Day 7: Lobuche summit could actually work!
Today, we climbed to Lobuche at 4,900 meters. The scenery was spectacular, again. And again, there was a very steep incline, this time in the middle of the day.
Let me explain the secret of managing a steep incline. The magic word is ‘sherpa shuffle’; you put one foot in front of the other with a stride and pace that enables you to just keep your breath. Start gasping? Reduce the stride, the pace or both, and maybe hum a ‘mantra’ (mine is simply ‘la, la’, or ‘laaaaaa, laaaaa’ when it is really steep, lol). Ps: The most common Sherpa mantra is ‘ umani pathmeyum’ which is a prayer for safe travel.
Prem, our guide had predicted that we would run out of air on this climb, but guess what… I didn’t! For the first time I felt stong and good. I must admit that I had had my worries about being fit enough to do Lobuche peak, but after today… Maybe!
Night before: the three ladies in their climbing boots
…and the harness.
First view of the morning. Wow
Sacred place on top of the pass, where the villagers burry all those who died on the mountains
Day 8: baaaassseeecamp
Finally, today’s hike had base camp on the menu. All of us were getting eager to write a tick on our bucket list, the last 7 days’ climbing and suffering had taken its toll. Unfortunately, Jody caught a bug overnight so she and Adrian decided to rest for a day. So, it was only Ian, Ash and me. Jalla!
I raved about the landscape many times before, but this day was really, really amazing. Off the planet! Have a look for yourself and decide
Glacier below… One of the many in this area. Our walk on glaciers was short, only a few steps. Nevertheless, Ash managed to almost slip into a creveche and slipped on a rock. Awch. We also saw and heard 3 avalanches in the distance. No danger for us, though.
Almost there… Walking on the ridge to be safe from rolling stones and avalanches
And then… We were there… Basecamp!!!
After much excitement, we walked back to Gorak Shep at 5,170m.last night, I experienced some altitude problems, namely a light headache, but due to 1.5 diamox tablets and Ian’s supreme head/neck massage this subsided, luckily.