Standing on top of the world... Nearly!

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After a chilly night at Gorak Shep (we had snow coming in our window when we went to bed!) we decided not to push for the pre-dawn trek to the summit of Kala Pattar (5550m). By all accounts as long as we were up there by mid-morning, and being blessed by clear weather it would be a spectacular view. And it was!

It took over 3 hours to climb up due to the altitude, i found it really hard to get my breathing under control, and you are so aware of how little oxygen you can breathe in with each puff. But slow and steady wins the race, and we certainly were winning when we looked across to Mt Everest, and down to Base Camp and the Khum ice fall! From the top of the little Kala Pattar summit you can get a 360 degree panoramic view of spectacular mountains and glaciers. The wind picked up just as we reached the top so we didn't hang around for too long before heading back down.

We were feeling great having fulfilled our challenge and now on the way back down! Going down obviously takes way less time but the additional oxygen in the air adds a lot more energy as well. We put in a big afternoon (in hindsight too big) and made it all the way back down to 4200m to a town called Pheriche. We totaled about 9.5 hours that day and the last hour or so was into the snow and wind. We needed to have an extra rest day at Pheriche to recover, enjoying the extra oxygen and hot soup!

From there, it took us 3 days until we were back in Lukla. We took a different route on the opposite side of the valley we had climbed which offered spectacular views when the clouds weren't settled on us. We also found that we had more time to really enjoy the scenery as we were far less exhausted. We passed many groups of trekkers coming up the valley (trekking season was beginning to get underway) and while they struggled we smiled. Even still, this other route was far less busy then the main trail and the next town we stayed in (Photse, 3900m) would have only had a handful of trekkers.

We spent another night in Namche Bazaar and had our first shower since last being there. I think you could hear screams when all the little organisms were washed from us. No wonder water is so holy in so many places.

Our last days trekking was a reasonably long day back to Lukla ready to fly back to Kathmandu and celebrate the completion of our epic quest to the third pole. We had our last mountain dhal baat and some local whiskey, slept like logs, then fell off the edge of the mountain in our rickety little plane. Mission accomplished.



M xx

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Comments

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amazing views and great weather. I can imagine how it could have easily been a white out. congrats on conquering that 3rd pole. very inspiring !!!