DALIA SABLE

SCALING Everest Base Camp is a challenge in itself. But for a group of shomer Shabbat, kosher trekkers, climbing the mountain was only part of the undertaking.

For ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Michael Gordon, the idea of climbing to base camp was a “life goal”. After hours of internet research, Dr Gordon and his friends, Dr Henry Debinski, Dr Jeff Lipshatz, Brian Wiener and Mark Franks, decided to take on the challenge.

When they heard about the planned trip, Ari Felberbaum and Dr Henry Rochwerger were also keen to join.

So the planning began. The requisite thermals, trekking boots and water bottles were purchased. The itinerary -– with no climbing on Shabbat -– and kosher food were finalised through World Expedition and its contacts at the Chabad House in Kathmandu, Nepal. Organising the undertaking was complete, and as the bus arrived to pick up the trekkers -– each with differing physical fitness levels -– for the airport, Dr Gordon remarked that it was like going off on school camp.

After a night stopover in Kathmandu, where the trekkers packed the contents of their suitcases into 15-17 kilogram capacity bags, the journey to base camp began.

At four o’clock in the morning, the seven trekkers set off to achieve their dream along with a young American mashgiach, a guide and 24 Sherpas.

As the group scaled higher and higher, the rolling green valleys and rhododendron shrubs were replaced with rocks, glaciers and ice. By the 4000-metre point, the trekkers were above the tree line.

A few days into the trek, the day before Anzac Day, they met a crew from New Zealand, including the stepdaughter of Sir Edmund Hillary –- the first man to reach the summit of Everest.

The New Zealanders invited the Jewish group to the dawn service they had planned for the following morning.

“At 5am on Shabbat morning, we took part in a pre-sunrise service on the cliff with the New Zealanders. Poetry was read and we sang the national anthems and Waltzing Matilda as the sun was coming up, with Everest looming in the background,” Dr Gordon said.

For Felberbaum, this was one of the trip highlights. “It was a very emotional experience,” he said.

For him and many others, another highlight of the trip was climbing to Kala Pattar, a mountain peak higher than base camp that provides a full view of Everest, in its enormity.

At this point, more than 5000-metres high, Felberbaum said the prayer Shehecheyanu.

“I was so spiritually inspired that I said the blessing one says thanking God for giving us the opportunity to see this amazing sight. I wonder if at any time in history saying the name of God was ever uttered at such a high point.”

In addition to Anzac Day, the group also marked Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’aztmaut during their trek, in an experience that was as memorable to them as it was to the Sherpas with them.

“We were at about 4000 metres and it was minus two degrees. We lit candles, said tefillah and sang songs in our down jackets,” Dr Gordon said.

The group explained the day’s significance to their Nepalese guide, who had never previously heard of any of Israel’s wars.

According to Dr Gordon, by the end of the trip, the guide’s favourite word was “balagan”, Hebrew for chaotic.

While most of the trekkers were fit -– especially Felberbaum, who ran a marathon the day before leaving for the trip and Dr Lipshatz who partakes in regular triathlons -– Wiener had not achieved the same level of fitness and his efforts to base camp earned him the title of “hero story”.

“Brian [Wiener] was struggling along and when we finally arrived at base camp he was exhausted and didn’t think he could go back,” Dr Gordon said.

The group spent an hour at base camp before embarking on the three-hour trek back down to the town of Gorek Shep.

“Brian was thinking ‘how the hell can I get back’ and it was steep with rocks. At 4pm we got back to the teahouse. Half-an-hour later, the door opens and Brian walks in to the teahouse and collapses to a standing ovation.”

As well as differing physical abilities and fitness levels, the group appeared to have varying tolerance levels to the cold.

“When we arrived at Lobuche on day eight at about 3pm, Mark Franks and I went into our tent to rest before meeting up for dinner with the other guys. We emerged at about 4pm [and] went to find the other guys, but when we knocked on their tents we found them empty. They had all left to sleep indoors at the nearby teahouse,” Dr Lipshatz said.

With commitments back home, Dr Lipshatz, Franks and Dr Debinski had a shorter itinerary planned, but halfway through the trip they decided they “would not be satisfied finishing earlier than base camp and wanted to finish there together with the rest of the group”, Franks said.

With return flights booked, it was an almost impossible endeavour, unless the trio could organise a helicopter trip to take them back down the mountain.

“On the last morning we rose before the sun, climbed to 5500 metres to see the sunrise over Everest and then had to do a mad bolt down the mountain to a point where the chopper could pick us up before the weather got too rough to fly,” Franks said. “For me that was the highlight, as the whole plan had come together.”

Indeed, the plan came together, and the seven Jewish-Australian trekkers –- who stopped to pray three times a day, strictly observed kashrut, and rested on Shabbat and read and discussed the weekly parshah –- made it to Everest Base Camp and beyond.

Not only did they conquer the challenge of the mountain and their dream of scaling to its base, but they developed a lifelong bond.