Day 10. Kala Patthar-Pangbuche, max elevation 5545m

The hardest day of our trek. We woke up at 3.30 in the morning, ate some chocolate, geared up with warm clothing and headlights and started to ascent to our highest peak, Kala Patthar ( black rock). It had snowed during the night. With the snow, darkness and the fact that our trail went 400m almost straight up made it feel a little bit like we were going to climb to Everest itself. Also a lot of people were doing the same route at the same time. Everybody wanted to be on top to see the sunrise and hoping to see Everest with a clear sky. We saw lots of lights going on top of us. At the beginning we had a lot of energy and we caught up and passed a bunch of people. But soon reality hit and our legs started to feel like concrete. Breathing in that altitude wasn’t the main problem, although it must have had its effect since the trail was really hard on the legs. It took us two hours to reach the top. We were pretty tired. Gladly Raj came to the resque and gave us chocolate cookies for energy. 

On our way to the top we could see Nuptse and Lhotse. Everest was hiding behind the clouds. We were hoping for a clear sky but unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and we could only see glimpses of the mountains. Still we had a beautiful view and great feeling to be standing on top of a ‘hill’ that high. We enjoyed the moment for a while and then started descent back. Still quite a lot of people were climbing up as we went down. 

At our lodge we had quick breakfast and started our journey back where we came from. Our destination was a village Pangbuche at the altitude of 3930m. At the beginning of our trek the plan was that after Kala Patthar we would go to Gokyo. Going there meant spending three more days in altitudes between 4500m and 5400m. But stomach problems, tiredness from altitude and cloudy weather made us change the plan and we decided to skip Gokyo. Later we saw that indeed it would not have been even possible to go there at least that day. The way to Gokyo goes through high Chola pass that was closed because of bad weather and snowfall. On the way down we saw a group coming back from Chola pass because they could not get through. 

On our way down we quickly walked through the village Lobuche where we had stayed one night before. We passed the Everest memorial site and had lunch. Then we descented to a valley where we passed old farmhouses and a village Pheriche. After that was a short but steep climb up and then easy 1 hour forest trail to our lodge in Pangbuche.This day was the toughest on the legs. First the walk to Kala Patthar 3 hours there and back and 5 hours to Pangbuche.

Day 11. Pangbuche-Namche
Against all odds, day 11 dawned with a crystal clear sky and good views on Everest. We had slept really well on this lower altitude and set out full of energy and amazed by the incredible views.

The descent to Namche was not easy though. The way contained lots of ups and and downs, and our legs were tired after previous day. Tengbuche looked better though than the last time since we could see the panorama around it. On the way we saw also two women collecting yak poo from the trail and some Himalayan thars in the distance. 

When we came to Namche, we celebrated by going to Liquid bar to see another movie, drink Sherpa Brewery’s Khumbu Kölsh and Coke and even had some pop corn.