October 15, Orsho

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October 15, Orsho, 4000 m

Our group retired early, as we have a 4 am wake up. We are going to climbe Kala Pattar, elevation 5545m, for great views of Everest, Loptse , Nuptse and other mountains. This is slightly below the Kilimanjaro height of 5895m.
I had gone to bed at 8, not feeling at all tired so I took a sleeping pill and had the best sleep of the trek, being solidly asleep for the 4 am wake up.
We started our climb in the cold and dark at 4:30. I was wearing most of my layers and even though I had my winter mitts on my hands were cold.
The climb was steep and unrelenting so our pace was slow. It started to get light at 5:30 and finally an amazing view of Everest was revealed. We got to the top at 6:30, the views were amazing, it was definitely worth the climb. We spent about 20 minutes at the peak. I managed to scramble to the extreme peak with 1000 foot cliffs on three sides of me.
The climb down was about an hour and we were back by 8. Packed and had breakfast and then started our trek back at 9.
We returned on the trail with tea at Lobuche. Here we said goodbye to Howard and Jeff who were going to climb Mount Lobuche East. A few days later we saw a video of their successful climb.
Lunch was at Dughala.
From here it started to get cooler and we also dropped another 600 m in elevation, so issues with AMS started to disappear.
The walking was now easier as we walked in a valley beside a stream. We walked through Periche then made it to our tea house near Orsho around 5. It's a beautiful location, amongst the mountains, perched on the edge of a cliff. We were the only group in the tea house so a nice change from the huge crowds recently.
I very much enjoy hiking, so even though this is listed as a long day, I found the entire day to be enjoyable, and it could have been longer.
We met Linda who was now feeling fine. She said that she had been seeing spots on the way up, which got worse on the way down. She was very glad she had turned back.
Craig and Emma Lou, who have a slower pace arrived about an hour after sunset.
It feels good to have our group together and now relatively healthy.

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