some lunch and then did some ice climbing and repelling.  It felt good to work the rust off our crampons and get on a rope.  We did some arm wrap repelling and traditional steep repelling after the climbs.

It's Monday the 10th and we're heading back down to Lobuche base camp to prepare for our climb.  Hopefully all will go according to plan.

Namaste