Everest Trek Day 9: Dughla to Loboche (attempt #2)

  Loboche, Nepal
Thursday, December 6, 2007

Dughla (4620m) -> Loboche (4910m)?

Ok, what should I wear today? Perhaps my filthy, grey trekking shirt and my equally filthy red fleece. Oh, and I can't forgot my grey pants which look more like dusty brown now. I am filthy. These clothes are filthy. But I didn't pack many extra clothes. Actually, I didn't pack any extra clothes. After over a week of hiking in the same clothes I think I am starting to get tired of them. The fact that they are ripe with filth isn't helping things any. Ok, I'll stop complaining.

Room with a view

Our lodge

Anyways, two days ago we attempted to make it to Loboche from Dingboche and we made it as far as Dughla. Yesterday we tried to get to Loboche but turned back to Dughla. Loboche was more elusive than we expected but perhaps today would be different.

As a matter of fact today was different as Mazen was feeling better this morning so we made the decision to try and make it to Loboche. We ventured out and started hiking upwards up the immediate incline that we were again presented with. It didn't take long for it to materialize that things were not going so well as Mazen was having a lot of trouble early on.

He fought hard though. We just took the climb slow and took frequent breaks. Altogether today we would be climbing about 300m in altitude and it looks like we were presently doing most of that. Over an hour had passed, although it probably felt like forever for Mazen, we reached the top of the pass. We had done the toughest part of the day's work.

Cow

Mazen at a Sherpa Monument

Well, at least I thought it was the toughest part that we had done. The trouble was not only that Mazen was having trouble hiking upwards but at this high altitude he was also having trouble walking even when the path was flat. How can any one enjoy these fantastic views when they are hiking in such a painful state? Well, I guess that was starting to be the problem. He was misearable and was certainly not in any mood to take in the scenary.

After over two hours of hiking we made it to Loboche. It wasn't really far away in the end but after a couple of days of trying it certainly felt like it was out-of-reach some times. The immediate landscape on the way here was completely barren. Nothing but rocks and dirt mixed in with some stream water that had frozen over. Looks like this valley may have been carved out by a glacier at some point in time.

Before we even got to Loboche we had a very bad impression of it in our minds. All we had heard about this place was that there was garbage every where and it was just a filthy place. Those warnings likely lowered our expectations of Loboche as when we got there we really didn't find it as bad as people were saying after all. Don't get me wrong, there was more garbage strewn about than other places we had been to on our trek but it was not nearly as bad as we had heard. Perhaps it helped that the lodge that we stayed at here was only a few months old so it was reasonably comfortable.

The Road to Loboche

It was a rather active lodge as there were quite a few people staying here from various corners of the world. Everyone had there stories regarding their own treks to get to this point here so it was quite interesting listening to all of that.

One odd thing we found about this lodge was that the common room was the single biggest room that we had encountered on the trek so far. Normally this would't be odd but what we found strange was that there was a tiny yak-dung stove (tiny compared to the room) in the center of the room presumably to heat the place. This stove had no hope of heating the place. Of course we had come to expect the usual poor building design with respect to window size, window location, door location, lack of insulation anywhere. But this was the first time we saw a room too big for itself. With even just a bit more thought put into building design these places could be naturally warmer. It was just disappointing to see these inefficient practices even in a building as brand new as this one.

Once we had settled into the lodge Mazen and I had to assess how to proceed with the trek form here. He had an immensely challenging time to get to this point and even just being here at this altitude was draining him. He decided that he wouldn't be able to do anything the following day so he recommended that I go to Everest Base Camp tomorrow and then the day after tomorrow we could both go to Kala Patthar as we were now striking distance from both from here in Loboche.

Loboche

A Lodge in Loboche

Even though this trek that we are doing is named "The Everest Base Camp" trek, there are actually two popular end goals of this trek. One of the end goals is of course Everest Base Camp itself sitting at 5364m in altitude. Although there would not be any Everest climbers there this time of year, therefore leaving it to be its barren rocky expanse that, it is still a very special place to visit.

The other end goal of this trek is the summit of Kala Patthar. It's peak lies at 5550m so not only is it higher in altitude than Everest Base Camp but you actually get one of the best possible views of Everest from the ground. In fact, many professional photographs are taken of Everest from this vantage point of Kala Patthar. In addition to Everest one can see many spectacular Himalayan peaks from this summit and the views from here apparently will literally take your breath away. Ironically, from Everest Base Camp one cannot even see Everest but from Kala Patthar one can see everything.

Although many people doing this trek will hike to both end goals, if there had to be a choice made between the two then most people would choose Kala Patthar over Everest Base Camp. This was the choice Mazen made as well. So tomorrow I would trek to Base Camp and the following day the two of us would hopefully summit Kala Patthar.

I was quite happy to have made it this far in the trek in good health and could not believe that tomorrow I would be on my way to Everest Base Camp.