On Top of the World

June 13th, 2011 by JCB
Posted in Coastlines | No Comments »

 

Last November, Liverpool pilot Andy Bissaker made the trek to the mount Everest base camp for charity and the following is his account of the adventure.

After a successful ascent of Jbel Toubkal in Morocco in 2009, I decided that it was time to ask the family for a “high altitude shore pass” for last November. This came quite easily especially as I could raise money for a friend who had just passed away due to pancreatic cancer. So last November I found myself in the Hotel Tibet in Kathmandu listening to stories from “old salts” of dreadful altitude sicknesses such as Pulmonary Oedemas, Cerebral Oedemas, Frostbite, Hypothermia and worse the Khumbu two-step that would assault various bodily organs and functions.  Then there was the flight to the start at Lukla which was named the world’s most dangerous airport just before I departed.

The path up to Base camp was a ten day trek of absolute wonder, joy was in the journey rather than the getting there. On the way we passed the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar, the Dalai Lama’s palace in Tengboche, drank the really very good Everest beer in tea-houses. Everywhere was built by hand with no vehicles other than yak trains and the porters whose carrying ability was phenomenal. Daytime temperatures meant shorts and t-shirt, while the nights were spent standing next to stoves wearing down jackets. We crossed the glacial “River of Milk” on rope bridges more times than I can remember, climbed and descended endlessly, drank foul iodine water in gallons. However any hardships were more than outweighed by the magnificent Himalayan views and the local people.

Although I did succumb to the two step for a very short while, altitude sickness passed me by and on the 29th November we arrived at the Everest base camp at 18,000ft on the Khumbu glacier where the oxygen content is half that of my favoured sea level and thanks to friends and colleagues I managed to raise more than £1600 for a worthwhile cause.

Andy Bissaker