Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

May 13, 2008 – The View from Pangboche

Hello, everyone. Tracy here, reporting from Pangboche as we continue to make our way through spectacular mountain terrain toward Everest.

We had a wonderful sleep last night at the home of Ang Temba, our Berg Adventures operations manager and trip leader here in Nepal. As we were going to bed the clouds were moving away and we could see all the stars. In the distance, the snow on the mountains was glowing in the darkness.

We had a sunny start to our day, beginning with a traditional Sherpa breakfast of barley oatmeal. With breakfast on board, we hiked to the base camp of Ama Dablam, one of the most gorgeous mountains in the Himalayas. It was a three and a half hour hike, and I kept thinking of the Swahili advice, “pole, pole,” which means and rhymes with “slowly, slowly.”

By the time we were halfway to our destination, Ama Dablam got shy and hid behind the clouds. Even so, there continued to be amazing views all around us, and the cooler temperatures made traveling comfortable.

The Ama Dablam Base Camp was small—just a dining tent and a tent for sleeping. We learned that a Norwegian team had just summited and that they were safely coming down the mountain.

We were ready to head down, too, returning to Ang Temba’s lodge to find that dinner was ready for us. The meal was fabulous and we felt we had earned our appetites with the efforts of the day. A highlight of dinner was a special dessert called Glacier Melt which is made of fried Snickers or Mars candy bars.

Three Everest expedition teams will be joining us tonight. The climbers are coming down from Everest Base Camp as part of their acclimatization routine. They’ve been living at elevations more than a mile higher than Pangboche for many weeks now. (We’re at about 13,200 feet above sea level right now.) By descending to sleep at this relatively low altitude before going up for their summit attempt, they hope to have their bodies well adjusted to meet the demands of the thin air far above.

Everyone in our group is doing well, too. We are all looking forward to heading up to Pheriche tomorrow and seeing what adventures await us there.