Take the High Road to Lobuche

Time to continue our onwards progress towards EBC.  Had another GREAT night’s sleep so woke up again at 5.30am feeling refreshed and ready for the day.  Breakfast today was some Tibetan bread with jam and butter – pretty much a fried doughnut which was jolly tasty!  It was a clear day, with bright blue skies – but it was COLD, my weather app showing a temperature of only 16 degrees.  Even inside, in the dining room, I could see my breath.  It hadn’t snowed again overnight, though, which was good in one respect (no spikes needed) but it did mean that the trail had become very mushy and slippy in places.

We headed out of Dingboche via the same trail we’d taken before – passing a collection of super fluffy and adorable yaks who were hanging out at the crossroads.  After a short climb out of town, the trail was mostly flat(ish) terrain – wide scrub-like plains where you could spread out, take your time and find your own path.  The views were absolutely magnificent – behind us was the mountain range dominated by Ana Dablam, in front of us were a bunch of new mountains, including Lobuche Peak.  I am REALLY trying to remember all the names of the various peaks – but its pretty much impossible.  Too many names, too unpronounceable!  We left around 8am, making sure to leave while the weather was good – we did not want to be stuck hiking after the clouds roll in or if it starts to snow!

So I have to say – the first bit of hiking this morning, from Dingboche to our lunch spot at Thukla, was pretty easy.  The terrain was really nice (except for a few muddy bits) so it made for a low-stress, easy stroll! (albeit one at 16,000 ft!!).  We passed a few stone outbuildings that are used by the local farmers – the walls surrounding them made for a very scenic pee stop! (there are some VERY well fertilized fields out there).  We made great time so reached our lunch stop by 10.30am!  We had to cross the river via a small bridge (there’s a large suspension bridge that is still under construction) which also took us past an area with a high rockslide danger. DJ went ahead to check it was safe first – then motioned for us to quickly follow.  It reminded me of the section on the Annapurna Base Camp trail where we had to traverse a snowfield that had high avalanche potential.

The tea house was pretty nice and I had – yep, you guessed it – egg veg fried rice!  Despite it being on the early side for lunch, it was still busy but the staff have clearly got serving a large number of trekkers efficiently down to a fine art!  Talking with DJ, apparently they can serve up to a thousand people a day!  The process is streamlined somewhat by our guides and porters acting as the waitstaff – this is so the kitchen staff can keep cooking, without interruption, while the guides dole the food out to the tables.  Pretty smart.

We were back on the trail just after 11am – and I have noticed that the trek tends to feel harder just after lunch.  I think my body is just being a bit of a bitch and telling me it would rather be napping and digesting rather than hauling my ass up a mountain with 60% oxygen levels!  We were also traversing a long steeper uphill section – so the trail itself was also genuinely harder.  As we got higher, the wind picked up a bit too – so you layered up as protection from the wind, but then instantly roasted when the wind dropped and the sun beat down on you! (I made sure to put Factor 40 on today, so hopefully my face isn’t getting too burnt).  As we puffed our way up the trail, we spotted this enormous eagle that was circling overhead – it was MASSIVE!  Other than yak, zobos, horses and some Himalayan magpies, we haven’t seen all that much in the way of wildlife during this trip.  So it was cool to see.

After another 45 mins or so, we reached the Everest Memorial, situated at the top of the Thukla Pass, which features over 100 stone cairns and memorials dedicated to climbers and sherpas who have perished in the mountains.  It was very moving and poignant, reading the plaques in memory of loved ones lost – the heartache behind the messages was all too clear.  Is it any comfort to those left behind that their beloved died doing what they loved, I wonder?  I just came away from there feeling incredibly sad for all the loss.  ManpanionTM is convinced I’ll come home from this trek with a burning desire to scale Everest itself.  I can safely say I will NEVER want to attempt anything like that.  This EBC trek is about as edgy as its gonna get.  To see the memorials to all those people for whom this was an all-consuming passion – and they still died.  No thank you, please.

From the Memorial, it was another fairly easy walk into Lobuche (though apparently a lady just down the trail was vomiting profusely, so she was gonna be taken down the mountain).  Our tea house for this evening is creatively called the New EBC Lodge (there’s another tea house in town called Oxygen) and the communal  restaurant area is actually warm!!  And its not even 2pm yet! (yes, we CRUSHED it today again). I had the best lemon ginger honey tea of the trip so far (more tea like, less salad) and my room is pretty decent with a DOUBLE bed!!  No ensuite loo – but I will enjoy more wriggle space in my sleeping bag tonight.

And now, I’m in my usual spot, tucked away in a corner, blogging.  At least on this trip there is PLENTY of downtime to keep current with my blog. We only have one more night in a tea house in Gorek Shep tomorrow before we then sleep at Everest Base Camp!!!  I am VERY glad I decided to bring my zero F rated sleeping bag as I suspect it will be cold AF.  Looking at the weather for tomorrow, its forecast to snow with a high of 20F and a low of 1F!!  Eeek!!