Winter Wonderland
Tengboche, Nepal
Tengboche, Nepal
Despite my fitful night of sleep, my first on this trek, I had a rude awakening when Jenny jumped on me. To be fair, Ed woke me up a little bit but I wanted a few more Zs before the day truly began. They were all excited because it snowed last night! And it wasn't a Georgia snow, this was Himalayan snow. To them, I am sure it was a light frost but it was really exciting to us! It did provide an awesome background to the mountains and Namche.
Of course, we didn't actually go outside since it is still snow which means it's cold and I wasn't going to get that cold this early. I changed my usual breakfast to the Yak Set that meant I got fried Tibetan bread instead of toast. It was a good change, but I did miss my usual breakfast. Off we went to Tengboche!
According to our last nights briefing, the morning would be easy with 2-3 hours of flat then downhill. Then, the afternoon would suck with pretty much uphill the entire way. For once, she wasn't joking! The first hour was super easy and very flat. Which meant we were able to take a lot of pictures! It was really great because everywhere i looked I saw snowy mountains. It was like winter wonderland! Even the snow had another, possibly better effect. It meant no dust! For the first time since possibly leaving the US, I didn't sneeze out black dirt.
The views were amazing throughout the morning and we continued to take lots of pics and enjoy it. It made the hike go fast! Before you know it, we had reach the downhill section. Boy, can Laxmi fly downhill. She just scampers while we try to catch up! In addition, we had caught up to a big group so the tiny trail became really congested. It meant I had to wait on some older folks before trying to keep up with Laxmi!
Before lunch, we caught our first real Yak! The ones before Namche were a cross between cow and yak. Yaks are apparently the only animal that can breathe this thin air so any animal we see from now on is usually a Yak.
For lunch, I switched it up and tried my first veggie Sherpa stew. It is a soup with pasta, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and dumplings. It is honestly the perfect lunch food because it fills you up but doesn't leave you with a carb hangover!
Now, the real fun began... straight up via lots of switchbacks. According to Laxmi, it was suppose to take about 2.5 hours. Spoiler alert: it only took us 1.5 hours! About 30 minutes into starting, it started to snow on us. This marked the first time I have hiked in the snow! It definitely crossed an item off my bucket list even though it wasn't on it to begin with! One bad thing was the snow made the trail very muddy and we weren't exactly in flat land so we had to be careful where we stepped and such. Since we were booking it up the mountain, we weren't really sure if we were suppose to put on our cold and wet weather gear... everyone else was but Laxmi kept saying no.
The people walking down looked freezing and bundled up so I was questioning why we weren't layering up. Then, during a water break, we asked how much further and she said only 25 minutes! That perked us up and Laxmi led the charge to the top! We even beat that time and got the Tengboche in 15 minutes. And I was exhausted. Not necessarily that my legs were sore, just the high altitude constantly saps energy.
When we got to the teahouse, we just sat down in the common room and relaxed. Our teahouse was pretty big compared to other ones and it was going to be a full house according to an overheard conversation. However, before we got to cozy, we all dashed up to the rooms to take our first "shower" and change our socks and underwear! My wet towel bath was very cold but it felt so good to get clean. Ed and I headed back downstairs and we both wrote in our journals. I got a little bored so I went back to read and accidentally "fell" onto my bed and took a little cat nap. Whoops.
When I woke up, it was time to go to the famous (and really only attraction) Tengboche Monastery. We walked across the street/path and went inside. It was truly beautiful with so many colorful paintings and Buddha sculptures. We sat down and waited for the show to begin, I mean prayers! Thankfully Laxmi was there and asked the monk something and it turns out today's prayers were done earlier in the day. The monks got cold and didn't want to do it at the usual time... good thing the monastery was really pretty!
With our only source of entertainment done, we went back to the teahouse and read and wrote. Rather uneventful but after hiking and spending many many hours with the same people, one needs a break. Plus, they turned on the fire!! This is the last wood fire we will have until we start our descent. Further up, nothing but yak poop!
Never Before Seen Footage!
For dinner, jenny and I split veggie momos and i also got garlic soup. I cannot wait to not eat garlic soup. It tastes exactly what you would expect. We did something fun and new after dinner! We did our first oxygen and blood pressure test. Anything below 70 means we have to start chugging water. I came in at a healthy 91 and ed and jenny were above 80. We passed! We didn't do much after dinner besides a game of Uno. Jenny finally won and broke Laxmi streak! After a few rounds, we called it a night and prepared for the next day. I read until my fingers were too cold to hold anything else. Then, I past out.