Labuche to Gorak Shep (5288m) and Everest Base Camp!

A long hard day today.  We leave Labuche at about 5am.  Another member of the group is suffering from altitude sickness and makes the decision not to continue soon after we leave Labuche.  He is quite disorientated and has a thumping headache.  Another assistant guide stays with him to descend to the previous village.

We arrive at Gorak Shep in time for breakfast and a short rest after which we set off on the rocky moraine of the Khumbu Glacier.  Two members of the group are too ill to come and stay at Gorak Shep.

The trail winds up past fascinating ice seracs which create amazing patterns.

This is a hard walk.  It is very cold and although I'm wearing ski gloves, I can hardly feel my fingers.  The thin air makes breathing difficult, but the end is in sight and I'm quite determined to make it.  I just plod up slowly putting one foot in front of the other to the song of Nelly the Elephant!

There are no climbers at EVC at this time of the year as the climbing season is in the spring.  Without any tents, it is a cold, desolate, inhospitable place.  As we arrive, it snows.  Emotions run high and we all have an amazing sense of achievement.

Our guide gives us each a Mars bar and a drink of hot chocolate as a celebration.

Of the 16 who started the trek, 12 of us got to Base Camp plus Barnaby!

We walked back to Gorak Shep in time for an early evening meal.  I am so tired that I manage about a third of a plate of spaghetti and fall into my sleeping bag at 7pm.  If I feel like this tomorrow, I will not manage to climb Kala Patar.  Wake up call is at 4.30am tomorrow....will just have to see how I feel.