Today we were planning to wake up very early to hike to Kala Pathar. Unfortunately, the weather was very bad and it has snowed all night long. So when I checked the weather outside for our pre-dawn departure, I decided that it was too windy, cold, and snowy to justify a viewless hike. So, I skip it and I went back to bed.
When the sun came out, we were in a winter wonderland. The snow has completely transformed the land around us and a short break in the weather allowed me to get some good pictures of Pomari, Everest, and Nuptse.
We had breakfast and we started heading down when the snow storm came back with a vengeance. The glacier was now covered with snow and finding the trail was tricky at times. We got stuck for a while behind a slow train of 4 Yaks so the going to our mid-point (Lobuche) was going slowly. After a couple of hours on the snow, we finally got there and I warmed up with a nice cup of hot lemon. From Lobuche, we started hiking down, but fortunately for us, the worst of the storm seems to be over.
Down from Lobuche, there is an eery ridge full of memorials for the many climbers lost at Everest. One of the memorials was for Scott Fisher who died exactly 13 years from the day we were there on May 11, 1996. His story is recounted on the book "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer. The memorials were quite dramatic in the fog that surrounded them and they were a stark reminder of the price that many paid to get to the summit of the highest mountain in the world. The memorials put in context statistics like that 1 in 4 climbers that reach the summit, never come back.
After a slippery descend on snowy trails, we reached our lunch spots and we continue descending in the fog with the occasional view of the summits of Hangteka, Tansehu, and Ama Dablam.
The town of Dhingboche appeared suddenly out of the fog. The town is bigger than any of the villages (except Namche) that we have stayed before. The two business of the town is growing potatoes (which are very good) and lodging tourist who frequently stay here for a two-day acclimatization stop in the way to Everest Base Camp. The town has a nice Gompa that we could see from our lodge, but the snow started to fall heavily, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to check it out.
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