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10 life lessons from my hike to Everest Base Camp
I’m sitting at Kathmandu airport waiting to board my flight to Istanbul, where I will transfer for my flight to Prague. For the past two and a half weeks, I’ve been in Nepal, during which time I spent two weeks hiking a loop to Everest Base Camp and back via Cho La Pass.
The Data: We hiked for 14 days, including two acclimatization days. We hiked 145.7 km, an average of 10.4 km per day. We hiked for 71,6 hrs, an average of 5.1 hrs per day (I paused during breaks). Our ascent meters were 9624 total, which is 687,43 meters per day (including two acclamation days)
Our paths were challenging, to say the least.
The trails are often narrow, full of steps (if you’re lucky), gravel, big rocks, small rocks, ice, yaks, horses, donkeys, porters with merchandise, and sometimes complete parts of houses on their backs.
I’m not kidding. Hiking in Nepal is not a walk in the park, as some people tend to believe looking at their equipment and physical condition. I invested in good shoes and clothing and did some running and walking training. But doing that in London on flat surfaces is not the same.
It took me a few days to get used to the altitude, the terrain, and the vertical meters up and down. My second day was a day of torture. I felt sick…
