Day 7 – Dingboche -> Ama Dablam Base Camp
If it wasn’t already obvious as these blog updates go on, as we gain altitude our brain capacity slows a bit. Honestly it’s been quite entertaining, there’s been multiple occasions where we are all sitting in the lodge dining room cracking up over absolutely nothing. All in all it adds to the fun. It’s also kinda funny when someone asks you a question and your processing/answer time takes forever. It’s like you’re waiting for the penny to drop.
Overall the group is doing well. There’s a multitude of stomach issues going around, and a fair bit of fatigue but all that is to be expected really.
Today we had our final acclimatisation day in Dingboche (4,400m). With this we had two options, you could do a 2-3hr walk up a nearby ridge line and return to the village, or you could trek to Ama Dablam Base Camp (4,600m). When I came to Nepal with Youth to Everest in 2018, we did Ama Dablam base camp instead of Everest Base Camp. The group split in half, and obviously I chose to return to Ama Dablam Base Camp. This was about a 6-7hr trek, so it didn’t make for much of a rest day.
The morning started off with a stunning sunrise, I raced outside to take photos and froze it was so cold.
The start of the walk consisted of dropping down to the nearby river, where we then had to find a bridge to cross and then bush bashing and rock hopping across the other side until we eventually made it onto a tahr track. This involved a lot of back tracking to find the bridge, and a bit of slip and sliding over the icy ground. One thing we didn’t want was to slip into that river, it would’ve been instant hypothermia.
From the river it was a gradual climb until we reached the main track to Ama Dablam where it became steep and our breathing laboured. It was worth the trek though, we had mostly clear skies and stunning views. Although somehow it seemed a little less impressive than the first time I got there. On the trek back down we found a different bridge so the journey home was a lot faster and more straightforward. I was pretty knackered after that so had lunch at the local cafe, then crashed for a little afternoon nap.
Tomorrow we are off to Lobuche, and all going to plan we should reach Everest Base Camp the following day!
Day 8 – Dingboche -> Lobuche
Today has been a bit of a challenging day. The walk itself wasn’t particularly difficult, but a few of our group members are battling symptoms of altitude sickness, and that’s difficult for all of us to see. With only a 6hr hour walk between us and Everest Base Camp, one member of our party is being flown out to a lower altitude first thing tomorrow morning. Even though we are so close, it is too dangerous up here to take any risks. So morale is a little low within the group tonight.
However, all that being said, we are excited! EBC is a huge accomplishment and it is exciting that it’s finally upon us, EBC eve I guess you could call it.
The walk today was arguably the most stunning yet. You can’t get much more “up in the mountains” than we are (without climbing them).
Although, now that we are back on the main trail, the tracks are busy. There’s a constant stream of trekkers, porters, yaks and horses.
Once we arrived in Lobuche, we all crashed pretty quickly in the lodge. It’s weird being in a bigger lodge that’s full of other travellers, we’ve become accustomed to staying in smaller lodges where we are often the only group, or maybe accompanied by the odd other couple.
The town of Lobuche is tiny, see their washing facilities in the image below. We took a short but steep walk from the lodge to look out over the Khumbu Glacier which was pretty cool. I just can’t believe how little snow there is on all these mountains considering Nepal has just come out of winter and we are at such an altitude. It’s an obvious demonstration of climate change.
Alright off to bed now (I’ll hopefully post this in the morning), before our bright and early start to EBC tomorrow! (Oops you can clearly tell I’m a couple of days behind lol)
~ Nikita’s Nomadic Notes
Nikita’s Nomadic Notes 