Dingboche Acclimatization Day

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Today was an acclimatization day thankfully. An opportunity to rest after the fairly hectic previous two days. We spent the morning walking up the hillside next to Dingboche to get used to the altitude. That hillside is over an 45 degree walk up over 400m in altitude which took us nearly two hours to climb. At the top it was wonderful however. Gorgeous views of the surrounds made the climb worthwhile. We could see Island peak all the way from here, which is the mountain that the American climber wanted to do.

We took lots of photos from the top, including on an outcropping which everyone else jumped onto and which I crawled up on to. As usual the walk down afterwards was a piece of cake, if you ignore the murder you did to your knees and ankles.

When we got back down, we had lunch and then proceeded to lounge around in front of our rooms, enjoying the sun. Some of us even took a hot shower in the outdoor shower room. 250 rupees well spent!

Later in the day we went down to the town to have a browse, stock up on chocolates and snacks for the remaining days. There was a bakery in the village where we sampled some somewhat dubious chocolate brownies. No ill effects were encountered luckily.

Despite the fairly easy day, everyone still went to bed reasonably early after dinner.

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