The decision to trek to the Mount Everest base camp was an easy one for Jordon Reiter.
The Picture Butte High School graduate, Class of 2003, was invited to tackle the challenging climb and figured it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he couldn’t turn down.
“Why not?,” he said.
Reiter, who currently calls Red Deer home, said the group he made the trek with have done the same journey before so he felt confident joining in this year’s adventure. The path up to the base camp is more about trekking than climbing.
“It got more challenging as the altitude got higher.”
He said anyone attempting the trek has to be in at least moderately good shape and he finds he is actually in better shape than when he played college basketball.
Reiter, who has completed his business degree, has been working for Henry’s Eavestroughing for about six months and said it was actually his boss who suggested the trek to the base camp and invited him along with three other guys who all work together. The group usually does something challenging like this each year.
“It was a pretty good opportunity. Not many people get to say they’ve been to Everest.”
He said he didn’t really do anything different to prepare for the trek to the base camp located in Nepal. He already keeps in good physical shape.
“It was amazing,” he said of his journey.
He finds it hard to describe the views, pictures just don’t do it justice.
“It was cold enough.”
During the day while they were moving the cold wasn’t a problem but at night and the higher up they got the more challenging the temperature drop became. The group bundled up and even cuddled up to keep warm at night.
“We pretty much had to wear winter clothing inside all day.”
Along the way there were unheated lodges to stay in which allowed them to sleep off of the ground but it was still very cold at night. It took them 10 days of walking to reach the base camp and four days to make it back down. On the way up they had to include a couple of days just to walk part way up and back down to the lodges in order to acclimatize themselves to the altitude before carrying on with their climb the following day.
In all Reiter figures he covered 90 to 100 kilometres of walking during the two week journey up to the base camp and back down. He said most people would figure the climb is all up hill to the camp but it’s up and down all the way to make it over the mountainous terrain.
“You go through different valleys on the way up.”
Overall he rates the adventure as a great experience, especially meeting the people who live in the area working as guides for climbers.
“They don’t have much but they are happy. It’s pretty amazing.”
The trek to the Everest base camp is not a journey Reiter said he’d every thought about doing but he’s glad it’s something he got the opportunity to do. For a guy raised in southern Alberta, in the Iron Springs area, the trip was the farthest he’s every been in his life.
“It’s almost as far as you can go from home.”
He said previously the farthest he’d ever been was Florida. This trip was a major one for him and when he reached the base camp he found he felt quite tiny in comparison to the majestic splendor around him.
Once the group reached the base camp they actually had to climb higher to the Kala Patthar peak in order to get the best view of Everest, which can’t actually be seen from the base camp.
“The view up there is amazing.”
Reiter said he would like to tackle a similar adventure again but would welcome a warmer climate. He admits there were times during the trek when he was so cold he wonder why he was even there but in the end he said it was all worth it.