Everest Base Camp Day 4

 

 

Today was a long and hard day. We spent around seven hours trekking and did a fairly big four hour climb up to Mongla at 3975 metres where we had lunch. Then we did a quick 35 descent to Phortse Tenga where we dropped back to around 3600 and then had to climb it all back up again to arrive at Dole at 4020 metres.

I had a slight headache at lunchtime which may be due to the altitude. We also all have started to notice the reduced oxygen a bit – the first half hour of the day had us having to breathe deeply – but then you acclimatise.

Today was also the first day that I tramped with a jacket on. Only for the last half hour, but despite being sunny, it is getting colder during the day, as well as the night.

You can again see Everest in the background and our path towards it.

See most of those people taking the lower path. Well we took the higher path. The lower path is the more direct route to Everest Base Camp, while the higher one takes you up to Gyoko, and then you cross a pass over to Everest. It’s an extra five days the way we’re doing it.

After lunch was at first a lot of climbing.

Looking back, one can see the path we’ve followed.

We’ve reached snow level.

This village here we didn’t go to. It is mainly for sherpas but a few tourists go there. Very cool nestled away against the mountain.

All those tents are for a large party of Germans.

Quite a few waterfall crossings today.

Very pretty scenery, and just around here we sighted a very rare red deer. No photos of it sadly, but was great to see one.

Underneath the snow is a running stream.

More steps up. I quite like the semi-natural rock steps compared to wooden ones.

You can see the waterfall underneath the ice and snow.

This part almost looked like New Zealand.

st

And finally we arrived at Dole.  Very dusty and dirty so had a wonderful hot shower. Not quite a normal shower though – more a bucket of hot water poured through a pipe – but It did the job.