Altitude: 3700m.
We are making our way down. The sad news is we never made it to the top. The weather didn't look like it was getting better with what looked like a cold front heading towards Everest, suggesting another snow storm. There was also still too much snow around to be sure that either base camp, Everest or Kala Pathar, would be open and safe. So far, the path had been cleared for us by yaks. According to the guides, the yaks don't go up to the base camps and if we wanted to get there, we'd have to clear the path ourself.
So we decided to walk back down to Pheriche from Lobuche, instead of up to Gorak Shep. Yesterday, while resting at Pheriche, we chatted with a fellow Aussie traveller who made it up to Kala Pathar just the day before. He told us the bad news of an avalanche at Everest Base Camp that happened only a few days ago.
It's been a tough walk up here, equally laid out with challenges and laced with some of the most amazing scenery I've seen. Walking back from Pangboche to Tengboche, I got to see my favourite part again, this time without the romance of rain, and it still puts me at awe. There's a special bit just outside Debuche, where a long mani wall stretches, that looks like a Japanese zen garden carefully landscaped by Mother Nature.
It's funny to remember how a Dane I met walking in from Jiri, advised me to attempt one of the three high passes to get different scenery on the way up and on the way down. Because of our time restraints, we couldn't do that (and they are closed with all the snow anyway), but the weather did it for me anyway. Walking back down from Pheriche to Debuche, the scenery was completely different without the snow!
After all we've been through and the disappointment of not getting to either base camp when we were so close, I have to admit I feel a little all trekked out. I can't wait to get back to Kathmandu and go home.
