Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu

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A Himalayan Record

Mark Hartell / 28.11.2007

Recently a team of three British ultra runners attempted to break the record for running from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu. This is their story.

So, it is over and a new record is achieved!! Unfortunately only 2 of the 3 made it all the way to Kathmandu (I dropped out at Jiri) but the standard for the 188 mile run now stands at 3 days 2 hours and 36 minutes.

…back to the beginning. Thick frost on the inside of the lodge window at Gorak Shep (5200metres) in the pre-dawn greyness at 4.50am confirmed that our start would be a chilly affair. We gulped down hot tea and tsampa porridge in the lodge before setting off towards base camp with the dawn. We had decided that staying in the lodge the night before the attempt was our only option even though this meant having to endure 90 minutes of scrambling over the glacial moraine to base camp even before we started the run.

Members of the Thai expedition were just surfacing as we SMS messaged our start position/time to our support crew and to the president of the Nepal Olympic committee and quickly took our start photo. A 7.30am start was planned but this was no place to hang around so, at 7.16am, we were off; breath rasping in the thin air at 5400metres and about -10C. The views were incredible with cloud filling the lower Khumbu valley and the sun now hitting the tops of Nuptse, Pumori, Thamserku and Cholatse.
Much of the first 100 miles of the route is un-runnable due to the steep ascents and boulder strewn descents. Ironically, some of the few easy stretches occur in the early miles but as you are still above 4500 metres the air is painfully thin and, for Spyke and myself, even mild exertion brings on spasms of bronchitic coughing – a legacy of Ama Dablam - the mountain we have just climbed.

Our new friend at Dughla lodge – Tashi Tsering (Mr T) has milky tea and lemon tea waiting for us after the first 2 hours and with the sun up we are now down to shorts and thermals rather than the duvet jackets, balaclavas and gloves we started with. As the day warms up, the trail becomes incredibly busy with tourists, porters and numerous yak trains. Some of these porters are carrying loads equivalent to our own body weight so it’s only fair to give them the right of way. As for the yaks, the fine pair of horns each carries ensures they get our respect so we are often forced to wait on the trail or detour up the hill to continue our progress.

All such a contrast from when I was here in 2002 and the Maoist troubles were underway. Right now it looks as though the Khumbu is being loved to death like the Lake District and we have to remind ourselves that, away from this “Honeypot� there is incredible poverty in hill Nepal that we hope to be able to do something about through our fundraising efforts with Community Action Nepal.See All Event Posts