4350m to 4600m (+250m)
5.0km - 2 hours
100th post on this diary!
Almost no sleep last night. It didn't seem like an issue not being able to sleep, it was just some more time to kill, but in silent darkness. My brain felt fresh and wide-awake - I'd read that sleep deprivation was common but had assumed it would be intensely annoying and groggy. I listened to podcasts and music all night! Helen and Dave were also having broken sleep patterns.
There's two possible paths out of Dingboche; one is a gentle climb but longer, from the top of the town; the other is short and steep. We chose the latter which was an exhausting three steps, stop, get breath, three steps, stop, get breath, three steps... and so on to the Stupa. The weather was overcast and windy again, we wondered if we would ever see any mountains! Once past the Stupa and on the ridge the walk is a nice, open, steady climb. Far below on the left are the river and Penriche. We sat down to let an enormous group of trekkers, porters and guides overtake us.
The land is mostly barren now, but if you look closely there's millions of beautiful tiny flowers carpeting the land!
The path follows the river up, and at the end of the valley is the rocky end of a glacier, a natural dam for a crystal blue glacial lake. Our brief dog companion today was George, who soon decided we weren't interesting enough and went the other way. The path turns right and meets with the river. There's an interesting bridge here, the first section being okay but the next part (which is sometimes washed away) is no more than two thin planks, so requires a little more balance. Over the bridge the path then heads into the three-building "village" of Thukla - the Yak lodge, the restaurant and the Sherpa lodge (no tourists allowed!).
 |
| End of a glacier - glacial lake just visible |
 |
| That bridge! |
 |
| Thukla |
 |
| Fluffy exhibition yak! |
We had some lunch (I had an
amazing Sherpa stew) then the rains came. Also here were Tom, Verena, Martin and the friendly South African couple we'd seen in Dingboche. The South African man had an impressive watch with GPS, an altimeter and many other functions - I was a little jealous of his statistic collecting abilities! He'd received a weather report that the weather was going to break the day after tomorrow - this was great news if true! Two ladies came out of the rain into the restaurant, they'd been to base camp the previous day and said it was snowing, and they didn't see a thing. One of them said she had to try and sleep sitting up at Gorak Shep as she felt like she was suffocating while lying down. The South Africans said farewell, put their packs on and bravely melted into the mist, wind and rain!
 |
| Me, Verena, Helen, Dave, Martin, Tom, lodge owner |
Our original plan was to stay two days in Dingboche but we read a good acclimatisation schedule suggesting one night in Dingboche and one night in Thukla. It's not immediately clear but there's two types of accommodation at the Yak lodge; one in the old building tucked away behind the restaurant (50 Rupees) and the other is in the more obvious new building (100 Rupees). We didn't see the old building and stayed in the new one but it seemed unfinished, and the toilet was bad! Also staying here were the monks from Tengboche monastery - they were heading to Mother Everest for an annual Puja.
The evening was freezing so the lodge workers popped some Yak "pancakes" into the stove - we all gathered around, scared to leave the warm and get into freezing beds!
 |
| Yak powered warmth |
No comments:
Post a Comment