EVEREST TREK : DAY 12

Day 12.  Day in Dingboche.

Thursday 21 March.

Snow outside our window at Dingboche

The acclimatisation day was again no day of rest we had a big hill to climb after breakfast. It began easy enough at the top of the village and turned up a gradual slope, it must have been gradual as Moira kept going at a good pace to the col at the top. Tomorrow the route continues over some more fairly flat Alpine Desert, but today we went left and up a steep ridge to a string of prayer flags. Brin had set us a test, that if we made the flags all right we would have no problem with the future climbs. We passed with flying colours, making it in an hour. We actually passed people on the way up.

Views above Dingboche

It was a lovely bright morning again when we got up but now there were clouds coming in and a lot of mist gathering about the tops. When suddenly the mist broke over one of the peaks and the sun broke though there was a wondrous spectacle of glistening snow on a rugged peak with a halo of white mist. Although we had passed our examination we decided to continue. Brin said it would take about 2 hours to reach the top but it was shrouded in mist so we aimed for a cluster of rocks just below the first shoulder. Three young Swedes who were also at the lodge met up with us and we walked with them. About a third of the way to my target Moira gave up and sat in the shelter of some rocks to await my return. After the next third the Swedes turned back but I made it to the rocks. Now it was very cold, on the first part we put on our rain jackets to keep the wind out but now it was bitter. Some people were descending from above and said that they had given up because of the cold and the bad weather closing in. I didn't hang about and quickly made my way back down. It was fairly easy and no rough rocks on the sandy path. I was soon back to Moira and we continued down. We had to be careful on the loose sand and gravel, a couple of times we nearly came a cropper but saved ourselves from falling by digging in our poles. As soon as we were back at the col the easy slope back to the village allowed us to stride out and make good time to the Hotel Sherpaland. Brin was already there, he had taken a short cut. He arranged a pot of tea while we dumped our gear and got changed.

We got in to the lodge just in time, it started to snow. It was quite heavy and continued until mid-afternoon. There was a couple of inches lying, hopefully there won't be any more before we begin walking again in the morning. We shared a fried rice with egg for lunch it was all right then we spent the rest of the afternoon freezing. We were wrapped up in heavy fleeces, beanies and boots until they lit the fire at 5 pm. After that it was quite pleasant and too warm if you sat too close to the fire. The lodge was quite crowded again and it looked like the party from Poland were still here, we hadn't seen them in the morning. We spent the time either reading or playing at cards. Moira did venture out when the snow stopped to take some photographs of the whitened landscape.

For dinner we both had vegetable and noodle soup then shared a pizza. We played more cards until after 8 pm then got to bed, they had stopped banking up the fire and it was getting cold again.

Hotel Sherpaland in the snow