Nepal trip report – Everest, Gokyo and Cho La trek

Tom White

Tom is a freelance journalist and photographer based in the North East, his work has taken him across the UK as well as around the world.

tomwhitephotos.co.uk

These words are going through my head again and again as I continue to slowly make my way up and over the Cho La pass. Having set off at 5.30am we have now been walking for three hours and the top is still another hour away. We will soon be at an altitude of 5,420m, where there is about 50% of the oxygen there is at sea level, and this is having quite an effect on my ability to climb. The camera gear on my back also feels twice as heavy as it normally does, even having thinned it down as much as I could. And little did I know we would be walking for another eight hours that day.

Having returned from two weeks trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal, including Everest base camp, I emailed Tim and offered to try and write a report of the trip. He accepted and so I set about my task still enthused from the amazing time my wife and I had enjoyed. We had booked the holiday back in February so had spent most of the year looking forward to it, but at the same time having no real idea what to expect. We are both very active people; I play a lot of sport and love nothing more than walking and wild camping in the Lake District or Scotland. But neither of us had ever climbed over about 3,000m before, so had no experience of the kinds of altitude we would be hiking to.

Thanks to Tom for this trip report. Combining long, arduous walks with strict timetables is a difficult task. If you want to know more about Tom's experience or would like to give our readers a little feedback about your own experiences, please add comments below.