Players Perspective
By Luke Barker @Luke2Barker
Sitting down to write the article this week I was struggling for ideas from a football perspective, so my mind drifted to what prospective readers might be interested in. After tossing up a couple of topics I have decided to write about my trekking adventure to Mt Everest Base Camp in 2011 in the hope of encouraging those who were thinking of doing something like this to give it a go.
For those who know me well would tell you that I would be the last person they would think of to embark on a cultural adventure journey to a 3rd world country… and they would be correct. I had never thought about doing something like this apart from wanting to undertake at some stage the Kokoda trail to gain a better understanding of Australian wartime history & the pure mental and physical challenge that the Australian & PNG heroes went through.
So when my mate Pete Summers was discussing the trip he had planned for Mt Everest and asked if I wanted to join, I surprisingly said yes!
The trip was 16 days long, which included a day in Kathmandu either side of the actual trek itself. I honestly had no idea what to expect when flying into Kathmandu. My preconceptions were of a picturesque, large alpine township with lots of Nepalese people in beanies… got that one slightly wrong. Kathmandu is an enormous city and is every bit of 3rd world. No sewage systems, no made roads, smog, millions of people, no rubbish collection & stricken with absolute poverty. It was a massive eye opener as I had never been in a place like it. Although I was alarmed at a lot of what I saw, at the same time it was fascinating to see the way of life in this place.
That night we got the nod that we would be flying out from Kathmandu to Tenzing-Hillary Airport @ Lukla – the famous airport with the shortest runway in the world and located in the clouds. Conditions have to be perfect for flying to & from Lukla otherwise flights are postponed. Those that don’t heed the weather warnings put their lives at risk. Since 2004 there have been 7 crashes at Lukla, with 36 deaths.
Boarding the light aircraft that was to ferry us to Lukla it was reassuring to see that the cabin door doesn’t close, the steering wheels were held together with elastic bands & duct tape and the Pilots needed a map to see where they were going….
Coming into Lukla and looking through the front window at the cricket pitch we were supposed to be landing on was a life experience in itself. The runway (from approach) has an uphill gradient to slow the planes down so they avoid crashing into the mountain. It also acts as an accelerator from take off so that the planes get enough speed and don’t fall off the end of the runway. Upon successful landing most walk off the plane and kiss the tarmac!
The trek itself is an unforgettable experience. Lukla is at 2,800m above sea level.. Mt Kosciuszko being Australia’s largest peak is a measly 2,200. Straight away when you get off the plane you feel the thinness in the air. One of the golden rules we had to adhere to on the trek was a minimum of 4 litres of water each day had to be consumed. This was to help in preventing altitude sickness, one of the cruel by-products of being at such heights. The first few days of the trek see you crossing river gorges, through dense jungle type surroundings and getting sunburnt! Each day you start walking at about 6.30am and finish up around 3pm before it gets too cold. We stayed in little lodges the whole way along the trek in alpine villages. There is no motorized transport obviously, very scarce running water, no sewage systems, limited food options but somehow there is Internet!!!
Most of the Nepalese kids have never left the Alps, never seen a beach, never been to a sporting event.. but they all have Facebook and love Beyonce.
For every 2 days we went up in altitude we had an acclimatization day. This was to get used to the altitude and not put our bodies at unnecessary risk. When we were in one of the villages we heard a story from a few weeks earlier where a couple of Australian guys didn’t respect the altitude and went from Lukla to Base camp in 3 days. They went to sleep the night they got to base camp and never woke up…
It is a dangerous place and there are still a lot of unknowns about altitude sickness. You could be the fittest person possible but have horrible altitude sickness as low as Lukla. Our group was lucky, we had no bad cases of sickness but a few of us had slight headaches at Base Camp levels.
The most amazing sights you see on the trip are at sunrise. Most mornings it is crystal clear and you get to see the Himalayas in all their glory. The most impressive mountain to look at is Ama Dablam. It is unreal. Our guide, Sandesh, has led 5 expeditions up Ama Dablam and it is regarded as a harder climb than Everest. The one thing you just can’t get over is the sheer size of the Himalayas, they are enormous.
The day we trekked out to Base Camp was tough. Base Camp itself in on a glacier and it is about a 5 hour round trip from the village in Gorek Shep. Getting out there takes an effort. You are literally shuffling and need to have a rest every 10-15 minutes to catch your breath, but when you see the rock with all the flags draped over it, it is all worth it. Base Camp is 5,300m above sea level… the scary thing is that the Everest peak is 8,800m!
It was an amazing experience that I was lucky enough to enjoy with some good friends. We helped each other through the tough days and built a great camaraderie amongst the group. It was more of a mental challenge that physical and I was certainly out of my comfort zone the entire time. We saw some amazing sights, learnt a lot about Nepalese & Himalayan culture and left with a great sense of achievement. I encourage anyone who is thinking of undertaking an adventure challenge like Everest to do so; it is a life changing experience.