Even though I have no interest in climbing Mount Everest, I’ve always thought it would be fun to poke around Base Camp during climbing season, taking in the highly adrenalized, gear-laden, multinational assemblage. Kevin Fedarko did just that last year, and his story about the experience in the July issue of Outside is a great read. Base Camp has a reputation for being a zoo, and, sure enough, he found plenty of excesses in what he calls the “Himalayan version of Burning Man.” But he found more than that. “In addition to presenting a rather grotesque perversion of pretty much everything that alpinism is supposed to represent,” he writes, “Everest Base Camp also happens to be—and I’m afraid there’s just no other way to put this—an absolute fricking blast.”

He arrived in May to find snapping prayer flags and 250 tents.

“The 27 expeditions spread along this half-mile strip had turned the place into a cross between a Central Asian bazaar and a pre-Christmas PlayStation sale at Wal-Mart,” he writes.

He investigates severeral Base Camp “boroughs,” including “Luxuristan,” with its massage tables and expansive DVD collection, and “Bunnystan,” where National Geographic Poland editor and former Polish Playboy bunny Martyna Wojciechowska were preparing for a summit bid.

Fedarko had heard that climbers at Base Camp could be unfriendly toward non-climbing visitors, yet he found most everyone welcoming.

A print version of the story isn’t available online, but Outside has posted audio of Fedarko reading the piece, as well as an interview with him. In the Q&A, Fedarko confesses that, even though it might be “unfashionable” to reveal it in an Outside magazine podcast, he has no interest in climbing Everest himself. In fact, he finds Base Camp far more intriguing than the summit. After reading his story, I can see why.

Related on World Hum:
* U.S. Issues New Nepal Travel Warning
* Peace Deal Helps Lure Travelers Back to Nepal
* A Brief History of Adventure Travel

Photo by Mahatma4711 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).