Being an active member of DUBBUG has all sorts of benefits including being fit enough to take on the challenges of some of the highest mountains in the world, near Everest. One of our members, ED, was lucky enough to trek through the Himalayas in Nepal with his son and see why the place has become a magnet for mountaineers.
To say the area is stunning, is an understatement. There is so much to see at every corner, with each view better than the last. Being at high altitude (up 5,500 m) requires deliberate, slow acclimatisation which gives ample opportunity to take heaps of photos.
You can enjoy the majesty of the trip by clicking here.
OK, the photos on their own might need some explanation. The trip involved a group of 16 starting at Kathmandu, catching a bus for a day to a small regional airstrip to be ready, the next day, to fly to the entrance of the Himalaya’s – namely Lukla (2,800m). This place has a pretty quirky runway. From here, there are no roads or airstrips – everything is carried.
Most times the group stayed in eco-friendly tents & ate meals in a small communal kitchen area heated by dried yak dung. At night the temperature dropped to an average -8 degrees at higher altitude.
The trek involved a loop, starting at Namche heading towards base camp of Everest, then turning up a valley beside one of the worlds largest glaciers to a series of the world’s highest freshwater lakes at Gokyo.
Climbing a small mountain (Gokyo Ri) and then crossing a mountain saddle (Renjo Pass), the return trek to Namche descends through a spectacular valley that previously connected Tibetian traders with Nepal (now closed by Chinese). The descent to Lukla and direct flight back to Kathmandu seems much easier after acclimatising.