Its dream for many mountaineers to reach the summit of world highest mountain. If you are one of them then you must know different camps set up on the way for Everest climb. Firstly, we need to reach the base camp of Everest. We have two ways, either we trek or take a helicopter ride to reach the Everest base camp. After reaching the base camp, we will then hike to the high points of base camp. During Everest climb friendly Sherpas will carry your heavy backpack. They will help you manage and carry your loads. Khumbu Icefall will be our first destination. After various sessions of ice climbing training, we head to camp 1 after crossing Khumbu icefall. On reaching Khumbu icefall, we will be familiar with high altitude climbing.
On attempting the summit, we need to go through camp 1, camp 2, camp 3, and camp 4.
Camp 1:
Camp 1 is at 6,100 meters that is 20,000 feet. Western Cwm is where camp 1 is located. Western Cwm lies at the heart of Everest on a big glacial plateau. To reach Western Cwm we need to go through Khumbu icefall, crossing and climbing ladders, climbing up and over seracs, traversing and walking around crevasses clipped to well fixed safety lines. Don’t worry we have several rest days at camp 1 and Sherpas will take good care of us. After resting, we need to move to camp 2 from Western Cwm.
Camp2:
Camp 2 is at 20,750 feet that is 6350 meters. We need to hike for a long time from Western Cwm to reach camp 2. We will be reaching west face of Mount Everest, the lateral moraines beneath. Camp 2 is like our base station. We spend several days here where we have permanent cooks too. This means we can get delicious meal three times a day. To get familiar, we will be walking up and down the snow apron. We will be reaching to the base of the Lhotse at 6550 meters / 21,500 feet. Finally, when we have full energy and stamina, we need to move towards camp3.
Camp 3:
Camp 3 is at 7100 meters i.e. 23,250 feet. Our camp in camp 3 is protected as it is inside a serac/crevasse system. The temperature will be up to 50 degrees, and we need to walk to the base of Lhotse base for hours and hours. Our next target is to climb Lhotse face. Just to keep in mind, we need to stay near the seracs and other slope anchors. That will help to avoid avalanches. After gaining some experience we can go back to camp 2 to rest. Do you know that you are now capable of attempting the summit? To get familiar with oxygen, we sleep at night on oxygen and move to camp 4 as early as possible.
Camp 4:
Camp 4 is at 26,000 feet that is 7950 meters. We will be climbing through south col for camp 4. We need to climb up Lhotse face using oxygen, crossing over to easy rock scrambling known as yellow band. The difficulty will be at peak as you are with equipment required to climb Everest and high altitude. After successfully climbing the yellow band, our next step is to cross rock ridge over the Geneva Spur of Lhotse face. The view will be beautiful, and the weather will be cold and windy there. We will then be heading towards South Col. South Col is a huge flat snowy plain located on border of Nepal and Tibet. Keep in mind that we are taking oxygen from camp 4 and will rest in South Col for 24 hours. We need to rest in tent and stay hydrated with hot drinks like tea and soups.
These are the different camps we go through while climbing tallest peak in the world. If you ever had thoughts or you felt like “I want to climb Mount Everest” then you must go through these camps. Except Mount Everest there are many others peaks located in Nepal. Some of them are Manaslu, Annapurna, Ama Dablam, Lobuche Peak, Island Peak, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Dhaulagiri, Makalu and many more.