Julie & Chris' Asian Adventures: Everest Base Camp Trek Day 10

Despite my sleepless night, I felt fine in the morning, if not a bit dazed. Our friend Edgar, however, was in very poor shape and felt terrible. We tried to convince him to go back down and enticed him by saying we would accompany him in the descent, but he didn’t want to give up so close to the top. It was decided to bring him to the doctor and wait to hear the verdict. Shockingly, the doctor advised him to go up after taking his oxygen level and blood pressure, despite his deteriorating condition for the past 5 days. We weren’t happy with the outcome but our friend was a grown man and he could make his own decisions. We ate our breakfast, packed our bags and departed.

On the way to Gorak Shep!

The trail went up nice and slowly. My pace was a bit slower than the group and I started to fall behind. About half way through I started seeing black spots and despite slowing down as much as possible, I had to sit down and rest. I felt really weak because of the sleepless night. It was worrying since the 5 boys were ahead of me. I felt scared and helpless but I knew I couldn’t keep going although I did try to catch them up at some point which left me even more tired. Finally, my companions noticed my absence and weren’t sure whether I was ahead or behind them. Chris walked ahead and Manu walked backwards to look for me. When I saw Manu walk back for me, I had tears in my eyes for two reasons. First I was upset that it wasn’t Chris coming back from me, second I was relieved they hadn’t forgot about me! I explained to him that I had to slow down since I was feeling dizzy and seeing spots. Without further discussion, Manuel grabbed my bag from me. A dozen of minutes later, I arrived at the spot where my group was waiting for me and understood that Chris had been looking for me ahead. They encouraged me to start taking Diamox so at 10am that day I started the AMS pills. Eric carried my bag from then on since he had the smallest pack of the group. I was very lucky to have the boys helping me out!

Amazing pools in the glacier

Difficult terrain - Water break!

We made it to Gorak Shep an hour later, at 5200 meters. This would be our final destination before ascending to the base camp. I felt completely exhausted and had an acute headache. I immediately took 2 Advils (ibuprofen) for the pain and ordered a garlic soup for the AMS symptoms since garlic is supposed to help in high altitude. After the food, I went straight to bed and luckily, I was able to fall asleep and take a well-needed nap. I re-emerged at 3pm and felt like a new woman, re-energised and thankfully feeling much better! From my bed, I peeked out the window and saw tiny snowflakes falling from the sky – how exciting!

Blizzard in Gorak Shep

I joined the boys in the dining room and Eric had made a thrilling discovery: the guesthouse held some boxes of Kraft Dinner macaroni and cheese!!! Only him and I felt the excitement (being American and Canadian) and our friends watched us with amusement while we devoured our bowls of bright orange noodles! The best 5 dollars I spent on this trek! As the day came to an end, we were treated to a beautiful pink sunset as the snow started falling heavier. After 3 hours of heavy snow, rumours of ‘being stuck’ in Gorak Shep for up to three days starting circling the guesthouse. We chatted with two Dutch men who had done the EBC trek last year at the same time and got snowed in Lobuche which halted their trek before the end. They were determined not to let this happen again a second time! We had a pleasant evening chatting with fellow trekkers, playing cards and eating mountains of Daal Bhat!