Lobuche to Gorakshep and to EBC base camp

This is the final day of trek to reach EBC basecamp. We started at Lobuche at around 8 o'clock. Let me first tell you what I learnt about Lobuche village. Lobuche is not only the name of the village it is the name of a mountain. In the hotel I met a girl from Tennessee who's friend that climbed Lobuche.  It is something consider before the Everest deal and perhaps also Ama Dablam, which is much more difficult than Lobuche, and yet, likely less expensive and less crowded than Mt. Everest. I would be interested to gather more information regarding this from my blog readers. 

As the morning progresses  we left behind Mt. Lobuche and essentially winded around the skirts of chain of spectacular Himalayas. We  are headed toward Gorekshep, which would be our final stop for the basecamp sumit. It was around lunchtime when we arrived Gorekshep. This little village has just a handful of hotels. We ended up checking in at Himalayan Lodge. This hotel (and other hotels too) is unfortunately in a bit low standard with respect to hygiene.  This is the farthest village from Lukla, which is where most of the goods need to be carried over. 

After a quick lunch it is the summit time. We headed toward our long-waited destination EBC basecamp. The total trek from Gorekshep to EBC was only couple of miles, however because of altitude our speed is slow and steady. If we try to walk at a normal pace we breathe heavily and eventually just cannot walk.  My Garmin showed 1383 ft of elevation gain and the highest elevation near the basecamp was 17165 ft.

This is the destination. we are super excited to take group pictures, single picture and so on. 

The T-shirt we wore is about the possibility of a start-up related to Quantum computer, I hope  someday it becomes real in some form. Our team is strong comprising several advanced degrees such as PhDs in Engineering, Computer Science and Physics, including decades of  industry giants such as Intel, Microsoft, although I'd like to keep our academics out of this blog. Here, I just want to convey that we are the Q-group.

Many fellow hikers from all over the world that we met in the trail encouraged us. A group of hikers from Bay Area was amazing. Their team has the youngest member on 60s. They made to the EBC together with us. 

After picture time, it was already late so we headed back. These beautiful pictures shows Mt. Everest is selectively illuminated golden. I wish I could sit there and watch this for another 15 minutes but the darkness will take over and will make our return to Gorekshep difficult. 

It is amazing that all four of us made to the base camp summit without any health issues. This is the bucket list of everyone. 

Perseverance, dedication and hard work was behind this journey. The friendship, team work, and unforgettable collaboration was the key to success. Our families sent us and supported through out this journey. Many thanks to them. 

The weather was perfect through out the week. We are blessed by clear sky. I will keep Mt. Everest can bee seen on my glasses. It is perfect. 

Our guide Dawa and Gyaltsen are heroes as these little boys are not only super-strong but also amicable, lovely and just awesome. Despite heavy lifting they always have smile on their face as they encounter us. They served us food in every restaurants we ate. They were alway in the front and back with us during the trek. Many thanks to them

Thanks so much for reading this blog. I appreciate constructive comments and hope some of these blurb is useful to you. I hope this blurb gave you some idea of how our journey was like. 

Nov 19, 2025

Dingbohe to Lobuche

Dingboche to Lobuche was a 5 mile long trek, along with 2189 of elevation gain. It launched us from about 1500 ft to well above 1600 ft high. Staying at new Everest hotel at below freezing cold Lobuche, I cannot believe my garmine shows 16,183 ft. This is the highest elevation this watch has ever seen and so I. 

Our trek started at around 8:40 am, with a steep uphill crossing a few stupas, slowing leaving behind Ama Dablam. There were so many people on the trail and also there are several trails. We encountered a herd of yippis -- clafs of Yaks. We asked didi about their behavior as they were so cute. She said they go to grazing and also they drink breast milk from their mom. There were cutest little furry but quite strong animals that I have ever seen. I say this because they can so comfortably climb up the hill for grazing.  

Kul insisted taking a shorter trails, however two of us ended up taking slightly wrong direction. Mahesh and Puru sir were right, this time.  Nevertheless we were able to neviagate back to the main trails. We passed by a small town Pheriche, not right through, but from a distance. This is likely the village we will be staying on our way back. 

Today there were so many horses passed by us. They were offering 50$ ride to Gorekshep, which is apparently half the regular price. 

The most amazing part of this hike was we are slowly leaving behind Ama Dablam and getting closer to Mt. Everest, and also Lhotse is getting further away. This way we can get Mt. Everest uniquely on our field of view toward north east. It is quite amazing to witness himalays in all 4 direction, which is something I have never experienced before. 

 

In about 4 hour we arrived at our lunch place, which is a small town of Thukla. We had mushroom soup and simple dal, bhat, tarkari. The sitting was outdoor on the sun. It was so nice. After the lunch we had a pretty steep climb of Thukla ahead of us. This is brutle hike but as short as about 45 minutes. 

 

After we passed Thukla climb, much of the uphill for today is behind us. We took 15 mintue rest and there were so many other trekers. Dawa and Gyalsten were playing Nepali song lod in their speaker so we could not stop from dancing. It is an incredible experience that I can dance only about 1 minute, because of the high altitude otherwise I am not the person to get easily tired from dancing. I will be posting some of our dances in my TikTok with @cute40.

Nov 18, 2025

 

Pangboche to Dingboche

Our Pangboche experience was good. I we met Dorjee, who has climbed Mt. Everest 24 times and is very energetic.  We discussed the challenges of climbing the Everest and other mountains in the area.  I expressed my interest to climb the Everest. Given my experience on running marathon, he suggested me to run Mt. Everest marathon, which is to be held every 29th May, marking Hilari's Everest summit day. 

The food service at Shree-dewa Lodge (ph no, 9841178671) did not meet (to be honest) our expectation as Kheer was more like Lito, but the little girl, the server, Maya was lovely. I jokingly told her that I have a 19 years old son and I could bring her to USA, and maybe he can get married with. She knotted that she would go. I gave her 500 rupee, off of the entire 33K bill, so she could have it for her personal use, and we headed toward Dingboche, to continue our journey to the Everest.  

Our hike started with many passovers with donkeys and yaks, similar to other days. We know that every step brings us closer to the Mt. Everest. We enjoy periodic suspension bridge over the Sheti river. We need to make sure we do not encounter donkeys on the bridge. They seem to be doing pretty good to ignore us.  

The Mt. Amma Dablam stands tall and it gives us a slightly different look as we hike for a few hours. Here is our group picture, where our back is illuminated by the morning reflection from it. I learned the meaning of Amma Dablam as the mother and son, with the son being on mother's lap. This information came from local sherpa.

In just about 4 or 5 hours we arrived a beautiful village, Dingboche. It looks similar to Namche Bajar but smaller in size. It seems to have many lodging and dinning options. We stayed at Tasha Dilek, which is a pretty high profile lodging place, selling at 5,000 Rs per room per night. The have hot shower, which we enjoyed, and also its restaurant is kept warm and cozy. We drank sherpa tea, ginger soup, Thupa, and the other day vegiterian dal bhat. 

Kul and Mahesh are resting in their south facing room. Puru sir and I got east facing room so not so warm afternoon for us. We kept sneaking into their room for the warmth. Next day morning, our room had the best view of the sunrise. Puru sir and I sang song -- Bihana uthne bittikai Himal dekhna payiyosh, yee hat le sadhai nepal lekhna payiyos. Both of us are retired principals of Nepali Bhasa class that teaches about 100 Bay Area students. Although because of higher education and related opportunities we are in USA for a long time now, we are serving Nepali community whenever and however we can. During our trek, we talked about ways to strengthen the school both near and longer terms.

In the morning, after breakfast we did our acclimatization hike. We hiked up to about 5,000 ft and came back down to the hotel. The hotel is at 4, 212 ft, according to my Garmin. The hike strenuous but was only about 4 hours. We had unique view of Ama Dablam, had nice chat with other hikers. There is a group of older women from Bay Area we encounter almost every day. The youngest hiker in their group is on their 60s. They are slow but persistent. I say we are a bit faster, but without a consistent pace, especially me, pointed out by a fellow hiker. 

It is amazing what the sun can do in terms of heating up the freezing cold morning. The water around us, such as at trenches etc. are all frozen, but as soon as we hiked up a couple of miles, we feel warm and  take layers off one by one. 

Here is me adding my contributions to the pile of rocks, I call them dippu. I should probably ask our tour guide if it has deeper meaning because we see them everywhere. 

Tomorrow's treak is from Dingboche to Lobuche, looking forward to get closer to the destination. The main worry is the altitude sickness. So far we are doing fine. I am messing 90 to 95 percent oxygen level on my gamin, and hope to keep it that way as we have to gain about 1,500 feet, compared to Dingboche. 

Nov 17, 2025

Namche bazar to Pangboche

Namche bazar to Pangboche is a strenuous long hike because of uphill. My Garmin showed more than 9 mile of distance, along with about 3471 ft of elevation gain and about 1900 ft of elevation loss. That is incredible.

We started from Namche at around 8 am, and we were challenged by almost straight up incline to the Everest view hotel area (the areas we came yesterday for acclimatization). Then we had a fairly flat and somewhat inclined few hours of hike. Subsequently, we encountered  the view of small towns, including standing tall Tengboche village. The hike was like winding up, and quickly winding down, multiple times on the suspension bridge over the to the Dutha Koshi. The sound of the rapidly flowing water from the deep down is remarkable and breathtaking. 

We were told that the hardest part of today's hike is the final stretch to get to Tengboche. In order to prepare, we had heavy lunch (dal, bhat, tarkari) at Phunki Thengha. Well before noon, we started the hardest climb. On the way up on the side, we spotted Daphe, the national bird of Nepal. It was so cool to have his unique experience. The jungle was filled with Laligurash (Rhododentram). I wonder when they bloom how it looks like. 

At around 3 o'clock we arrived at Tengboche, which had the majestic view of Mt. Everest, Lhoste, and Ama Lalam. Puru sir and I spent so much time to take pictures and we had so far the best chiya in the hotel next to Gumba. It was possible that the taste of chiya had some thing to do with how tired we were. On the other hand, Mahesh jee and Kul were further away we did not even see their trace. The only time we were all together was during lunch. 

Then, we had another about 3 hours of hike that was in principle not so difficult but this was when we were so tired. At around 4 o'clock we seem to get closer to Pangboche. Then we stated to see some very interesting wildlife. There were a herd of Jharal, a type of animal I have never seen. It had beautiful horns, and the animal is slightly bigger than large goats.  Then, we saw several yaks grazing on the hill. It is amazing that these animal can walk in such inclined area. 

At around 4:30 we arrived lower Pangboche, where we are staying. The name of hotel is NewDewa. I had hot shower, probably the last shower for the trip to base camp, but let's see. 

Nov 15, 2025

Phakding to Namche Bazar

 We started our trek at around 8 am. The trail was surprisingly crowded, not only with trekkers but also with mules and horses carrying goods.  I spoke with many trekkers, who were from all over the places such as a group from Portugal, a group from Bay Area, California, a small group from Wyoming, as well as a few from Brazil, Switzerland. It is really an international trek. Local sherpas and other folks are mainly porters, guides, and some taking care of mules. 

The way these mule transport things is really amazing. I had not imagined something of this magnitude is even possible. 

There were several suspension bridges over the Dutha koshi that we go over and over. The bridges are narrow so mules and trekkers must take their turns. It seemed the trail is well-shared and the communication between trekkers and mules also seems quite natural. 

The hike was fairly modest for about 3 hours until we arrived Jorsele, where we had lunch. After that, it was several hours of crazy uphill all the way to Namche Bazar. We passed the entrance of the Sagarmatha national park, where everyone had to register. Neplai pay 100 Rs and foreigners pay 3000 Rs. 

The uphill was quite exhausting but at around 4 pm we started seeing glimpses of Namche Bazar. This view was absolutely satisfying and gorgeous. As the sun was pretty low in the horizon at this time, Himalayas were glowing. 

I started asking questions to myself about how this city was built. There is no road access to it but there are beautiful houses and hotels. The lifestyle here seems self-complete. You can buy almost anything, and the vibe is similar to that in Thamel. About 70 percent of people seem like visitors. 

We stayed in Khumbu Lodge. It had hot shower and heated bed, both of which we enjoyed. The fun part was that the next day was our acclimatization day. In the morning, we walked to Everest view hotel area, which is about 12000 ft. We show two helipads,  actively used by helicopters. It was fun to take pictures in front of them. 

Regardless of how you arrive the view of the Himalayas is spectacular, which includes the view of Mt. Everest and Ama Deblum. We got some ideas of rest of our trekking routes, for another several days. 

Nov 14, 2025

Manthali to Lukla and to Phakding

Getting into a flight from Manthali to Lukla is a whole new level of adventure filled with anxiety, uncertainty, and excitement. Our flight was scheduled for 7:30 am but it turns out that the time does not mean much as all flights are subject to the weather. Nevertheless we arrived at the airport at around 7 am along with our trekking luggages. The picture shows our excitement. There was quite a bit of  low hanging fog in the sky but the rising sun started burning it off quickly.  The runway at the airport started to become visible and subsequently also the hills started to become clear.  

Despite the weather was clear no plane landed until well after 9 o'clock. They weighed our check-in as well as our carry-on bags. They were over weight so we had to pay some extra. The extra rate was 130 Rs per kg. 

Tara air started landing and taking some passenger but our Sumit air did not show any sign until around 10 am. While we were waiting we enjoyed call-break. It was so much fun that when the plan arrived, at around 10:30, they had to call us. In the waiting room it was just four of us with a couple more passengers. Finally, we were on the board probably some time in the 11 o'clock hour. 

The flight was insane, no word can describe the beauty of Himalayas and at the same time how scary the flight felt like. It is a small plane with only four of us as passengers, one staff member and probably one pilot (we did not see the pilot). It takes off so fast, and ploughs through Himalayas in about 25 minutes we see the runway of Lukla airport. 

There is not much of descending, but it is more like a huge bid taking off to the sky and landing comfortably on a tree branch. My watch showed 9 thousand feet. 

After we landed we were quickly off the plane and out with our luggages in less than 5 minutes. Our porters were right there. These two 19 years old kids (Dawa and Gaylsten) are smart and strong. The carried everything off with no complain and we were headed for lunch. 

After lunch, we started our first day of trek. It was 2 pm when we started. The trail goes a bit down hill and then somewhat up. There are so many khacchads (donkeys) and so many people on the trail, some are heading back from their trip and some are starting, just like us. First, our guides said we were walking a bit too slow and it might be late when we arrive Phakding. However, we picked up our pace, and with about three and half hours of hike we arrived Phakding. 

We arrived at Sonam Guest house. They greeted us with Chiya. Later at the evening, the amount of dal, bhat, tarkari we were able to eat was insane, definitely three times the regular amount. Not sure why such a simple food tasted so good this night and we are headed to our bedrooms. The night is so cold, we are sleeping with jackets on, underneath thick blanket. 

https://www.facebook.com/p/Sonam-Guest-House-100079883084388/

I am sure the up comings days and night are much colder as we progress higher in altitude. 

Nov 12, 2025

 

Kathmandu arrival and roadtrip to Manthali, Ramechhap

 

Our arrival in Kathmandu kicked off with a roof-top breakfast in a luxury hotel, Hotel Barahi, Lazimpat. The view in the picture includes Narayanhiti Rajdarbar as the rest of Kathmandu is just waking up.  It is nice to be back to the crowded gallis accompanied with crazy non-stop traffic, pip-pip and pop-pops of traxis and motorbikes, and just lively Kathmandu that wakes up every morning just like this. 

Our roadtrip to Manthanli was freaking awesome. It took about two hours just to get out from the crowded city, but as soon as we passed Dhulikhel area the view included gorgeous Himalayas. After few hours of drive, we had about 13 km of the road that is almost completely damaged by the recent flood. The vehicles essentially are driven off the road and on the grabble and often on the water. The scary part was that the road is so windy and narrow, and the road largely supports just one sided traffic.  This picture shows the other side of the traffic, the one that is incoming to us so we had to stop to let them go.

This one of the first pictures our full team, which now includes Mehesh jee.  

Our driver Sabin should be thanked from this difficult drive and also for taking my picture along side of his vehicle. 

This is the resort we stopped by for Chiya and Khaja --Quality resort. In the picture, we can see one of the best views of the actual windy roads on the hills. 

We encountered a bunch of school kids returning from their school. They are walking off-the-road and on literally on the Khola. They look innocent and cute, which reminded me of my own school life. 

Manthali welcomed us at around 7 pm. Kul and I went to a hair salon that was next to our hotel . The rate was only 150 rupees and we gave him 300 rupees per person. It was insanely cheap but remarkably good service.  Shown in the picture is Kul being hair-dressed.  

Finally, we were served dal bhat tarkari. Afterward, as we were 4, perfect for our call-break card game. We played two games, but I lost on both. Looking forward to a better luck on the coming days toward EBC. 

Nov 11, 2025

In-the-flight from SFO

We had a 3 pm flight scheduled from San Francisco airport (SFO) so I arrived at the airport at 12:15 pm. My wife Jyoti dropped me off nicely right at the door way of Qatar Airways.  I had to wait a little bit for my other two buddies, Kul and Puru sir, so we can check-in our flights together. Everyone was there within about 15 minutes. It was really fun to have three of us arrive at the airpot, for the beginning of this remarkable adventure.   

We had some unexpected hassle during the check in process because one of my two check-in, as well as one of Kul's check-in were over-weight. After the re-adjustment of some of the stuff  to the other bags, everything was fine. In the picture, Puru sir is actively helping me to do what we called open heart surgery of our luggages. Many thanks to him. 

Because of the long line and our baggage issues it took long to finish the check in. It was good thing that we had plenty of time. Then, we headed to the security check point and the rest of the process was super-smooth. We even had some spare time before the flight so sit down for lunch. It was the home lunch sent by Jyoti, which included haluwa and paratha. Some of you know haluwa is my favorite food. 

Also, at that point we quickly had some adventure, first I forgot to pick up my phone from the tray at the TSA security check point, for which I had to go back from the lunch point. The TSA agent was super-nice, he said he did not like the color of my phone, as it is orange and its case is super bright. I told him it was not my choice (Jyoti bought two identical phones of her choice color, no complain) so he laughed, and gave the phone to me. My buddy Kul followed me back to the security point from the lunch point was I was not stranded without any phone. Many thanks to him. 

Nov 8, 2025

Finally packing for the EBC trek despite some setbacks

Our first attempt of EBC was intercepted due to an unexpected political situation development in Nepal, attributed to the Gen-z movement. The situation quickly became extremely dangerous as many major government infrastructure such as parliamentary building, judicial centers, and even individual houses, and hotels were set on fire. The international airport in Kathmandu was also closed for several days.

 Now that things have more or less settled, we revived our plane tickets. Tomorrow 3 pm is our flight from San Francisco so I am finalizing by packing today. 

What to pack for such a long trek? I have been collecting things such as appropriate hiking gears including marino wool base layers, mid layers, and sucks and other items over several days. Now have them spread in my patio room. This way, I am hoping that I get the sense of what might be missing. 

I shared these pictures with my buddies and they made several suggestions.  I decided to use Solomon as my hiking boots. They are pretty new and I have broken them down by about 15 miles or so. For a back up I am brining a pair of running Hokas.

The fun fact of my packing is that I have a wireless speaker and a selfie stick, in addition to the normal stuff. I hope to enjoy music not just during the hike but also in evenings, on the streets, and such. I have done day long hikes but it is the first time I am doing two weeks long trek. It better have good food and good music. 

Based on the advice from by one of my buddies I got a few small compartments so I can categorize things. The picture shows four red color compartment boxes. I name them High, Medium, and Low compartments. High box has things I would need for highest elevation areas such as at Gorekshep, the medium box would have things for around medium elevation areas such as Namche Bajar, and the low compartment is mix of clothings.  As we go up it gets really cold so I have chosen my cloths accordingly. 

Also, I have a separate 4th compartment for under garments only.  I am hoping that I do not need to shuffle through everything when I need one item. 

We have a porter that will carry about 15 kg of my stuff so it will hopefully be easy to give him separate compartments if needed. I have packed my trekking bag inside the suitcase for now.

Almost everything fits inside a medium size suitcase, except the hiking poles are a bit too long. I will probably have to take this one either separately or in the another suitcase that is a bit longer. The other suitcase has items not related to hiking. It is around 4:30 pm now, I finished most of my packing. The suitcase weighs about 15kg. 

Thanks for reading my blurb about packing for the EBC.

Friday, Nov 7, 2025