Tuesday 14 April 2015

Day 12: Gorak Shep to Pangboche

It was a very restless night. My room consisted of a bed, a piece of cloth and string for a curtain and absolutely nothing else! No light, no hook, no table, nothing and it was freeeeezing. The only indoor toilet was frozen and out of order, so the only 'facility' was outside in a corrugated tin hut. It was a hole in the floor and I'll spare you the details, however Mo and I agreed that the 8 foot frozen 'sculpture' below would certainly win the Turner Prize if it was submitted by Chris Ofili (look him up).
We were given the option of climbing Kalar Pattar that morning, which meant a call at 5:00am and setting off at 5:30am! I was still feeling exhausted from yesterday and quite frankly running on empty, so I declined and turned over for another couple hours restlessness. However Mo accepted the challenge and returned for his well earned breakfast at 8:45, he was completely shattered. Mo said the views over the Khumbu valley to EBC were fantastic, but Everest was shrouded in cloud.
Our itinerary for the day was to end the day at a tea house in Periche. We were told this would be a 'basic' type lodge, so we opted for a longer walk and hopefully reaching Pangboche, where we knew we would get a hot shower. This sounded irresistible sincere hadn't washed or changed clothiers for 4 days!!
Setting off at 9:30 and only a short stop for a noodle soup lunch, we arrived at Pangboche by 5:00pm. It was another long and arduous day; although we loosing height and gaining oxygen, the trails were hard, especially the snow covered traverse ledge, followed by a steep rocky descent to Lobuche. I'm not exaggerating, there were more than a few heart stopping moments!
The first few hours on the trail was like like an Everest rush hour! Yak train after yak train and large groups of porters all taking goods and provisions up to Base Camp: tables, mattresses, gas heaters, garden chairs, food for yaks, food for climbers. It was like a continuous conveyor belt. It looked they were planning a gigantic picnic.  
The shower at Pangboche was even better than I had imagined and clean clothes felt utter luxury. I had no trouble sleeping that night.

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