As 2011 comes to an end, I thought it would be cool to talk about my top 5 travel experiences of the year. My year was split roughly 6 months in Australia, 3 months in Southern Asia, and 3 in the US. It's hard to pick just 5, but here are my favorite travel memories from 2011, in no particular order.
There are a lot of videos out there both climber made and commercial of Everest, Everest Base Camp, and the entire Himalaya Region. I spent a lot of time searching online and these were the highlights I came up with. Sadly there has been a lot of tragedy on the mountain over the years, so some of the videos are quite sad, but there is also some amazing scenery, interesting facts, and heart warming stories portrayed in these videos. If you know of other good Everest videos please post links in the comments and I'll add them to the collection.
Ama Dablam is the first large peak you see on the Everest Base Camp Trek, and it stays in sight for several days. We woke up one morning on our EBC Trek in the village of Dingboche to find the clouds had cleared, the sun was shining, and we were left with spectacular views of the entire mountain. Ama Dablam (meaning Mother's Necklace) is a beautiful peak because of it's steep icy faces, and sometimes called the "Matterhorn of the Himalayas" for the same reason.
Kala Patthar is a smaller mountain near the village of Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp. It's known as the less glamorous, higher elevation add-on to many Everest Base Camp Treks. The views of Everest from the Kala Patthar summit are amazing, and it's especially popular at sunrise as the sun comes up from behind Everest. For trekkers staying in Gorak Shep this means 4am wake up calls and hiking in the dark in order to reach the 18,514 foot (5,643 meters) summit in time to see the sun rise. This is also the reason why Kala Patthar is home to the highest webcam in the world which points towards Mt. Everest.
Everest Base Camp in Nepal, also known as South Base Camp, is a lot different than the Everest Base Camp on the Tibet side. To start with, you can drive most of the way to EBC Tibet. To get to EBC Nepal, you have to take a (sketchy) 40 minute flight from Kathmandu, then hike 6 days (plus 2 acclimation days) through the Himalayan mountains. South Base Camp is located at 5,364 meters, just short of 18,000 ft. Depending on your source, EBC Tibet (North Everest Base Camp) is either a little higher or a little lower, but regardless they're not more than a few hundred feet different. South Base Camp in Tibet is a lot quicker and easier to reach, because roads run much closer to camp than they do in Nepal.
The Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal is without a doubt the scariest airport I've ever flown into and/or out of. The History Channel ranked the Lukla Airport the most extreme airport in the world. Sadly it has had it's fair share of deadly accidents, as you can see from the video below. Bad visibility, tall mountains surrounding it, a short runway, and an abrupt cliff edge start to this runway make for some nervous take-offs and landings. Unless you want to trek for 4 days, you have no choice but to fly in here when embarking on an Everest Base Camp Trek.
Climbing to Everest Base Camp does not have to be very expensive. In order to determine how much you should expect to pay, you'll first need to decide what type of trek you want to take, and how much time you have available. Another important factor in determining how much your trip will cost is the number of people in your group. With more people, you can share porters and a guide, cutting costs for each person.
There are a lot of sketchy airports acround the world, but according to the History Channel, none as dangerous as the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla. But if you've already climbed to Everest Base Camp or trekked anywhere in the surrounding Himalayas, you probably already know this. Nestled deep in the mountains, perched on the edge of a cliff with a tiny little uphill runway, you're crashing into a steep hill if the pilot can't stop the plane fast enough upon landing. That is of course assuming that the clouds aren't too thick and he gets the unassisted landing right so you don't crash into the mountain.
The Himalayas are one of the most picturesque and dynamic environments in the world. The photos in this image gallery were taken on a 12 day trek, starting from the Kathmandu airport, along the flight to the Tenzing-Hillary airport in Lukla, up to Everest Base Camp and Kalapathar, and back. Most were taken using a Canon Rebel T2i with the Canon 15-85mm lens, and there are a few which were taken using my friends cell phone. The photos are not in exact sequence, but pretty close, at least on a daily basis. Our Everest trek place in mid to late September, during the tail end of monsoon season, so we got our fair share of temperamental weather.
The ATM was down in Namche so it took us a little while to get going in the morning, and we needed to pay the remainder of our tab with Boo. It's been surprisingly difficult to get cash since I've gotten to Nepal, but we got it all sorted. We finally got moving around 9:15 AM, and it was bright and sunny. We even got one more peek of Everest. Yesterday I tried to eat a normal meal, and my battered stomach didn't like that at all. I started to feel sick about an hour and a half into the hike, and I had to slow our pace way down.
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About The Cheap RouteTheCheapRoute.com is the site where you find fresh new travel destinations & ideas. We don't provide guidebook style writeups, we normally don't even offer you all the specifics, you can find that elsewhere. What we do provide are high quality photos & videos, useful tips, and a fresh perspective on travelling the world for cheap.
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