Trek to Everest Base Camp: Diary Entry

Reaching 5,000 Metres Altitude

Everest Diary Entry 4:

We made it to Dingboche, which has an altitude of 4,410 metres and is widely considered to be the best acclimatisation stop for trekkers headed to Base Camp - there are no roads to the village, only trails. We had an acclimatisation climb from Dingboche up to 4,830 metres and back down, to enable us to get used to higher altitudes - staying up there for an hour to enjoy the breathtaking views of the mountains around us and unexpected areas of colourful flowers.

Most of us are starting to feel the effects of altitude sickness in varying degrees - we are all getting tired, half the group have headaches, some are starting to get muscle pain, and some can't sleep due to the altitude and lower oxygen levels making it difficult to breath easily. However - we all remain positive and are confident we will make it to Base Camp tomorrow as a team.

After our acclimatisation hike, we came back down to spend the afternoon drinking hot drinks, enjoying cakes, chatting and playing cards until dinner. We are still filling up on soup, eggs, potatoes, noodles, pasta - foods rich in carbohydrates to give us energy - and we're drinking at least 4 litres of water a day.

Today we woke up at 6.30am and hiked for around 5 hours to get to Lobuche. Lobuche is a small settlement and is one of the last overnight stops with lodging on the trail to Base Camp, sitting at 4,930 metres altitude. Once we'd settled there, we did another short hike for acclimatisation to 5,030 and back - so today was a huge milestone in that we reached 5,000 metres altitude! The hike today provided us with the most beautiful scenery yet - lots of snowcapped mountains and we even had some snow on the way.

Everest is actually busier than people might think - there are around 200 people per day going to base camp and today we saw a number of helicopters, most likely rescuing people from the higher levels of the mountain.

We stay here in Lobuche tonight, sleeping at 4,930 metres approx 150 kilometers (93miles) from Kathmandu. It's extremely cold here and the living conditions are very basic - consisting mostly of stone huts with shared bunk dorms there is no heat in the rooms and no showers.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day - we should make it to Base Camp! We leave at 4.00am and are excited to have reached the last leg of this amazing experience - confident we will all complete it together.

My colleague Valérie Mantot - Groene asked me a few questions on how important I felt ESG was as part of this trip and what I was expecting - Vlog here:

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