Everest Base Camp Trek Day 4 – Namche Bazaar to Pangboche

After a breakfast of muesli and apples, we got an early start and left at 8am. It started easy as I felt strong and dynamic. After the initial climb to exit Namche, the trail went flat and winding with dramatic valley views and snowy peaks. It was easy to walk and get lost in your thoughts, breathing the fresh air and clearing your head of mundane worries while following your footsteps.

Flat trails are fun!

Sharing the way

Love these beautiful mountain flowers - they almost look unreal!

After two and a half hours, the inevitable came to us in a steep incline of crumbly gravel trail. The ascent seemed never ending and the path changed into knee-bruising stone steps. We were still climbing two hours later. At that point, something had to give and I started feeling weaker and weaker. It was discouraging to ask guides on the way and to get told the next village was ‘one hour away’ over and over again. I had to sit down on the side of the path and get some stamina back into me. I felt so weak I could barely hold the water bottle Chris was handing me. I remember staring at my hands and thinking something was very wrong. After ten minutes of sitting and being force-fed a granola bar, I found the strength to carry on and we finally reached Tengboche (3860 meters) on shaky legs after nearly 5 hours straight. Our friends had been there nearly an hour waiting for us. I collapsed on a chair and ordered lunch. 

I'm struggling

I don’t know why or how I got convinced but we actually carried on after lunch and pushed on until Pangboche (3930 meters) which took another two and a half hours including a hard 40 minutes uphill. I had gathered some energy over lunch and felt fine during the afternoon hike, despite a sharp pain shooting from my right shoulder blade to my neck. It felt so good to have arrived and to reach a destination further than originally planned! We were tired, but proud.

 

Reaching Pangboche

What are you looking at?

I rewarded myself with a hot shower which was a humbling experience: my hosts put over 6 massive kettles to boil on their iron stoves and carried it to the roof to pour the hot water into a container for me to have my shower. They ran back and forth while I was able to wash myself (three times over) from the hot water coming out of a simple pipe in the bathroom. They certainly deserved the 300 rupees it cost me for this luxury. At this altitude up in the mountains, wood is scarce and expensive so cow dung is the logical (and ecological) option for fuel. Afterwards, I sat by the fire in the dining room while the owner’s four year old daughter played with my drying hair with her hands stained from the cow dung she had been playing with earlier. So much for staying clean! There are dung cakes drying all over the village of Pangboche: on the walls and in the fields. Our host would make them all day behind her house by hand and without gloves before going in the kitchen and making our dinner – sanitary!    

Drying dung cakes

Piles and piles of shit!