Mt. Everest Reflections, the best and worst day of my life

From Everest Trek Part 2

It's been a few days now since I finished the trek to Everest. Looking back I can say it was one of the most important moments of my life to be able to make it to Base Camp. I can't really describe what I was feeling. I was just overjoyed and felt blessed to be able to be there, in my mind at Mother's feet. All along the trek we had met a lot of people who had to turn back the other way whether it be because they got altitude sickness or because it was just too tough for them. We had seen rescue helicopters nearly every day, and that was a little bit unnerving to us. We had a lot of doubts of whether we could make it without getting sick. Dave had a lot of headaches, I felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded. We were both exhausted, dirty, and cold. But, we knew that one day we'd look back at that trek from a comfortable place, and we'd be extremely disappointed if we hadn't put our best efforts to achieve our goal.
My original goal was more Kala Patthar than Everest Base Camp. Kala Patthar is a 18,200 foot mountain rising above the village of Gorak Shep that has the best views of Everest in Nepal. Base Camp as I'd heard didn't have any views of Everest, and was basically full of trash. So, in my mind I thought that I'd rather have great views of Everest than be able to say I went to Base Camp. We did do both, but how unexpected it was to feel what I felt when we reached Base Camp. Being able to actually touch Everest was a spiritual moment for me. Going back to the village from Base Camp, I would have been completely satisfied if I didn't go up to Kala Patthar and see the great views we had heard so much about. We had spent so much time in Base Camp, that the sun had begun to set. We were the last ones there. I think we spent about an hour and a half there. Time just flew by. We trekked back in near pitch black. What had just been the best day of my life, soon became the worst. We had been hiking for 10 hours at this point, longer than any day we had hiked so far, and we were at the highest altitude we had ever been to. There was no trail like I mentioned before, it was cold and dark. I was so tired that I felt like I was drunk. I was stumbling down rocks, and I could barely keep my balance. It was as if my body was saying 'Enough, I can't do anymore.' Not only that, we had to do some climbing to get back to the village. It's not just a straight climb up to Base Camp, it's a series of ups and downs. On every uphill, me and Dave struggled. We would sit down to rest, taking long gasps of air. We tried to motivate each other to continue. Dave kept telling me the village was right around the corner. But it wasn't. How many corners it took us! At one point, I just sat down and said I'm going to camp here. I can't make it. But, I heard Anju's voice and my Dad's voice telling me to keep going. So we did. Somehow we made it back without using any headlamp at all. I became real adept at making out the shapes of the rocks with just moonlight (Viv, your eyes really do adjust to night vision, haha!). After 12 hours of hiking, we had finally made it back to our room. We promised to never do that again (little did we know our guide would do this to us again the very next day). But, it was worth it, even though at some points along the way down I was seriously questioning if I could make it.
We were both so exhausted, we highly doubted we could do Kala Patthar the next morning. But the next morning I woke up, and with my limited memory of the pain the night before, I stupidly said "Let's do Kala Patthar." Kala Patthar just about finished me off. It was the steepest incline of the entire trek, and it was at 18,000 feet. Perfect. Exactly what we needed after a day trekking for 12 hours. I don't know how I made it up Kala Patthar. After every few steps I would run out of air, and keel over gasping for breath. But, we actually made good progress. We made it up in 1 hour and 45 minutes! Pretty fast, considering the circumstances. The view from Kala Patthar was just incredible. The panorama of the highest peaks in the world surrounding made me realize how unimportant we are in the scale of the cosmos. These mountains had been around for millions of years, and they'd continue to be around long after I'm gone. I cherished that moment, for it would be the last clear view of the ever elusive Everest.
We weren't done though. We still had 5 hours of hiking left for us that day. And we ended up trekking in blackness again. Yes, coming down is a lot faster, but you still have to cover all that ground you made going up. We made it to Dingboche at 7 pm. That day we went from 18,200 feet to 14,800 ft in one day. I think the end of that day was the moment we had had enough of the Himalayas and just wanted to be a part of civilization.

Anyway, I'll write more later. Here is the proof of me making it to Everest ;).

Everest Trek Part 2