Dingboche to Lobuche (11 Oct 2006)

11 Oct 2006, the day started off with hiking up the ridge, and then trekked on the flat trail. Pheriche that located in the wide valley can be seen clearly. From now on, the area is desolate, with only some grasses and some small flowers. Foliage is hard to grow at this height. We met the two trekkers - Lisa and Stephen, from Hong Kong again. We first met them at the day we wait for flight at domestic airport. They have the same schedule as us.

About 11am, we reached Dhuglha(4620m) where we stopped for lunch. At 12pm, we started to climb up the very steep hill just behind Dhuglha. I felt exhausted after hike for half an hour, have to stop for rest every 50 steps. I let a group of yaks by passed me, even the yaks that carried the supplies go faster than me. Kok Yuen offered to carry my backpack. He said even with 2 backpacks, he can walk faster than me. Well…..it’s true, without backpack, I still walk as slow as tortoise. Finally, I reached the hilltop, feeling half-dead. At hilltop, there are a lot of mani stones that served as the direction for trekkers. Besides, there are stone monuments that built to memorize those climbers that died in their expedition to Everest.

After some rest, I got back the backpack from Kok Yuen and continue the trek to Lobuche(4910m). I can feel the thin air when the altitude slowly gains towards Lobuche. There are no more steep ascents, but gradually going up. We reached Lobuche around 2pm.

As usual, after unpacking the luggage and changed the clothes, we gathered at the restaurant. Our guide asked us to teach him Mandarin and Dee also learned Nepali from him. Lobuche is 700m higher than Dingboche. Because of the coldness of the weather, we can only stay indoors. The restaurant is small. The heater made the restaurant stuffy. I can’t stand with it, so will open the window once in a while to let the fresh air come in. Tomorrow we will trek to Gorak Shep, step nearer to our target Kalapattar and Everest Base Camp. No one expect that things go beyond our control the next day.