We are the Fell Fellas, three best mates from a small town in South Yorkshire called Barnsley. Two of us are brothers and the third a childhood friend from the small village of Cudworth where we all grew up within a stone's throw of each other and, more importantly, on our doorsteps was the Trans Pennine Trail. This, and our family influence, is what morphed us into the outdoor enthusiasts we are today!
We started our travels 6 months ago in India with the main intentions of finding the best hiking and climbing spots around Asia. We recently trekked a 100km stretch of the Indian Himalayas before deciding to head to Nepal to tick off a big bucket list destination for us, Everest base camp.
We’ve always enjoyed the outdoors and fell in love with hiking in a place I know is special to Atom Packs too, the Lake District. During the endless weekends spent in the lakes ticking off the Wainwrights, we developed the urge to go bigger and see what the world has got to offer. We made a plan, we finished the Wainwrights, packed our things in our trusty Atom Packs and off we went. We’re currently 6 months into that plan and it has been the best decision we've ever made.
On our way to Everest Base Camp.
We began our journey by taking a 12 hour jeep ride from Kathmandu to a small village named Salleri (2300m). A lovely introduction in to the local life up in the foothills, we set off the next morning full of excitement and apprehension for what we might’ve signed ourselves up for. When we reached our lunch place for the day the heavens opened and the rain came heavy! We decided best to stay put for the night, meaning the already gruelling day two stretch would be stretched a little further. As we made our way up and down through Solukhumbu’s hills for the next three days we had the opportunity to see daily changes in environment, flora and fauna.
This is when we arrived in Lukla (2800m), roughly 60km from where we began.
After seeing the planes land into the airport the following morning, I’m glad we walked! Lukla is essentially where all the treks in the region start and finish due to the accessibility by plane. We got our permits and went on our way through the Pasang Lhamu memorial gate, the official start of the EBC trek.
We hiked from Lukla to Monjo on our first ‘real’ day of the trail which to be truthful felt super easy and we all had a spring in our step! We crossed three suspension bridges and joined a million different traffic jams of mules and jhopkyo’s, a pretty common theme along the EBC trail. However with the next day being a short and steep push up to Namche Bazaar, we got it out of the way early doors. An acclimatisation day in Namche set us up good and proper for the views that were to follow. We hiked to Sagarmatha National Park Museum for our first sight of Everest, the perfect day with clear visibility sparked that childlike excitement within us as we all took photos with the backdrop and couldn’t wait to head amongst it all.
After the day spent exploring Sagarmatha Next, an innovative sustainability centre focused on up-cycled waste products from the region, we headed back down to Namche and settled ready for the next few days of hiking. After splitting from the normal EBC trail and heading up through the valley towards Renjo La Pass, the traffic jams of mules stopped and transformed into a quiet valley that unfortunately had been constantly reshaped by landslides and GLOFs. Ancient monasteries, chanting mantras and sounds of bells hanging from Yaks' necks became the soundtrack for this valley. Evenually, we reached Renjo La Pass (5360m).
A challenging day from Lungdeh up to the top of the pass was easily forgotten about once we reached the top to see what can only be described as the best view I’ve ever seen. To have four 8000m peaks in one view along with Gokyo’s sacred lake was special. We were all emotional that day, just three lads from the local village feeling like they were actually doing it, living our dreams! Thankful to head down due to the high altitude, we reached Gokyo and sat and watched the sun set over the lake and mountain backdrop.
Up and out early the next morning to head up to Gokyo Ri (5357m). This was our first official peak about 5000m for the Fell Fellas and it was yet again the perfect day, greeted with a cloud inversion of the valley as we headed higher, once we reached the summit there it was again. Truly the biggest stage on earth, to the left Cho Oyo (8188m), dead centre Everest (8849m), to its right Lhotse (8516m), and far off in the distance Makalu (8481m). The longest glacier in Nepal below us, Ngozumpa and the famous Gokyo lake besides it with Thamserku, a prominent peak throughout the hike at 6623m, towering above.
Yet another unbelievable moment for us as a team, acclimatisation day well spent I’d say!
We crossed Ngozumpa Glacier which was a first for us, an eerie experience as you’re watching the glacier crumble and break off before your very eyes. The next day lead us up Cho La Pass (5420m). Another pass, another challenge and our highest elevation to date. It actually felt less physically demanding than Renjo La however met with a steeper section from a few hundred meters from the top that has been roped up by the locals to assist getting up this steep icy terrain. Another small glacier crossing once descending down the other side felt like an expedition movie scene– just us on a snow covered glacier with an incredible backdrop of Ama Dablam.
Over the next couple of days we walked through the valley before finally merging back with the EBC trail just before Lobouche. This was a bitter sweet moment, knowing that just ahead of us was our dream trekking destination, but it also signified the final check point and we would be returning back to ‘every day life’ soon enough.
We woke up early and headed out eager to get to EBC. We moved fast and achieved what we set out for, a safe and life-changing trek to the base of the roof of the world. Once we arrived at Everest Base Camp (5364m) we revelled in the beauty and excitement for a while, snapping pics and smiling like a kid at Christmas at everyone congratulating each other as you get to sit and watch all those other people achieve their dreams. It was a very moving experience for us and all that made it that day!
Wanting to waste no time on the descent and longing for a decent night's sleep, we pushed the same day all way down Pheriche (4370m) putting in 26km that day at high altitude. The next few days back to Lukla were longer in distance, but with every 100m of elevation lost everything became easier: back to normal breathing and comfortable temperatures allowed us to make it back to Lukla within 2 days of leaving Base Camp.
Along the way we took part in a very important initiative in the region called ‘Carry Me Back’. This is something we were highly passionate about once receiving the information at Sagarmatha Next a couple of weeks prior. This scheme essentially asks tourists to take some responsibility for keeping Khumbu clean and carry back at least 1kg of recyclable material from either Namche Bazaar or Pangboche to Lukla where it can be sorted and sent elsewhere for proper recycling. The 1kg represents the average amount of waste created by each trekker once on trail in the region. I’m extremely proud of the Fell Fellas as we managed to take back 8kg of waste from Namche to Lukla to do our bit to support this pristine national park and assist in the future generations being able to have the same unbelievable experience we had there.
An absolutely wild flight out of Lukla after spending the previous day waiting in the airport for our flights to be cancelled at the last minute led us to Kathmandu, the end of our EBC trail.
It may be the end of this chapter but it’s certainly not the end of the adventure for the Fell Fellas, as we now head out in to the rest of Asia to seek out some of the coolest climbing and trekking spots possible and as always… we are taking Atom Packs with us!
