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.

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

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See most of those people taking the lower path. Well we took the higher path. The lower path is the more direct route to , 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.

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After lunch was at first a lot of climbing.

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

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We've reached snow level.

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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.

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All those tents are for a large party of Germans.

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Quite a few waterfall crossings today.

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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.

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Underneath the snow is a stream.

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

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You can see the waterfall underneath the ice and snow.

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This part almost looked like .

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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.

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