Pheriche to Lobuche Base Camp

On Tuesday the 4th, we left the frigid tea house in Lobuche heading for our base camp on Lobuche Peak. From now until sometime towards the middle or end of May, the Everest climbers will be living in tents. It's a funny thing to think about but personally I like sleeping in a tent and am looking forward to it.

As we head further up the valley, we continue to climb above 14,000 ft towards our destination. We're in a wide glacial valley with a meandering river running through it and surrounded by majestic Himalayan mountains. It's truly a stunning view and we soak it in for miles. Chola peak is on our left and Lobuche rises in front and slightly to the right.

About half way to Lobuche base camp, we stop at a tea house in the small village of Thukla. It's a nice place to rest, have some tea and a few snacks and talk about the day. The weather has been spectacular for us every day! Blue sky dominates our treks and eventually gives way to the clouds rising up the valley by mid afternoon. It's a welcome pattern and we hope it holds at least until the Lobuche climb is finished and Kriss has made the return trek back to Lukla.

Another hour or so down the trail we get our first view of Lobuche base camp. It sits in a nice level amphitheater on the flank of Lobuche Peak and looks like a great place to spend a few night acclimatizing at about 15,800 ft. Look closely for some small yellow tents tucked way down against the mountain.

We arrive in camp, get our tent assignments and proceed to move in. The Eureka tents are really quite nice and already I'm considering the roominess and organizational benefits of their design versus the weight of hauling one around Colorado on my back. I guess we'll see how I feel after living in one for 45 days.

Base camp is well organized with a large cooking tent, two dining tents (the dome is our favorite), two toilet tents and all of the sleeping tents with two people in each. It's comfortable and the IMG Sherpa cooks do a great job of keeping us well fed.

On Wednesday, we take a hike up to Lobuche high camp which sits another 1,300 feet or so directly above base camp. It's a chance for us to take a good look at the climbing route and gain some additional acclimatization at roughly 17,000 ft.

The route goes around the left side of the lake and traverses up the natural line to the right all the way to the ridge. We then follow the ridge up to snow line, put our crampons on and continue along the ridge heading away and left until we get to the cleft between the east and west summits. Our high point will be about 20,000 ft and we should have some amazing views from up there!

Thursday is what we call an active rest day. We take an easy hike to a small nearby village called Zonglha. It's a chance to blow off steam, gain access to wifi (yes, it's pretty amazing and reliable during the climbing/treking season) and have some tea. Our excursion only lasts a few leisurely hours and we're back in camp for lunch.

Tomorrow we head to Everest Base Camp!

Namaste