A first-person YouTube travel vlog (Day 5 of an Everest-region trek) by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting an acclimation hike from Pangbuche (~4,000 m) to Amandablum base camp (4,600 m). The video covers route details (a less-trafficked, prettier route), on-trail observations (rhododendron, wind, clouds), arrival at base camp (tents, snacks), altitude symptoms (minor nosebleed), and tea-house culture/menus on return. The planned ascent was ~3 hours; the round trip took a little over 5 hours.
Questions this video answers
About 4,000 meters.
4,600 meters.
About three hours.
A little over five hours.
Chapters
Sam.
We'Re just beginning day five of our trek from Pangbuche, which is at about 4,000 meters. Today we're hiking to the Amandablum base camp, which is at 4600 meters. Hike should take about three hours.
It's supposed to be way prettier than the actual Everest base camp.
Yeah, this isn't a route that's like on the normal tourist Everest base camp trail, but Soonam's hooking us up with the better routes. And we're also using this as an acclimation day. So we'll hike up to 4,600 meters and then we'll be hiking back down here to Pagbuche to stay the night in the same tea house that we stayed in last night. If you look right through the clouds, you can see the peak of Amun Dablum, which is the mountain that we're hiking to the base camp of.
Alrighty. Coming of some clothes.
It's been about five minutes. The sun is shining though.
It is absolutely beautiful this morning. I'm so happy.
About 30 minutes ago, we started in that village over there. Hike down this ridge here, over the bridge, and now we've been climbing straight back up this mountain.
I love it here.
And this trail is awesome. So far we haven't seen another trekker the entire time. And this trail is like a fourth the size of all the other trails we've been hiking on. So you can tell that not near as many people come up here. This is going to be awesome.
We've got our first real glimpse of AMU Dablum.
So big and majestic.
We're about to head straight up this little mountain. And then base camp is just right on the other side. Getting prepared for our trek straight up the mountain. Coming out of layers. I'm gonna put some sunscreen on.
Ready to climb.
Here we go.
Straight up this mountain.
So Nam tells us we're going up this ridge around and then back up that one, and that'll take us to base camp. We're a little over an hour into the hike.
And we've already come all the way from there.
We found some natural incense.
It smells so good.
It's rhododendron. Rhododendron? Yes.
Like I want a candle that smells like this when it's blooming. People make it dry and drink it.
As tea as well. Oh, really?
Oh, yum.
And get one to take with me. Yeah, just sniff it all the way up the mo.
It's getting really cold and windy up on the switch.
Gone into Bandit Mode.
So much energy.
We made it to base camp.
Can't see much because of all the clouds surrounding us.
The good news is you don't need to be able to see to eat a Snickers.
This is my first snickers at 4,600 meters. And it's going to be the best Snickers had in my life.
How long have you been thinking about that?
About three hours.
Since we left. I bet these guys really need a Snickers. They've been camping out here for about a month. Doing some kind of insane hike every single day. Getting ready to summit whenever the weather's right.
Some mountain in these clouds right here.
We just had the most relaxing 15 minutes laying beside a rock under the sun. It was blocking the wind and it was so quiet. It's the most peaceful 15 minutes we've had in days.
All of these tents behind us are for one single expedition because this is out of season time for climbing this mountain. Right down there is where we're heading back to.
Going down is way easier than coming up.
It.
We made it.
Made it back to the tea house in a little over five hours. Time for a late pizza lunch.
While we wait for our pizza, I thought I'd show you what a normal tea house menu looks like. Obviously, everywhere has a long list of teas. And then you got some breakfast sandwich, more breakfast porridge. This is what we've been eating almost every morning, except when I go for the Tibetan bread, which is basically just a monstrous fried pancake. No tea house would be complete without Dalbat. That's another thing we've been eating a lot of. And you can get eggs, salad, pizza is another thing.
And then, yeah, we haven't tried any of the macaroni yet or the spring rolls. And then all of them have some type of potatoes that come on just piled as a monstrous plate of potatoes. And then Momo, which is like the dumpling things that we've tried a couple times.
It's all good, except we're not really supposed to eat the meat because the people here aren't allowed to kill animals. So all the animal meat comes from all the way down the mountain and just rides up here for days on the side of a mule.
So we've been vegetarians for the week. We just ordered some more tea that we had last night. I was dreaming about it our entire freezing hike today. And it tastes like a yellow starburst and it's my favorite. And this.
Is a small pot.
I love it.
Here. Behind me is the Amun.
Up, up, up. Now move your hand, like, forward towards me. Now up, up. Perfect. Already getting a.
And our first signs of altitude, a little bit of a nosebleed. How you doing?
I'm okay. There's just a little bit. I feel fine.
Ah, just a little bit of blood.
Yeah, no big deal.
It's our first snow.
That's a bad idea. It's not ready. Not ready? I was going to carry it back down so we could burn it tonight, but it's not ready.
