Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

April 30, 2010 – New Friends in Pheriche

This is Leila Silveira reporting from Pheriche. Today is our rest day but I have to say that our team did anything but rest. We had our usual 7/8/9 am program; 7 o'clock wake up with tea in bed, 8 o'clock breakfast and off to a day hike to Dingboche by 9 o'clock. The trail starts behind our lodge with a zig-zag to the top of a ridge that we then traverse along until we reach the very top which is marked by a stupa and some prayer flags.

Mingma played a small joke on the team this morning. While taking a break he drew some footprints on the snow and told the team that there must be a snow leopard nearby. He knew the team would love to see a snow leopard, and everyone became a little excited at the thought of a snow leopard. He did end up admitting that he had made it himself because he didn't want everyone to be worried.

Back at the lodge in Pheriche around noon, we all met in the sun room and waited for our lunch. The sunroom is the warmest and coziest place in the lodge.

Right after lunch we attended the daily lecture at the Himalayan rescue association. HRA, established in 1973, is a nonprofit voluntary organization with the main goal of reducing casualties in the region. They treat both trekkers and local people; all the doctors are volunteers western doctors and they have been responsible for saving many lives and teaching trekkers and locals the danger of high altitude through their daily 3 pm lecture. By the way, they don’t only treat high altitude cases, most of their patients are locals with a wide variety of different problems.

Dr. Eric gave our lecture today and I was happy to see that our team was very interested and involved in asking questions. Dr Eric ended the lecture with a demonstration of the benefits of and how to use a Gamow bag.

Dr. Barb, with her husband Pete from Salt Lake City, joined us for dinner. They were really impressed with our meal which started with a great soup, followed by sushi (California rolls), pizza, vegetables and to top it all off, a banana pie and some chocolate. We all really enjoyed meeting them and the conversation flowed easily between Dr. Barb's experiences as a volunteer doctor to Pete's stories of the recent Olympic Games in Vancouver. Pete is the Head Coach of one of the American ski teams.

Tomorrow is a big day. We will hike to Lobuche which is a 2000 feet/600 meter elevation gain from Pheriche.

"Bistari, bistari," (meaning "slow" in Nepalese). Day by day we are closing the distance to base camp.