Pheriche to Lobuche

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Pheriche 4240m - Dughla 4620m - Lobuche 4930m

Time taken:

Total 3 hours 40mins

Today's trek was through stunning, wide valleys with half frozen streams and boulders with the occasional passing yak trains. The only noises for most of the day was the wind, the tinkling sound of the yak bells and the calls of the yak herders. As we started out at 7.30am the sun had not yet reached the bottom of the valley and it was bitterly cold. My hands, especially were freezing, getting pale and stiff and I needed two sets of gloves and to put my hands in my down jacket to warm them. As soon as we reached the valley end and were back in the sun I warmed considerably but this is the first time I have noticed being really uncomfortably cold, although it was only for a short period. For the first hour I wore baselayer, fleece and down jacket but after this swapped both for a thin wind-proof jacket which was fine for the rest of the day. The temperature seems to be so variable depending on the how long the sun has shone in an area.

After an hour and a half, the jagged peaks started to surround us completely and it felt like walking in a massive bowl of mountains. On the uphill today I started to notice the familiar feeling in my lungs of being at altitude. It's a strange sensation of feeling the need to consciously take deeper breaths when you exert yourself, and as soon as you stop, it returns to normal in matter of just seconds. It is not unpleasant really just an odd feeling if you don't normally experience any breathing problems. The same with the pulse, mine is crazy, banging away fast whilst climbing uphill, my resting heart rate 106bpm where my usual is between 60-70bpm. It just means I have to stop and take a short break more often and can't just 'power through' and then recover as this just takes longer than keeping to a steady slightly slower pace. This technique works out well and we reached the ricketty old bridge to Duhkla after 1.5 hours.

We stop for some lemon tea in Duhkla where we see a number of circling lammergeiers above us riding the thermals with ease. Seems in such stark contrast to us slowly plodding along to see them swoop and glide so effortlessly! After this the remainder of our trek to Lobuche is really great, not too steep, beautiful and plenty to see. At one point we come across a large area of multiple memorial stupas. It was quite sad to see the stones standing there lonely in the valley and sobering to think so many people have lost their lives on or around Everest. In some ways I think it is noble as they were at least in pursuit of their dreams, but when I see a stupa dedicated to a young woman who died only last year, I can't help thinking it was a tragedy for such a young life to be needlessly cut short. I see the memorial dedicated to Scott Fischer, the former leader of 'Mountain Madness', one of many killed in the disaster on the mountain in May 1996, chronicled by Jon Krakauer in the book 'Into Thin Air'. We pause at this site for a few minutes heading on to Lobuche as the sun gets warmer on us.

When we reach Lobuche, it is a pretty uninspiring place, just a few lodges next to a large land-fill type rubbish dump. I asked Suriya about this and he said they collect all the rubbish from the trekkers up and then burn it all up in a massive fire once every few weeks. Doesn't sound very environmentally sound but then I guess this is by far the easiest way to deal with it in the midst of the busy trekking season. In general the lodges were of poorer quality than those of Pheriche and my room had a window sealed with just thin plastic sheet, it was freezing inside! The dining room was cramped although the food was fine and really we were lucky to get a room. Today Suriya sent Azay, our porter, ahead as he feared there may be a shortage of rooms. He was right. There were several trekkers in the dining room who were going to sleep there too. They were probably luckier than me as the dining room is always much warmer and with the wide cushioned benches I imagine it would have been pretty comfortable!

I wander to the next door lodge which has an internet connection and pay to send a few emails. I haven't sent any so far and apart from the 'I've landed safely' text messages, I haven't sent any messages to my family/boyfriend yet! I receive emails from all of them and have a massive smile, then a slight emotional wave wash over me before I get on with replying. They are all so pleased for me to be doing what I love that I leave feeling completely buoyant and alive. Tomorrow we have (yet another) acclimatisation day. I pull a face when Suriya says this, thinking there is not much to do here, but if he recommends it then i'll listen to him, he's the expert after all. He has told me we'll attempt to traverse the Khumbu glacier and I feel better. The glacier is something i've only ever read about in books a heaving, moaning entity of moving ice, so I am pretty excited and keen to explore it. Maybe another acclimatisation day won't be so bad after all.

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