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Dawn the next day made for a beautiful discovery as clouds lifted and parted, revealing little windows into the surroundings. We trudged up to Pangpengma basecamp and celebrated with the entire supply of goodies we had brought with us for the trek. On the way back down we rested in Kambachen, a small cluster of houses blessed with both cuteness and handmade cappuccinos! If I were planning our route again, I would stop for an acclimatisation day here and drop my weeks budget on more of those delicious expensive cappuccinos.
11 hours of walking (more accurately described as scrambling) up hill, ascending about 2000m altitude before coming back down 600m for our night spot. It was harder for poor Jenny who had slipped on one of the dodgy river crossings early that morning and proceeded to march through the rest of the day (and 18 days ahead) with a fractured wrist. There is something about being cut off from media for real – like no discipline required – even if you want to, there is actually no reaching the outside world. Thanks to Jenny’s discontent towards small talk and excellent endless list of deep questions to draw from.
As a reward after we finished base camp, we trekked back down to 4800m or so and had a night of acclimatization (relief) before venturing back upwards the next day to Chola Pass (5350m) and on to Gokyo Lake. The air was sweeter after dropping even just 500m and my headache subsided. The walk to Dzongla was breathtaking that day. Clouds kept sweeping in and out, revealing little previews and making much more real, how high into the sky we really were.
Everest base camp felt something like what I’d imagine the moon to be. A small bout of altitude sickness meant there was no way we were getting up Kala Pattar peak the next morning (which by all accounts gives the most epic view of Everest). After the excitement of Basecamp wore off, we had an uncomfortable night at Gorekshep (with more of the headaches) before we were able to descend back down 500m and get some sweet relief. Surrounded by white peaks and bare dry valleys, there was an airy feel to the whole place.