KILDARE: Naas man climbs Mount Everest base camp

A Naas man has undertaken the Mount Everest base camp hike.

Rathmore native Gavin Gillis, 50, got the climbing bug as a teenager when he attended secondary school.

This was because he participated in school-organised hikes.

“The reason I wanted to go to Everest base camp was thanks to a teacher in Naas CBS Noel Gillespie who got me hooked with hiking when I was about 16.”

Gavin is married with two adult children and works as a driver with Naas Oil.

He recalled: “At the time there were too many lads for the amount of pitches in the school so he got us to do different sports . Twice he brought us to the Wicklow mountains hiking, up Keadeen mountain and the Spink before there was any boardwalk there.”

Gavin undertakes hikes mostly in Ireland; he's also hiked across Wales, Iceland and Italy . 

But undertaking a climb in the Himalayas was always his goal.

Preparation for the base camp climb meant doing a lot more hiking than normal - and  with a weighted rucksack . 

“That was all I could do before I went, but there was nothing I could do to prepare for the effects of altitude.”

The climb took nine  hours to hike from Lukla village at an altitude of 2846 metres to Everest base camp at 5364 metres and then another five hours  to get back.

Nightime temperatures fell to minus 15.

“Vehicles are not allowed to travel up the Khumbu valley , everything is carried up and down the valley by people , dzos or yaks. The vegetation on the route changes so much from  farms growing crops and forestry to something like a moonscape as you ascend.”

Gavin’s pathway was the  same route Edmund Hillary  took on his expedition to the top in 1953.

“Along the trail you get to see some of the highest mountains in the world - Ama Dablam 6812 metres,  Nuptse 7978 metres and Lhotse 8501 metres. There was a 360 degree view of amazing scenery and even at five degrees celsius sunburn was something you take care against.”

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