{"id":20724,"date":"2015-04-03T17:11:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T23:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=20724"},"modified":"2015-04-05T04:16:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T10:16:44","slug":"everest-2015-trek-to-everest-base-camp-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/03\/everest-2015-trek-to-everest-base-camp-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2015: Trek to Everest Base Camp Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yaks\"<\/a>Those who have followed me for years know I always say: Do the trek to Everest Base Camp, cheap<\/a> it will change your life. Well I’m on my way for the 5th time, look<\/a> 7th if you include overall trekking in the Khumbu.<\/p>\n

As part of the Madison Mountaineering team, we are a rather large party with 12 Everest climbers, 2 Lhotse and 10 trekkers. You will probably be able to see us moving from the space shuttle as we move along!<\/p>\n

The trek will take 7 days, taking a leisurely pace between villages. Carrying on a samll day pack, our duffels are moved along with us by porters and Dzo aka Zo. This is a cross breed between a cow and a yak, some call them yattle! The females are called dzomo but I dare you to determine the difference \ud83d\ude42 In any event, Zos, Dzomo, Yas and Naks are all huge furry beasts, and I love seeing them!! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Zos do the heavy lifting until 14,000 feet when the yaks take over. My understanding is the yaks overheat at lower altitudes and the Dzos can’t handle the high altitude thus the hand-off. I’m sure you bovine experts can correct my description.<\/p>\n

We will stay in tea houses each day. They have come a long way since my fist trek here in 1997 when they heated the inside dining rooms with yak dung and it was poorly vented. This was common thus many Sherpas in the area suffered from emphysema. Today, the venting is adequate but you still hear a lot of coughing in the older people and sometimes the rooms can be smoky.<\/p>\n

We will start out trek from Lukla and follow the normal route taking 10 days to reach Base Camp:<\/p>\n