Everest Base camp

April 20th
Lobuche-Gorakshep
Gorakshep-Everest Base Camp-Gorakshep

I didn't have as romantic a time at base camp as hoped. I was disappointed, I thought I'd spend all day talking to everyone at the camp, but as it was I was feeling tired. We'd already hiked from Lobuche to Gorakshep which took at least a few hours and then after less than an hour break we started the 2.5 hr hike from Gorakshep to base camp, so altogether we hiked for around 6-7 hours at the highest altitudes we've ever hiked. Base-camp is a maze of tents set up in no particular order. We walked through half of the camp looking for the Canadian West team that apparently existed but we couldn't find it. We met some girls, one from USA and one from New Zealand who were doing research on how altitude affected the brains of the climbers and they got to stay at base camp for 7 weeks. Lucky girls, I am incredibly envious. If I come to base camp again I want to stay there for at least a few days instead of 1 hour. Base camp is at the bottom of this glacier and the ground is actually melting ice, gravel and rocks. There is a river that flows through the center of the tents separating each city of tents. I thought that there would be snow everywhere and maybe a blizzard outside but it was a bright sunny day walking on melting ice. I figured that I'd be invited from tent to tent walking through the blizzard, sharing stories and life, sipping on hot chocolate hour after hour. What really happened it that there were no flags put up to identify countries since the Olympic Torch is being brought to Everest, also, Nepal is scared of "Free Tibet," flags being put up so we never did find the Canadian team that we were looking for. Strange enough, the only flag that we saw flying was the American flag. Well, we never did end up finding the Canada-West team like we wanted to, I did talk to a man from Calgary though who had just come back from Camp 2, but didn't talk to him long. As well, I met a Vietnamese boy who was not a climber but a good looker. He spoke some english so we chatted for a few minutes. He said that he climbs mountains in Vietnam and applied for his job in response to an ad in a newspaper. Lhakpa was visiting with the Vietnamese team since one of them was her co-worker. I walked back from Gorak Shep with Sarah and Renata but started to feel sick 3/4 of the way through and was just following their feet by the end, leaning on my walking stick and trying to ignore the fact that my head was throbbing with pain.