 |
Sipping on a cup of tea in a quaint hotel overlooking the
Himalayan village of Namche Bazaar, Pasang Sherpa suddenly felt his table
vibrate. At first, he didn’t think much of it since he grew up in the
region that’s accustomed to small earthquakes every year. But then the shaking
intensified into something he’s never felt before.
Within a few seconds, glasses were crashing onto the floor
and furniture started moving around the small dining room. Fearing the worst,
Sherpa quickly ushered his group of 10 hikers outside where they held onto
chairs, watching stone fences and part of the hotel crackle and collapse in the
dense fog.
“Within a minute, everything was collapsing. Even the tops
of the trees were swinging and touching the ground,” said Sherpa, noting
earthquakes in Nepal’s Khumbu region usually have a magnitude five. “It’s
really scary. We couldn’t see anything because of the bad weather and we were
on top of a hill so I thought maybe there would be a landslide.”
Once the shaking ended, the group bolted to safety in the
open space of the nearby Syangbuche airport, where they hunkered down for the
next three hours, enduring continuous aftershocks every minute or so.
Eventually they made the hour-long hike back down to the chaos unfolding in
Namche, where the bulk of buildings were damaged and some were completely
destroyed. Cries for help echoed throughout the air.
Feeling uncomfortable staying indoors, the group pulled
mattresses from their hotel and placed them under plastic sheets to make a tent.
It’s where they’d spend the next three days experiencing at least 60 more
aftershocks following the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake that claimed the
lives of 22 people at Everest Base Camp and three others in the region.
Approximately 9,000 lives were lost across the country and nearly 18,000 people
were injured, marking the deadliest earthquake in Nepal’s history.
“I felt so sad and very scared. I’ve never seen this kind of
disaster before,” said Sherpa about his trek through the damaged villages on
the way back to Lukla — the start of the 65-kilometre journey to Everest Base
Camp.
“I was very scared of another disaster happening.”
It’s been two years since the deadly earthquake rocked
Nepal, but it still weighed heavily on my mind when a few friends and I signed
up for the 12-day hike to Everest Base Camp with G Adventures. Images of people
sifting through the rubble of crumpled buildings, desperately searching for
bodies of their loved ones was difficult to forget. My parents also worried
about me travelling to Nepal, but the country had been calling my name for
years and I knew they needed tourists more than ever.
Following a nerve-wracking flight from Kathmandu to Lukla,
where one end of the runway is 60 metres higher than the other, the first few
days are spent following the lively Dudh Kosi river, passing through sleepy
Sherpa villages that consist of small crops, a handful of fragile-looking stone
homes, guesthouses and the odd shop selling water, snacks and an assortment of
hiking gear.
A strong walker, pre-acclimatized to the altitude, could
cover the distance in two or three days, but most bodies need time to adapt to
the increasingly thin air.
I spin large Buddhist prayer wheels to purify my soul, walk
clockwise past other shrines and mani stones carved with Buddhist inscriptions
along the trail, and cross several bouncy suspension bridges draped with
colourful prayer flags blowing in the cool breeze. (The locals hope the prayers
will reach their protective gods.)
The Khumbu culture has transformed dramatically over the
years thanks to tourism dollars and grants from international relief
organizations to fund schools and medical clinics, build footbridges and bring
hydroelectric power to some villages. Local life, however, is still intriguing
in such a remote, unforgiving landscape that transforms from dwarf birch, blue
pine and rhododendron forests into a magical world of alpine meadows dotted
with giant boulders and summer yak pastures encompassed by dramatic snow-capped
mountain peaks; Everest and Ama Dablam the most spectacular among them.
 |
| A hiker soaks in the views of Ama Dablam. |
It’s not just a hike through the highest mountains in the
world; it’s a spiritual journey through another culture that pushes me out of
my comfort zone the further I venture into remote, high-altitude areas. Caught
up in the simple joy of walking through an exotic country, a wave of excitement
ripples through my body whenever I catch a glimpse of Everest’s mighty peak
blazing a trail of blowing snow.
At times, the chilly nights spent shivering in my unheated
rooms and the never-ending string of illnesses plaguing my travelling
companions is hard to take, but it’s nothing compared to what the Nepalese
people have had to endure.
Signs of the earthquake still haunt many villages where new
homes have been built beside damaged ones and construction continues to take
place. About 45 per cent of the region was completely damaged and 25 per cent
suffered minor damage from the violent shaking that erupted on April 25, 2015.
According to Sherpa, rebuilding the Everest region was a
priority since about 90 per cent of its people depend on tourism (one tourist
provides 16 people with job opportunities) and the trek to base camp is one of
the most popular in Nepal. Tours were once again operating within five months,
but the tourists weren’t there.
 |
Two years later, however, there are more tourists than ever,
making it difficult to find accommodation along the busy trail packed with a
steady stream of international hikers, hardy porters carrying giant loads,
caravans of mules and yaks with jingling bells around their necks, and locals
going about their daily routine as helicopters frequently buzz overhead.
After eight days of slow and steady hiking to an altitude of
5,300 metres (17,500 feet) that often leaves me light-headed and breathless,
I’m filled with tremendous excitement, disbelief and relief heading into
Everest Base Camp with the parade of hikers on the unsettled trail of rocks
along the mighty 12-km Khumbu Glacier — the highest glacier in the world. It’s
the moment we’ve all been waiting for; the moment we can cry, hug, give
high-fives, and wave our country’s flag while bursting with overwhelming pride.
 |
| Megan Long hangs a prayer flag at Everest Base Camp. |
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. It changes you
physically, emotionally and spiritually. You push your body to its limit with
altitude and you name it, and it pushes you emotionally because it takes you
out of your comfort zone,” said my friend Megan Long, who left prayer flags
(blessed by a monk) at base camp. “The pilgrimage, the scenery touches you in
ways you didn’t expect. You are growing as a person with every step you take.”
Even after experiencing the incredible joy of reaching
Everest Base Camp — a sprawling labyrinth of tents home to more than 1,200
seasonal climbers, guides, Sherpas, cooks, porters and doctors — the earthquake
keeps drifting in and out of my mind as I retrace my steps through the same
villages on the four-day trek back to Lukla.
 |
| Everest Base Camp. |
Sherpa can’t help but think about that day either, even
though the people of the Everest region have put the horrors of the earthquake
behind them and managed to move on. The Nepalese people are the definition of
resilience.
“Certain points and some of the houses on the trail, they
give me a reminder, but most of the people want to forget about the
earthquake,” said Sherpa, who smiles when talking about the huge number of
travellers who’ve returned this season.
“People around the world, they love Nepal. They try to give
something to the Nepalese people and contribute whatever they can.”
If you go: The G Adventures Everest Base Camp trip is a
physically and mentally challenging climb due to the high altitude, but it’s
also an extremely rewarding one. The tour is 14 days in total. Twelve of those
days are spent hiking and two days are for acclimatizing, which involves a day
hike in the spectacular region. For more information visit
gadventures.com.
— published by the Edmonton Sun August 2017
