Since our last post, we have been keeping pretty busy. We woke up the
morning in Khumjung to fantastic views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse, and the
upper flanks of Everest. You can see Everest and Lhotse in the photo
below; Lhotse is the peak on the right, and in the middle of the photo
you can see the summit ridge on Everest leading from the South Summit
to the true summit (with the cloud blowing off of the top). It was
impressive how fast the clouds were moving off of the peaks, it must
have been incredibly windy up top that day.
After that, we trekked to Tenboche and visited the famous monastery
there. We also made some time to check out the local bakery, which
had fantastic chocolate cake and apple pie. I also got some much
needed indulgence in the form of a cappuccino! Afterwards, we just
had a short walk down to Deboche where we spent the night. Even
though we were still a few days hike away from base camp, we found out
that before the summit push we will be coming down to rest in Deboche
(of course it will be faster hiking once we are better acclimatized).
I am sure that we will all appreciate the bakery even more by that
point.
The next day we woke up early to leave Deboche and head to Pangboche.
Here we received a traditional blessing by Lama Geshe for safe travels
in the mountains and good luck on our summit attempt. In the photo
you can see Lama Geshe blessing Lhakpa Rita.
After Pangboche, we headed to Dingboche to spend the night. As we
have trekked along the rooms have started to get increasingly simple,
and Dingboche continued this trend, but it is still great to be able
to spend these nights outside of a tent.
Today we had a rest day, but we spent the morning on an
acclimatization hike in which we reached our high point for the trek
so far around 15,200'. Up there we all started to feel the altitude a
bit more, but everyone did well so it was a nice confidence booster as
we get closer to base camp. From the high point, you can normally see
great views of 4 8000m peaks—unfortunately we were completely socked
in by clouds all day today.
We spent most of the afternoon playing cards, but I am planning on
making a trip to the Dingboche bakery later (it's good to be able to
consume as many calories as you possibly can and still lose weight).
I feel like between the group we will be able to write a thorough
guide to the bakeries of the Khumbu by the time we reach base camp.
Tomorrow we head to Lobuche, which is our last stop before base camp.
Although the trek has been a ton of fun, it will be nice to finally
arrive and start preparing for the climb ahead. We will keep you all
posted as internet access allows!
-Rob + Chris
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