Day 6: Tengbouche – 3,900m/ 12,800 feet
Today we will leave Namche and trek to Tengbouche at 3,900m/ 12,800 ft. From Namche, the well-worn Everest trail contours around the side of the valley high above the Dudh Kosi. As we follow the path, we will get excellent views of the great peaks of the Khumbu; Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam. Passing by several villages, we will descend approximately 300m/ 984 feet down to the Dudh Kosi River, where we stop for lunch. After lunch, we will make the steep 700m/ 2,296 ft uphill climb to Tengbouche. This is the home of the impressive and famous Tengbouche Monastery. You can visit the Monastery or the local bakery this afternoon. The hike will be approximately 5 to 6 hours today and covers 7.5 miles/ 12 km.
Well, we found the people. The trail today, from Namche to Tengbouche was BUSY AF. Small groups, large groups, single trekkers and everything in between. Sprinkle in some yaks, zobos and horses and it made for a very “vibrant” hike! So today, we had to bid a fond farewell to the Hotel Namche and all the creature comforts we’d gotten used to, and continue onwards and upwards! The weather was clear and sunny this morning, so we got cracking straight after breakfast, at around 8am. The path took us up out of Namche and did, indeed, reward us with some simply spectacular views. This part of the trail was really nice to hike on – wide and not too rocky underfoot and not too steep. Each step on the trail where my lungs aren’t exploding, I am grateful for! I’m sure the trekking boot will drop eventually – but so far, I’ve managed to keep my heart rate nice and low during our hikes – which is exactly what I was hoping and training for. The only time my heart rate spiked above 100 today was when I put on a teeny bit of pace to extricate myself from a large pack of Taiwanese trekkers. It is amazing the impact just a little bit of extra speed can have – it is sooooo important to take it slow and steady!
We hiked for about an hour and a half before stopping at a teahouse for tea and a pee. My beverage of choice is lemon, ginger and honey tea – a bit sweet, a bit spicy – and made with so much real dried ginger, its practically a salad. We’d walked past a couple of other tea houses that were absolutely thronging with people, so I was glad we hadn’t stopped at those. After a few days solitude on the trail, its a bit of a shock to the system to be suddenly surrounded by so much noisy humanity. And it is interesting to see the diversity of people who are trekking – obviously, there are a lot of very fit looking people. But there are also a fair number of people who don’t look like they’ve spent the last 6 months in the gym training! We even saw 2 people on horseback. I absolutely would NOT want to do this trail on the back of a horse – it would be utterly terrifying!!!
After our tea stop, we hiked for about another hour and a half, down to the river where I had a plate of very tasty potatoes for lunch! (its now recommended to avoid meat). The weather was just starting to turn and, as we set off after lunch at around 12.30pm, the clouds were obscuring the mountains and there was a definite chill in the air. DJ estimated that it would take us around 2.5 – 3hrs to complete the 2,296ft uphill climb to Tengbouche. We hiked mainly through pine forests and so had to pay more attention to where we were putting our feet, as the terrain underfoot was pretty uneven. Despite this, we crushed it and reached Tengbouche monastery just before 2.30pm! By this point, the clouds had really rolled in and by 3.30pm, you couldn’t even see the monastery (which is right next to our tea house). The original plan was to visit the monastery but, because the weather was so crappy, we decided to go tomorrow morning instead, after breakfast. Besides, there is also a bakery situated in the tea house, so a slice of apple pie and some hot chocolate seemed like a more attractive plan in that moment!
I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on blogging, enjoying the super fast 5G that I found out cost more (1500 rupees) than the cost of a room for the night! (500 rupees!). As the afternoon wore on, the dining hall filled up more and more, especially after 5pm when they light the wood (or yak dung) burning stoves to heat the place up for dinner. There were a couple of large groups – one situated right next to us – and they were really noisy. I stuffed my headphones in as I blogged, so managed to block out most of it, but it was still an assault on the senses. Apparently there was some drama later on that evening with a Chinese girl getting into an altercation with one of the larger group’s guides (about seating, of all things) – but I missed that excitement as I’d already gone upstairs to bed after dinner (and few rounds of Uno with DJ and Shannon).
The room was fine – not as nice as Hotel Namche, of course, but it felt clean and there were no gaps in between the window and the surrounding wall. No ensuite – but the loo was only down the hall, so not that far to go. No sheets on the beds this time, just blankets, so I dug out my sleeping bag to snuggle into. The only issue – the internal walls were paper thin – so much so I could actually hear the British guy in the room next to mine breathing as he lay in bed!! Fortunately, I have very good ear plugs, so I jammed those in, pulled a thick woolen beanie over my ears and then buried my head underneath my down sleeping bag which did the trick. I could still hear the dog in the monastery barking – but despite that, managed to drop off and get some solid sleep. Tomorrow we head off to Dingbouche where we will spend 2 nights, important acclimatization days before our final push to Everest Base Camp! Getting closer!!
ps the “yeti” skull is bogus: Yeah, nope.
