IMG Everest Base Camp Tour

Since there's no climbing in our immediate future, I thought it may be interesting to share more details related to our base camp.  After being here for a while, I realize that we've got quite a spread.  Here's the big picture look from the expedition leader's communications tent.

Greg Vernovage is our expedition leader.  He shares the big tent on the hill with Ang Jangbu, our Sherpa leader.  The front of their tent houses all of the communications equipment, computers, radios, etc. required for keeping tabs on all of the climbers, the weather and the outside world.

Besides hanging out in our individual tents, we spend quite a bit of time in the dining tent.  Meals are a good time for us to get together, pick on each other and generally mess around.  We usually hang around well past the end of the meal telling stories, getting weather updates and discussing the next phase of our climb.

Across from the dining tent is the cook tent.  Khagi Sherpa is the head cook and does an amazing job considering his available supplies.  It's a continuous challenge to eat enough calories to compensate for keeping warm all day besides normal body functions.  This situation is further complicated by a general lack of appetite when living at high elevations.  On climbing days, it's impossible to eat enough and the body consumes itself.  Most of us have lost 10% of our body weight by now and some even more.

On most evenings, we have "movie night".  Moe has a long list of movies on his computer and IMG has supplied a projector for the purpose.  This activity takes place in the charging tent which is an heavy duty army surplus tent equipped with a solar powered battery and inverter system with backup generator.  This is where we can charge our electronics, boot heaters, etc. as well as getting together in the evenings.  The movie provides a couple hours of escapism where we can forget our surroundings and enjoy simple entertainment.

Upon returning from a rotation on the mountain, most of us feel tired, hungry and generally dirty.  The first order of business is often taking care of the later with a warm shower.  The mental restorative benefits from getting clean right away are pretty amazing.  It's a quick way to improve your mood after descending through the Khumbu Icefall.  

After the shower and probably a snack or meal is laundry time.  As previously described, this is a manual process using a 5 gallon bucket, plastic plunger and hand wringer.  It feels pretty archaic but the result is a pile of clean clothes which also improves the mood and the smell of one's tent.

The last facility of note is our restroom.  Really, it's an impressive stone throne with a comfortable seat and sheltered by a nylon tent.  What more could an intrepid climber ask for?  It's actually quite posh when compared to the higher camps, especially the previously described perilous setup at camp 3.

Hopefully those descriptions help give you a feel for our home away from home.

Namaste