09/14--Day 7--Dingboche to Lobuche--27/9/2022

Today was the most beautiful day of the Trek.  Once again we woke up to the magnificent sight of the mighty mountains ringing our picturesque tea house. Played with the doggies and with the little two-year-old. After a hearty breakfast and a complimentary cup of lemon tea, we set off again, to our destination that would take is for the first time to an elevation over 5000m. 

We found ponies for slower members of the team who were finding it difficult to keep pace with the rest of the group and that greatly improved the speed of the group as a whole. We trekked through beautiful rolling alpine meadows, covered with tiny flowers of every hue, giving the entire area a watercolor painting-like feel. From time to time, we could see and hear Alpine Choughs, both red-and yellow-billed. These corvid birds are found at very high altitudes, having been sighted as high as in Camp 4 of Mt Everest (27600 feet!). Though they are locally called "Chinese Crow" their call is musical and not harsh.

We stopped for lunch at the Kala Patthar Lodge and then proceeded further. As the day progressed, the alpine meadows gave way to morraine country. The weather became progressively more chilly and we found the going tiring on account of the loose stones that we had to traverse over.  

We passed the Valley of Memorials, a sombre, stony, silent morraine valley, where plaques had been put up for those who perished while attempting to summit Everest or during the descent. We saw plaques carrying such legendary names as Rob Hall and Babu Chiri Sherpa. Babu Chiri Sherpa summitted Everest 11 times and held the record for the fastest ascent (16 hours) as well as for the longest stay on the summit (a staggering 21 hours, as opposed to 20 minutes for most). It was eerie and humbling.

Rathika's cold was still bothering her, and the medicines I gave only made her drowsy and disoriented (she is not used to taking meds). We progressed to a chill stream and she removed her gloves to wash her face in the water. The gloves fell into the icy water and thereafter could not be used for the rest of the day. On the stones by the stream, we found a few curious pika looking at us, not in the least afraid. These rodent-like mammals resembling groundhogs are high altitude creatures, and we were happy we could spot such Himalayan  fauna. 

At long last, we reached our desitnation, the National Park tea house, located at 5030m. The rooms were really tiny, just space for two beds. The washrooms were located in the corridor outside, but were quite spacious. There was no light in the washrooms and we used our headlamps (procured for the purpose of climbing Kala Patthar in the dark 😋) when we had to use the toilet. Rathika was in bad shape and I was not at all sure if we could make it through the final part of the trek, the next day. Kept fingers crossed.