Day 11: Gorak Shep to Pangboche

Woke up early feeling great after my best nights sleep since Namchee. Our room was still incredibly cold, around -10 Celsius, but I think I had finally acclimatised to the 5140m of Gorak Shep.

We hit the road with a plan to get at least as far as Pheriche (4240m) on our decent down the valley. Our plan is to head up the Dudh Koshi River to Gokyo within the next 5 days. We travelled really well (fast) and got to Pheriche by 2pm so we had lunch then continued walking till we got to Pangboche (3930m). In total we descended over 1200m in about 6 hours. We would have continued further but it was starting to get dark and we were unsure about accommodation at Phorse. The lodge owners at Pangboche were  very impressed with our trek as most people would do this in 2-3 days.

The walk was beautiful,  we started well above the snowline, followed the Khumbu Glacier all the way down to its end near Dughla where we crossed the terminal moraine and then headed through a beautiful riverbed which led down through the snow line to Pheriche. After this we had a small ascent up to the Pheriche Pass before we continued down the valley to Pangboche. Trees suddenly appeared out of nowhere and we realised that it had been a few days since we had seen anything green at all. Passed some paintings on a rock face that were pretty interesting, possibly done by monks as they appeared Buddhist in nature. Got held up by groups of yaks all the way but it was nice to have the change of pace.

After our horrible accommodation in Gorak Shep we were amazed with our rooms in Pangboche. Not only were they clean, warm, painted and spacious, they also had windows that opened out to incredible views of the mountains (our window in our room at Gorak Shep was basically buried in snow).

We were able to sun out our clothes a little, change, have a good wash and even dry our socks! Its been a good day!!!

Day 5: Tengboche

Oh man... Where to begin. Tengboche... Possibly the most beautiful place in Nepal. What an amazing experience. The day started with a 6am service in the Tengboche Monastery which involved a half dozen monks chanting while incense burned in a room where the paintings on the wall were the pure definition of intricate.

We left the monastery and then headed up a hill behind the town to a small chorten (like a stupa) riddled with prayer flags, the walk up was about 30 minutes through rhododendrons and wild flowers. Saw our first deer which, though it was quite far off, was still exciting. We reached the chorten feeling pretty good and then saw that there was another chorten on the snow line up what can only be described as a mountain. We figured we would try getting up there though there was no clear path and were still in our pyjamas and sandals (not exactly snow gear).

The walk up was a hard slog for almost 2 hours following rock cairns but totally worth it as the view was indescribable. We were in an amphitheatre of snowy mountains & ice falls and only when we saw a helicopter fly up the valley at an altitude far lower than us did we realise how truly high we were. We got some amazing photos and made sure to take a good moment up there before we began the decent.

Half way down I was just overwhelmed by the beauty of the place and sat down on a grassy patch filled with wild flowers and just took it all in for almost 2 hours. The beauty of creation astounds and overwhelms.

Got back down to our accomodation and then we learned how crazy things but had gotten further up the valley. During the rain we had on day 1 & 2 heavy snow had fallen and cut off the path to Everest Base Camp. Dozens of avalanches were recorded up and down the valley and we heard unconfirmed reports that three people had died. Heaps of people were choppered out. Even in Tengboche things got busy as dozens were headed down the hill as the weather is a bit unpredictable at the moment. Some poor soul was even evacuated by chopper fight before our eyes here in Tengboche today (for Altitude Sickness).

As a result we now feel that we need to re-evaluate our plans and probably drop at least one of our passes (at this stage we are thinking to drop the Kongma La as that is where the heaviest snow fell). We want to be safe and do not plan on taking any additional risks. Everest Base Camp has opened up again and so we will head there first then we will work our way towards the Cho La Pass (we will have to carefully evaluate the weather conditions before attempting this pass as it too can be quite dangerous).

Clouds rolled in around mid-afternoon blocking out everything but by 8pm they lifted and we were left with an incredible starry sky that had to be seen to be believed. We got out the tripod and took a bunch of incredible photos (have to wait till I get home till I can upload them though).

During the day we met a couple from England who were travelling with a Canadian guy and decided that we will team up with them for most of our walk tomorrow. There will come a point where they will split right and head to Dingboche while we head left to Pheriche but at least we will have company for a few hours.