During the Easter break, a group of Highgate pupils and staff headed to the Himalayas and trekked to Mt Everest base camp! Year 12 Georgie reflects on their time on the world’s highest mountain:
‘I think it was the third day when I realised that our Nepal trip was not going to be Duke of Edinburgh with yaks. We’d done our first full day of walking, were sat in a tea house drinking our eighth cup that day, and it suddenly sank in that we were in the Himalayas and going to base camp.
‘Although reaching base camp was obviously a highlight, it was the small, everyday rituals which I remember so fondly now: the homemade porridge from the sherpas every morning, the constant refilling of bottles with boiling water, the evenings where we’d sit around the fire after dinner and talk for hours. These small memories make it hard to explain just how strong an impression the trip made on me, but I can safely say it will remain with me forever.
‘It was so much harder than I expected – I never thought I’d need to use my water purification tablets which were on the kit list, but how wrong I was proved to be – but it was also more amazing than I could have hoped for. The ridiculously huge mountains, the unprecedented happiness of a hot shower after eight days without one, the comfort of Dhal Baat after a long day trekking…. This trip genuinely brought me so much joy in so many ways, not least the friendships I made. I think that may be my favourite thing: having seen each other at our best (and worst!) for three weeks, I now can’t imagine school without the people that went to Everest, and we will now never tire of retelling our stories!
‘So, in some ways, it was Duke of Edinburgh with yaks. Yet, in so many others, it was immeasurably more.’
