Nothing but Clear Skies
Namche Bazaar, Nepal
Namche Bazaar, Nepal
Well that was probably the worst night of sleep thus far on the trip. There were a pack of stray dogs who decided to bark, howl, bite, and possibly eat something during the middle of the night. It was also the coldest day of the trek as we bundled under our sleeping bags. Thank God that the tea houses provide extra blankets for us! Once we mustered the courage to take a peek out the window, we were blessed with the best views of the trek! It was crystal clear and you could see all the mountains.
I don't remember who ran to whose room, but everyone eventually ended up in Jenny's room where we saw the really big mountains! Of course we woke up Laxmi and made her tell us all the mountain names since this was the first time we have seen the peaks. It was so cool!! Similar to kids on Christmas, we got on our warmest clothes and raced outside with our GoPro and cameras. It was amazing with the views. We took so many pictures! And we could finally see Everest without clouds blocking it.
We finally had some clarification on the "tiny Mt Everest." We thought it was another mountain whose nickname was tiny mt Everest. It turns out it was a minor language barrier issue. Laxmi meant it was a tiny portion of Everest and that the whole mountain is blocked by the 2nd highest mountain in the region, Lohse. It was the perfect surprise after a snowy yesterday and a perfect present for Jenny birthday AND a perfect beginning to Easter Sunday!
Obviously, it was awesome start to the morning. I had my usual breakfast of toast, eggs, and potatoes, and muesli and it was good. It was extremely windy and cold outside, probably because we are in a valley, so we layered up. As we started around 830, it was still really clear! Thank you, God! Our goal for today was to take it slow and stretch out the day since we don't know how long this awesome weather will last.
The morning hike was really easy. It was flat by our standards and then it wound downhill to our lunch spot. Unfortunately nothing exciting happened besides that we kept on putting one foot forward. There was a slight uphill to lunch where I got a slight sinus headache. Not a good sign. Random side note: I wish we spent less time in Kathmandu just so we would have avoided the dirt, dust, and everything else there that led to Jenny and I being sick. Getting sick just before the hard parts of this trek really sucks because we instantly have a sinus headaches anytime we gain elevation.
After my lunch of Sherpa stew (it wasn't as good as the last place), we began the hard part of this hike to straight uphill. Again, we kept it really slow and we stopped more often for pictures. One kinda funny part is we were told that the uphill would start after we crossed the bridge. Well, the first bridge we found was completely destroyed. It was very funny when jenny saw it and then Laxmi informed us that it was the old bridge and the new one is further down. Whew.
So we pressed on up. We covered about 500m in 2 hours so we really pressed it. During one of our water breaks, we saw a woman riding a horse to the top. We found it funny since she was decked out in top notch hiking gear yet she was just sitting there. Unfortunately for us, she didn't know how to control her horse so my foot was almost destroyed by the hoof. Part of me sympathizes with her cause maybe she can't do it. Another part of me is like you've probably paid oodles of money to be the only person on this trail riding a horse. To each their own...
We kept it slow throughout the afternoon and finally reached Dingboche. It was one of the hardest hikes and I did not feel that great. Maybe because it was longer and I just needed to catch my breath. It turns out that is exactly what I needed and then jenny and I debated going another 200-300m just to acclimated but we were shot down by Laxmi. Apparently it was getting dark and it was very windy up top. Oh well.
After the fact note: back in planning, I had cut out an acclimatization day thinking oh we are young, we will be fine. Well, all the young people on our same timeline thought differently and were staying the extra day. It really bit us when we overheard big fit people even taking the rest day. Safe to say we all were really worried especially in the coming days.
Our teahouse this time was very basic. No running toilets or water and electricity was at a minimum (at night only). Even the yak poop heat was not very sufficient. One neat thing was we were sharing this teahouse with a group of 37. Yes, a group of 37 individuals. It was interesting to share and overhear their experiences. They are hiking to EBC to help fundraise for a cancer research clinic in Kathmandu. Very neat.
Never Before Seen Video!
For dinner, I had the usual veggie momos and garlic soup. Anyway, we had multiple reasons to celebrate tonight. First, it was Easter. Second, it was Jenny's birthday! Laxmi mainly focused on the second item. We had awesome birthday cake that was so good. We each had a slice and even gave some to the porters and kitchen staff.
Then, we made Jenny take a shot of Patron. Well then as the birthday girl, she wanted to split it so we all had to take sips. At 4400m, the alcohol hit much faster than anticipated. It mainly just warmed us up. Even Laxmi got in on the action! She was very fascinated with the bottle so we gave it to her. Then, we settled in for an old tradition and played lots of card games. Eventually, we got tired and called it a night. We retired to our cold cots and dreamt the night away.
