I slept very well because the night before I hardly slept at all. I had a nice American breakfast and we started hiking at about 8:15am. It was a beautiful sunny cold day, a little windy at some places. I covered my head with the hood of my raincoat/windbreaker to protect against the wind. We stopped for lunch at a place called Shomare. I had mixed fried rice. Outside was a beautiful view of Amadablan. For the next few days we'll see a lot of Amadablan. You can't miss this mountain because it has a very pointed tip, just like the tip of an ice-cream cone. We continued our slow gradual hike to Dingboche, There were quite a few yak trains on the trail and many porters. The porters are amazing. They carry loads up to 50kg or almost 110lbs. I don't know how they can do it. I also wonder what it will do to their bodies when they get old. However, you do what you need to do to support your family.
Although long, this was one of our best hikes. We were in good spirits and the trail was not steep or rocky. We arrived at the Tashi Delek tea-house in Dingboche at about 4. Because of the change in our itinerary, we had to find a different tea-house. Our Sherpa guide, Dilip, went ahead of us and found a new tea-house that has rooms with toilets ensuite. A tea-house is a tea-house and not a hotel. The dining room was spacious and open. There were few guests and the owners were very attentive of our needs. We were going to spend 3 nights here, the only place where we spent 3 nights in a row.
We have 2 extra days to acclimatize ourselves in Dingboche. But we were not going to just sit around and be lazy. On Day 6, we took a short hike to very small settlement called Chukung. We went from 4410 to 4730m. We started at about 9am, arrived in Chukung at about 1pm, and returned to the tea-house at about 3:45pm. We were free to laze around the rest of the day. Internet access was not the best. Sometimes we have to sit next to a window and connect to the wifi from Mama's Bakery, about 100m away. Sometimes we were able to connect to the hotel's wifi using our EverestLink id and password.
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| View of Mt. Amadablan |
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| A Porter carrying a big load |
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| A different view of Amadablan |
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| A trash can |
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| A dzoba is a cross between a cow and a yak |
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| A chorten |
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| A dzoba train with Amadablan in the background |
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| This is what the trail looks like |
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| A different view of Amadablan |
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| Stopping at Shomare for lunch |
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| A Sherpa marker |
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| A relatively easy trail |
Day 7: we have another acclimatization hike. This time to Nangkar Tshang, a nearby mountain. Our plan is not to go all the way up but stopped whenever Nutan feels we have climbed high enough. We stopped at about 15,750 feet, the highest we've been so far. We rested and came back down and arrived back at Tashi Delek at about 12:30pm. We had lunch and in the afternoon, all of us took a hot shower and changed to fresh clothes. This is only the second time that we have taken a shower. We rested, sent out emails and updated our Facebook pages. We felt rested and ready for more challenges ahead as we climb higher to Lobuche.
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| A group picture on Nangkar Tshang |
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| One of the buildings in Dingboche |
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| Looking down at the valley from Nangkar Tshang |
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| A stupa as we climb back down to Dingboche |
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