This is a first-person vlog (YouTube) by Nate Buchanan documenting Day 3 of an Everest Base Camp trek. The creators (Nate and Kara Buchanan) take a day-hike from Namche to viewpoints and the Everest View Hotel to acclimate rather than progress toward base camp. They get their first sighting of Mount Everest, meet Tenzing Norgay's son and the founder of a Tenzing-branded energy drink, enjoy masala tea with panoramic views, return to Namche for lunch (yak-cheese pizza), rest and explore (bakery, documentary, shopping), buy trekking pants, and handle money preparations for the rest of the trek (mentions 50,000 rupees).
Chapters
We're just now starting our third day of our trek to Everest Base Camp.
We are going up countless stairs to the lookout where we can hopefully see Mount Everest. Especially since it rained yesterday. It's so much clearer today and there's so much snow on all the mountains. So I'm feeling good about seeing it.
Don't fall down the stairs. This is technically day three of our trek to Everest Base Camp. However, we're not actually making any progress towards Everest Base Camp because we're just going on day hike. And then we're coming back down to Namche to sweep because our bodies need a day to acclimate to the altitude.
Altitude? Altitude.
Are you feeling altitude?
Yeah.
Snowy mountains all around us.
360 degrees.
And in case I didn't go, we'll get our faces out of it.
Is it? Yeah, that one.
No, like in the. In the middle right there.
Ah, there's the very back. Wow.
We got our first view of Everest.
It's like the little point right there. That's Mt. Everest. It's covered up by this mountain. That's Mt. Everest. It's crazy. It doesn't look like the tallest mountain. It just blends in with the rest of them from here. So this statue behind us is his father, who was the first one to climb Mount Everest. We just had, like, the coolest 15 minutes ever. Not only did we get our first view of Everest, Tenzing Norgay. This man behind us was the first man to climb Everest. And his son was here. So we got to take a picture with his son and meet him. And then on top of that, there's a guy from London who founded an energy drink named after Tenzing. We got to meet him. He gave us an energy drink. We told him we'd save it till we were struggling up the mountain.
At some point, we're gonna drink it, and then we're gonna run up the mountain. Now we are going to climb up to the Everest view Hotel. It's 500 meters this way.
Way.
It's less than an hour since we've been to breakfast, since I was bundled up in, like, every single warm thing that I packed right down to shorts and a T shirt. The helipad right over there is where we just were. We've already covered quite a bit of elevation. And that's the city of Namche, where we stayed last night.
Feeling good, burning calories. All that porridge I ate this morning.
It was a lot healthier than my fried Tibetan pancake.
She's falling behind.
We made it to the hotel. And now we're going to reward ourselves with some hot tea. Nate, is this about to be the best snickers you've ever had?
Yes. As we continue to get higher, they will continue to be the best snickers I've ever had.
This is the only snickers I've ever had with the view of Mount Everest though. So this one's definitely the best.
Yeah, definitely. We just got our masala tea. We don't know what it is. He said it has milk and spices. It kind of smells like chai tea. You're there.
You're already there. You.
Wow.
That is the best tea I've ever had. With the best view I've ever had. Not exaggerating.
I'm so happy right now.
It's like an improvement on milk tea. I thought milk tea was the best. Solid's even better. It'd be ashamed to hike to the Everest view hotel and not get an awesome time lapse of the clouds moving over Everest.
Riding back down the mountain. It's getting really windy and cold.
I like that one. We made it back from our day hike and now we're about to grab lunch.
We got pizza. It sounded so good after hiking a billion steps to. And the cheese is Yak cheese.
Smells so good.
The cheese is phenomenal.
Is it good or is it just good? Because we're at over 3,000 meters.
That doesn't hurt. But I really think it's just really good.
There are so many veggies inside this pizza it almost seems healthy.
Today is a rest day and so we get to do whatever we want the rest of the afternoon. So of course we stay.
Bakery with some coffee cake. After this we're probably going to do some shopping and then we're going to go to a bar that's showing a free documentary about the first ascent of episode.
Best cake in the world.
Excuse me, how is this cake so good?
The best. The best. Get it.
It's like only cooked half as much as it was yesterday. So it's just like hot fudge carrot cake melting in there.
Carriage. You make a new friend during the movie. Ye.
We are hopefully going to find some money because we do not have enough to get us the rest of this trek. And I want to buy some stuff. So we're going to find a team that works.
Hopefully.
Nate thinks he's found his perfect hiking pants after a long and decisive battle.
He's been very patient with us. Let's see him.
Nate.
I took him off. I'm just in my underwear now. Oh, I didn't pack any trekking pants and it was freezing coming down the mountain today so I had to break down and buy some. I might have gone to every store in the city. I settled on these because they feel like yoga pants. Male yoga pants.
Welcome to the yoga pants world.
And now we have to see if we can find some money for the rest of our trek.
I feel like a drug dealer.
What?
Why do you have so much money?
50,000 rupees. That should be about how much we need to get up the mountain and then back down here when I can get more money out of these kids.
She's not faced. Come on. Faced.
I think I'm more just out of shape.
Yeah, that's the thing. Can't tell if it was too much eating and not enough preparation or altitude.
