Kavit Shah Photography

DAY 1 – 25th April 2013 I left Melbourne at 11.30pm on 24th April, Wednesday, the eve of ANZAC Day. I arrived into Bangkok at 6am to await my 10.15am departure to Kathmandu. I was travelling on Thai Airways. First mishap was that I lost the security strap I had newly purchased for my rucksack when I saw my rucksack… Read more →

DAY 1 – 25th April 2013…continued I was brave enough to venture out from the hotel and did a good 30-minute walk in the Thamel area staying close to the main roads within a short radius of the hotel. I had carried along a card from the hotel in case I got lost so that I could get redirected back… Read more →

DAY 2 – 26th April 2013 Manoj and I woke up at 9.15am the following morning, got ready and had breakfast at the guest house. I had “chole bhatura” (chick pea curry and roti bread) with a hot cup of chai tea whilst Manoj enjoyed scrambled eggs and toast with a strong coffee. We left the hotel at around 11am… Read more →

DAY 3 – 27th April 2013 Nothin like a 5:15am alarm to get us started for the day. Today is the day we fly to Lukla. Lukla, one of the world’s most dangerous airports in the world. It consists of a rather short runway carved onto the top surface of a cliff edge. On an incline from the cliff’s edge… Read more →

DAY 4 – 28th April 2013 We woke up at 6am so that we would be ready, fed and on our way by 8am. As soon as we stepped outside the lodge, on the opposite side, we saw a monolith of rock rising high up into the clouds…our first glimpse of the mountains of the Everest region. Kongde Peak, rising… Read more →

DAY 5 – 29th APRIL 2013 We woke up at 5.45am for our acclimatization day. In high altitude mountaineering, humans are forced to “acclimatize” to avoid ill effects of high altitude on the body. This means that through acclimatization, we can avoid High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) and High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) which are conditions arising from sudden exposure… Read more →

DAY 6 – 30th April 2013 Today morning Manoj woke up at 5.35am because the previous night by mistake, he had set his watch to Hong Kong time which is 1 hour ahead of Nepal. So he thought he was running late. When I told him of his error, he didn’t know what to do now that he was up.… Read more →

DAY 7 – 1st May 2013 Manoj & I woke up at 6.00am but we didn’t want to get out of the sleeping bags as we were rather cozy. Eventually, we crawled out and got ready and packed up our gear. We met up with Lhakpa downstairs at 6.45am and made our way down to the monastery across the road.… Read more →

DAY 8 – 2 MAY 2013 Happy Birthday to my nephew Niev who is back home in Melbourne! Hope you eat loads of cake on my behalf too! I miss you. We woke up at 6.30am today and got ready. The water is getting colder the higher up we go. Washing your face and brushing early in the morning is… Read more →

DAY 9 – 3rd May 2013 Woke up in the morning & went off to the alpine rental store, Himalaya Rental to get the gear for our climb to Island Peak. We hired boots, crampons, jummer, descender, ascender, harness, helmet and some ropes for the rest of the group. Before lunch we proceeded to the hill behind the lodge to… Read more →

DAY 10 – 4th May 2013 We departed base camp at 2am in a tight group of five. The first part of the climb was horizontal for 15 minutes, then the trail rose up traversing for 5 hours. We only got the flat ice fields at 8am where the crevasse filled flats were. We had to cross this section for… Read more →

DAY 11 – 5th May 2013 Manoj and I woke up the next morning and we were still both shattered. I don’t even recall Manoj coming back down and joining me in the tent as I had descended quickly. We packed our gear and bags again and went to the dining tent for breakfast. After porridge and tea, we got… Read more →

DAY 12 – 6th May 2013 Today morning we woke up at 7.50am. We were meant to have breakfast at 7.30am. We were all tired and the cozy rooms helped us sleep longer than we intended. We had a good breakfast after quickly getting ready. I had apple porridge and beans on toast with masala tea. We left around 9.30am.… Read more →

DAY 13 – 7th May 2013 We had breakfast and left at 7.30am with Bibas bidding God Speed to Lhakpa and Chemi. Avani also joined us on our trek to Gorak Shep which was a good turn of events to have someone else along to have a conversation with on the way. We got to Gorak Shep (5,190m) at lunchtime… Read more →

Day 14 – 8th May 2013 Manoj and I woke up at 4am to get ready for our 4.30am start. Today we’re starting off for Kala Patthar (5,545m) and aiming to arrive at the top by sunrise to be able to see Mount Everest and all surrounding mountains. It was a 2-hour slog uphill to get to the top of… Read more →

DAY 15 – 9th MAY 2013 The night wasn’t too great. We ended up being woken up at 4am because the walls and floor of the lodge were made of softboard. The people who were waking up for their trek to Kala Patthar woke us up. The room next door to us was occupied by 2 girls who just wouldn’t… Read more →

Day 16 – 10th May 2013 The alarm woke us up at 5.00am. It was freezing outside the sleeping bag. We had to get up and prepare our stuff for the day. By 5.30am we were at breakfast after getting ready and brushing outside in the cold. The sun wasn’t up yet. After breakfast, we departed at around 6.40am. The… Read more →