Everest Base Camp Trek 2010- Daily Dispatches

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23^rd April 24, 2010

Day Five: Tengboche to Dengboche

We started the day with Good Morning tea and cornflakes and eggs for breakfast at the Tengboche Guest House.  Don started out not feeling so well, but with fluids and pharmaceuticals, he lives to walk another day – and several more thereafter.

Tim walked off from Tengboche without his camera, not realizing it until we had descended down to the river.  He and Mingmar dashed back up the hill (Tim stopped dashing around rounding the bend) and retrieved the camera.  Tim, Mingmar, and Tendi then double-timed it to catch up with the group.  Tim said he must be famous on the trail now because every Sherpa he passed would laugh.

We were fortunate to participate in a Puja ceremony at the Pangboche monastery.  Lama Geshe gave us the following wishing prayer:

Give up all intention to harm others from your heart

And do your best to benefit them all

If each and everyone feels the universal responsibility to do so,

We will all enjoy the feast of peace.

The Lama gave each of us a blessing, tying a cream silk kata and an orange lisle thread around our necks for good luck on our trek.  He also gave each of us a card containing a story about Jomo Langma  (Everest) with his name and our name written on it in Tibetan.  It was a moving ceremony, and we all felt a lift in the step as we climbed out of Pangboche.

We had lunch in Shomare – potatoes, spinach and bread like an unsugared elephant ear.  The altitude is starting to sap our appetites but the starch was good to get us going.

From lunch, we still had about   l,500 feet to climb to Dengboche, not counting dropping down to the river again.  After climbing up from the river, we crossed a tree-less landscape of rock and low juniper.  Ama Dablam towers overhead, showing a different aspect from Tengboche.  Nuptse now obscures Everest.  Island Peak fills the valley above Dengboche.

We are settled in at the Hotel Family Dengboche, around 14,400 feet in elevation.  Tomorrow is another “rest” day, meaning we hike our tails off, but get to come back to the same beds.

Source: 23rd April, 2010- Tengboche to Dengboche

Everest Base Camp Trek 2010- Daily Dispatches

    Trekking    

22^nd April 2010

Day 4 of our trek has brought us to Tengboche.  We left Namche Bazaar this morning around 8:00 am after another great breakfast.  The hotel we stayed at in Namche was wonderful.  Beautiful views, spacious rooms, hot showers, and flush toilets.  While we were sad to leave the conveniences, we were excited to proceed with the trek.

Today’s hike was sharply uphill at the beginning, followed by a fairly steep downhill to a river which runs through the valley.  We ate lunch at the low point of the hike right by the river.  Once again, the meal was great.  The quality of the meals has been one of the surprises of the trip for most of us.  We don’t know if that will continue throughout the trip, but it has been a pleasant surprise.

We started hiking again around 12:30.  The trail was quite steep all the way to Tengboche.  Unfortunately, about halfway up the trail, we got behind a caravan of about 10 yaks loaded down with bags and supplies.  In addition to slowing we down quite a bit, them kicked up a lot of dust.  We couldn’t get around them until just before we arrived at Tengboche.

Tengboche sits at an altitude of 12,600 feet.  It is a small village of mostly hotels for trekkers.  There is a Buddhist monastery at the top of the hill when you first arrive in town.  We were told that roughly 100 monks live at the monastery.   We were given a tour of the monastery by our faithful lead guide, Tendi.  We saw the main worship room which consists of one large statue of Buddha in the front center of the room.  There are 3 benches that the monks sit on in the middle of the floor.  The walls are painted with scenes from the life of Buddha.

The Nepalese staff assigned to our group has been great.  We have four porters who carry our bags.  These are young men who are quite small, but have amazing strength.  Both of them are carrying two bags which combined must weigh 80-100 pounds.  In addition to Tendi, there are four other Nepalese who walk the trails with us.  Their names are Rinji, Mingmar Dendi, Mingmar, and Jiwan. They rotate being the lead hiker and hanging toward the back to make sure no one falls behind.  So far, all of us are hiking strong and feeling pretty good.  No significant altitude problems or sicknesses to report.  Tomorrow, we head to Dingboche at roughly 14,800 feet where we will file our next report.

Read Full Story: 22nd April, 2010- Namche to Tengboche