THE WEEKLY #311: 50-DAYS BEGINS

The 50-day Makalu expedition begins with a 10-day journey to an advanced base camp at 5,800m of elevation. It’s one of the highest base camps in the world and the trek is quite rugged compared to other popular routes in Nepal.

I wrote an extensive guide to the Makalu Base Camp Trek, which you can check out here. If you want to see all the photos and check out all of the details you can read that article. In this little Weekly, I’ll share a few little experiences from the trek in so as to differ from that piece.

The first few days of the trek were beautiful but it was difficult for me to enjoy with sharp pin in my hip and hamstring. With a steep vertical kilometer on the first day, it was an abrupt reality check for my struggling body. I tried my best to stay positive but I honestly doubted my ability to make it to base camp at this rate. Throw in the need to keep up and shoot with an able-bodied client and it was a bit of a recipe for disaster.

I battled through the first few days with Pema becoming my remedial massage therapist. What was new!? Drugs, massage and a few lucky rest days allowed me to complete the trek in. I had to alter my gait and was putting a lot of pressure on my knees and quads to climb up the endless stairs.

Aside from the injury battles, the trek was quite relaxing. Compared to other popular treks in Nepal, this region was quite rural and there was simply one teahouse in each town and not a big setup like in the Khumbu. Some of the teahouses had very basic facilities and it was a BYO mattress at the teahouse in Tasigaun. Electrcity and Wifi were non-existent after the first day or two.

After just over a week, we made it to lower base camp and my injury hadn’t gotten any worse. I was glad to have made it through another scare without having to quit on a trip. My luck continued.

These are a few of my favorite frames from the week. However, for all of the photos you can check out the the full blog post that I linked to earlier.