A first-person vlog by Nate Buchanan (with Kara Buchanan) documenting Day 9 of their Everest Base Camp trek to the Kala Patthar/Calipada lookout. They wake very early (around 4:30–4:55 AM), hike from roughly 5,000 m to about 5,500 m to watch sunrise over Mount Everest, reach the summit (Kala Patthar), then descend back down to lower-altitude lodgings. The clip records physical difficulty (shortness of breath, nausea), durations (≈4 hours up, ≈4.5 hours down), weather (snow, ~20 mph wind), and teahouse details (yak-poo heating, Sherpa stew).
Questions this video answers
4:55 in the morning.
They got up at 4:30 AM.
They went from about 5,000 meters to 5,500 meters in two hours.
Uphill: almost four hours; Downhill return: about four and a half hours.
About 4,700 meters instead of 5,200 meters.
Chapters
It's currently 4:55 in the morning. For some reason we thought it'd be a good idea to get up at 4:30 and go to the Calipada Lookout Peak to see the sunrise over Everest. Although it's already really bright before 5 o'. Clock.
We didn't even get to have coffee.
Before.
Literally just rolled straight out of bed and started climbing straight up the mountain.
But check out how pink the sky is getting already.
Another plus to waking up at 4:30.
That's Everest by far. Clearest view over the last eight days.
We were just right down there 20 minutes ago. Everest Base Camp sits right down in this valley. That's where we are yesterday when it started snowing.
This is the hardest, most beautiful hike that I've ever been on in my entire life.
We're going from like 5,000 meters to 5,500 meters in two hours.
Cares being a trooper. We're continuing to follow all these little dots straight up the mountain.
We didn't beat the sun to the top. It's already coming up over the mountains.
We just came over the ridge. Thought we were almost there. See all these hands crawling up the mountain? That's the top that we have to get to.
Kara, that's the hardest thing you've ever done. Seriously hardest thing I've ever done in my life. So proud of Kara. My legs are burning. My back hurts. When I try to take deep breaths along with the back of my throat burning.
Kind of feel like I'm gonna throw up.
But we're almost there.
We're literally taking three steps and then stopping to.
Made it to the top.
Thoughts?
Still catching my breath. I don't know if I would do it again if I had the chance.
Never ever. But.
Hey, I'm so proud of you.
See that white ridge right down there? That's where we thought about turning around. It was like an hour and a half ago.
So proud of you. Base Camp is right down there.
And that's Mount Everest.
We're about to head all the way back down these slippery snow covered rocks all the way back down into the ditch into the town that we started in. Putting the camera up because I'm scared I'm gonna break it.
We made it back.
Good job.
Didn't think he'd ever get to the.
Front.
Well we left for our hike right before five. Nice little almost four hour hike to start the day and grab some breakfast and then we have a four and a half hour hike back down the mountain.
We just drank some much needed coffee and got some Breakf and Now we're hiking four and a half hours to Dongla, mostly downhill.
Tonight we sleep at 47, 4700 meters instead of 5200 meters. So we should be feeling better tomorrow.
I don't think it gets any prettier than this. I'll miss these snow capped mountains.
Soak it in blue.
We went from freezing 15 degrees this morning to stripping out of layers once again.
You might recognize this valley from a couple days ago. This is the one we came up and now we're heading right back down it to La Boucher. Kara, how do you feel? We've hit our highest point of the entire trek.
I'm thankful that I never got too sick and I'm glad that we're going back down. But I'm very proud of us getting to the top today.
I will say though, somebody told me they paid me a million dollars to do it again. I might have to say no. If I had to do it again right now, maybe in like a few months when I forget about how hard it was, I would do it for a million dollars. But right now I'm going down.
I've been pointing to a lot of things today, but I figure I'll just keep it going. That mountain right there is the mountain that you saw in the star time lapse a couple nights ago. Last time I showed up here I was very dizzy. I feel way better this time. Took Sunam's advice. Got the Sherpa stew.
Looks good.
And of course fried noodles.
Old Faithful, much needed. After hour like six hours of hiking.
And some hot tea. Really.
Have a Just finished lunch. It is freezing.
Sun went away.
Starting to snow a little bit again which I wouldn't complain too much about. We have about a two and a half hour downhill hike to where we're staying the night tonight.
I think the snow is following us. The dippin dot snow has begun again.
Our trail is the faint little brown line you see running all the way across the side of the Moun.
Wind's blowing about 20 miles an hour right now. Got some sleet hitting us in the face. How you feeling Kara?
My face is a little cold. I'm feeling good.
You look like the Michelin man.
The purple Michelin man. Her trail's going to all the way down and all the way up back around the corner it's snowing so hard you can barely see the mountain across from us.
It's snowing pretty hard so I put the camera up so it doesn't get ruined.
We got into our mansion Sherpa teahouse. A couple hours ago. It was still snowing really hard, and we were really tired, so we didn't vlog. But let me show you my favorite part of the teahouse. As soon as you walk in, from floor to ceiling, a giant thing of yak poo, which I've come to love because that means that this place is heated.
Three fourths of the way down the mountain. I still have this much further to go.
