This September, DBS Director and founder David Clarke undertook a great challenge and trekked to Everest Base Camp. Being thousands of meters above sea level, long days of walking and torrential rainfall meant the trip was far from easy, but made the achievement at the end so much more impressive.
In total the trip took 8 days to get up to base camp and an additional 3 to get back down. During the trip, there were inevitably highs and lows. When I asked David what his favourite part of the trip was he said he had to be the moment he finally arrived at base camp. What was the worst? Day 7 - as it when the altitude sickness kicked in. Nausea, sickness, headaches and eyes that were almost swollen shut made it difficult to get through.
His daily routine started at 6 am when his alarm went off, breakfast was served at 7 am with the walking starting at around 8 am. Most of the days finished around 3 or 4pm.
David decided to take on such a big challenge as he turned 60 earlier on in the year and he thought it was a now or never thing. Would he do something similar in the future? Apparently he has no plans as of yet. But he is having a good think about whether to do high altitude again or not. 17,500 ft is a long way up and puts a big demand on your body.
Finally, I asked If he would recommend other people giving this challenge a go, “Yes, but it needs a huge amount of training and dedication to do it justice”
Well done David, the whole DBS team are really proud of what you’ve done!
Here are some of the amazing pictures from David’s trip:
David had to take a helicopter out of Kathmandu as Lukla Airport was closed due to cloud. They ended up landing 600m below Lukla which added to the trek.
Day 1- The trek began with putting duffel bags on yaks and heading for Phakding
Day 3: The group undertook an acclimatization walk to 3900m. This picture was taken on the descent into Namche Bazar. Torrential rain all day did not make the trek easier!
Day 6: Plastic bottles will be banned on Everest from next year but the photo shows how every bottle of water arrives
Made it to Everest Base Camp. A whopping 5364m high