Disappointment Base Camp (Everest - Part 8)

Never meet your heroes sometimes applies to locales as well.

Today marks an easier day as an in-and-out to Everest Base Camp. It may only be easier in comparison to what I've been through so far, but I welcome the flatter terrain.

Having felt the dark side, I'm now on that Sorochi (elevation pills) juice. The heart rate and breathing struggles still persist, but the lack of a headache helps my perspective and mood ever so slightly. The temperature actually gets up to double digits Farenheit today, which alone is a cause for celebration.

This is the most popular segment of the region, so it's not just trekkers and travelers on the trail, but tourists as well. I make that distinction here specifically.

Throngs of people with zero spatial or auditory awareness, outfitted in brand new trekking gear head to toe, portable boom boxes on full blast.

At least those are the ones who respect putting in effort to reach their destination. Then there's the butterballs - undoubtedly too poor for a helicopter tour but too lazy otherwise - who could put Weight Watchers back in business, sitting on horses who are clearly neglected, malnourished, cold, and suffering. There's a reason the yaks endemic to this region are so hairy.

Once you escape the occasional human traffic jam, the trail is relatively quiet - except for the helicopters ferrying people and supplies back and forth, again showing that few places are sacred anymore.

My mood here was unexpectedly foul - the worst of this entire trip. For 2 hours from Gorakshep you walk along the Khumbu glacier - or at least what's left of it.

I was just 8 years too late to see it in it's full glory, as it's now pathetically small patchy blocks of ice amidst what looks like a granite quarry.