“Is this your first time on Everest?”

The question took me by surprise, but was perfectly logical when trekking through Nepal. Many people visit that small country of 30 million people sandwiched between China and India to see the Himalaya Mountains. They shouldn’t be disappointed; the views are spectacular.

But the views are earned through a lot of hard hiking in sometimes treacherous conditions. The trails can be narrow, steep with rocks to climb over and loose gravel. Especially at my age, there were times I had to concentrate on every footstep. Plus there were other groups, plus caravans of horses, yaks and mules. Fortunately, the horses usually wore sleighbells and the yaks cowbells for warnings, although the mules were more quiet.

The trek lasted 19 days, including a day each for arrival and departure, a day of sightseeing in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, and two acclimation days on the way up. We were given an itinerary that summarized distance traveled, altitude gained or lost, and where we would stay each night. Unfortunately, the gain/loss could be misleading because it was a net change. For example, one day showed a gain of only 300 feet, but we figured we actually climbed 1800 feet to net 300 because of all the downhill segments.

During much of the trek, we stayed in lodges that were remote and rustic. We had rooms, but they were unheated and the bathroom was usually down the hall. The only apparent heat was a central potbelly-type stove in the middle of the common area where we ate that burned wood and dung. It was usually fired up only for dinner. Consequently, we were encouraged to sleep in sleeping bags.

A further complication was the medication we took to forestall altitude sickness. It was effective, but was a diuretic, so there was a strong urge to urinate about every two hours.

Despite that, we made it to our goal, Mt. Everest Base Camp, late on Day 12. I had assumed the base camp would be at the base of the mountain. It wasn’t! There was no infrastructure; the only landmark was a large paineted rock, with the tip of Mt. Everest peeking over the ridgeline.

The goal! Mt. Everest is that small triangle in the center of the picture.

And the old saw about getting to the goal is only the halfway point is exactly true; now we had to retrace our steps. Up to that point the weather had been perfect, but on Day 14 we woke up to about two inches of snow. A bit further down, it was rain on Days 15 through 17. We were scheduled to helicopter back to Kathmandu on Day 18 for departure on Day 19, but the extended rain had backed everything up to where the transportation commitments were overtaxed.

On Day 19, we planned for a 7am departure on three helicopters for as far as they could take us, then a six-hour jeep ride to Kathmandu, but the first helicopter didn’t show until 10:30; the second came at 2:30 and made two trips. The jeep ride was out; we were able to find seats on a fixed-wing two-engine turboprop back to the capital’s airport. The luggage we had left at our Kathmandu hotel (where we were originally scheduled to spend the night of Day 18) was brought to the airport for a quick turnaround, and we were ready to return home.

Except I had just missed my flight on Qatar Airways. Could I take a flight two hours later? No, changes would have to be made by the travel agent who sold me the original ticket (which was back in the U.S. and unreachable). Could I buy a new ticket? No, they didn’t sell tickets at the airport. I was invited to visit the airline’s downtown office the next day to buy a ticket. What a way to run an airline!

Fortunately, I was able to make the necessary changes over the phone for a reasonable price adjustment, although it took exactly one hour. Then there was some sort of problem printing my boarding passes, which took an hour and forty-five minutes. But to the airline’s credit, they gave me snacks and escorted me to the gate to make sure I got on the plane.

This trip was an enlightening view of a remote part of the world, but was very demanding, and I had a lot of help to get through it. I’m not sure I can say I was actually on Everest, but the sights were unforgettable. Let’s just say that despite all the complications I’m glad I went.