2022
I've been from one end of the world to the other. From east to west and from north to south but when you reach the top of the world on foot like this, above the clouds with all the highest peaks of the world standing majestically before your own eyes, and you cannot see any buildings, cars, trees, pollution and so on, you feel so mortal and forget everything including the problems of the world thousands of feet below you. It's a very humbling, amazing and exhilarating feeling.
I've used this photo in a number of posts before (see: Mt Everest, season 2019) however, I've never really said much about the photo so I thought now while in lockdown, I'd tell you a little more about it.
At a height of 8,848 m (29,029 ft), Mt Everest is the highest mountain in the world and to take a photo like this while on Everest itself is hardly possible because of its sheer vertical height and you'd be trying to take the photo while looking vertically up it's face. It would be like lying on the floor at your feet and trying to take a photo of your head, which is just impossible! So you need to be some distance away and at the right height to snap such a photo. To achieve this you need to summit a nearby peak and look horizontally straight at Everest rather than vertically up it's face.
One place that provides the most accessible closeup view of Everest is nearby mount Kala Patthar. However, Kala Patthar, at 5,644.5 m (18,519 ft) is higher than Everest Base Camp at 5,364 metres (17,598 ft), so like at any high altitude, and this is very high altitude, you need to be well prepared when climbing Kala Patthar. Because of the height you have to acclimatize well to safeguard yourself from altitude sickness. Also, as well as taking plenty of water, you need to prepare well for the icy cold wind towards the top, and believe me it gets seriously cold towards the top.
When talking about altitude, anything above around 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) is when it starts to affect humans. Then at high altitude, above 2,400 meters (8,000 - 12,000 ft), the atmospheric pressure and the amount of oxygen in the air is lower than at sea level and this can cause very serious illnesses - altitude sickness, high altitude pulmonary edema, and high altitude cerebral edema! This is when you must acclimatize, that is, adapt to the high altitude! The next band from around 3650 meters (12,000 - 18,000 ft) is referred to as very high altitude and then above 8,000 metres (26,000 ft), extremely high altitude you're in the death zone, where it's too late to acclimatize and in fact, acclimatization becomes impossible.
So to summit Kala Patthar at the very high altitude of 5,645 m required acclimatizing and for this, after flying from Kathmandu to Lukla (the most dangerous airport in the world), during the 2 weeks trekking from Lukla at an altitude of approximately 2,800 m to the high himalayas at altitudes of 5,600+ m I stopped several times and rested to acclimatize as I did for two days at the beautiful Sherpa village of Namche Bazaar: The gateway to the high Himalayas. So allowing for acclimatizing it two weeks to get to the small village of Gorakshep at an elevation of 5,164 metres (16,942 ft) and located near Mt Everest. It then took approximately 2 hours to summit Kala Patthar. Fortunately the weather was pretty good but still at the top of Kala Patthar, the wind was deadly icy cold. Armed with my pocket-sized Panasonic Lumix camera, no big camera here as you need to travel light when travelling at very high altitudes, I took my many photos including this one of Mt Everest.
As well as offering breathtaking views of Mt Everest, Kala Patthar offers spectacular views of the world's other tallest peaks such as Lhotse (8,516 m, 27,940 ft), Nuptse (7,861m, 25,791ft) and Changtse (7,583 m, 24,879 ft). So you do end up taking lots of photos!
This was my first visit to Nepal and the high Himalayas at altitudes of 5,600+ m including the Mt Everest region. It was more a reconnaissance expedition. I spent a total of approximately 3 months and trekked approximately 600 kms. The second time was an attempted Mt Everest summit but sadly we had to descend because of atrocious weather and my close friend developed severe altitude sickness as we entered the death zone. He ended up at the Hillary Hospital in the town of Kunde! I have many amazing stories and more photos to share on all this, so to be continued.....
This is my 4th post about my journey through Nepal and will be continued. To see part #3, visit Nepal #3 - Namche Bazaar: The gateway to the high Himalayas
Lukla is one of the most dangerous airports in the world. I have seen several videos of that airport on the youtube. Trekking for two weeks is really huge and I am very happy that you succeded @AdamGT . Did you go to Kala Patthar only to take this photo or did you have any other mission? Thanks a lot for the nice explanation.
