Big Brothers Big Sisters Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

May 11, 2010 – Everest Viewpoint and the Tengboche Monastery

This is Leila Silveira reporting from Pangboche. Today was a long day, we left a little bit before 9 am in order to make a quick stop at the Khumjung Bakery, which is located at 12,8000ft/3,900m above sea level. It's a great little place!

By 9 am we were all on the trail and excited to have clear skies since we had amazing views of Kangtega, Thamserku, Ama Dablam and eventually Everest.

The Tengboche hill was definitely long. 600 metres elevation gain is not easy, but we went slowly and before we knew it we were all on top and ready for lunch.

We were rewarded with views of Everest peeking from behind Lhotse and Nuptse when we got to the top.

Today we crossed the last two suspension bridges. From now on we will still have a few bridges to cross but they will be simple and of a more basic construction.

We had a long lunch since we all wanted to visit the monastery which opened at 3pm for the daily afternoon prayers. We hung around, went for the second bakery run of our day and also checked the internet at the local cybercafe.

The Tengboche monastery is beautiful, not only for its design but also for its location. Built early in the 20th century, it has already faced two disasters, a 1934 earthquake and 1989 electrical fire. Nonetheless, it was rebuilt again with the help of international organizations and local donations.

We hiked almost half of the day surrounded by rhododendron trees; it was quite spectacular. Certain parts of the trail were so surrounded that it felt like we were being engulfed by them. We saw all colors, such as yellow, white, lilac, pink, and red to name a few.

Leaving Pengboche we made a quick stop at one of my favourite places which is generally bypassed by most tourists; the Deboche Gompa. The Deboche Gompa houses 12 retired nuns, including one that has been in retreat for the past 58 years with no human contacts. Eight years ago at the request of the Rimpoche of Tengboche, she began to share her holiness with the local sherpas. She will occasionally appear at her window. She has been in retreat since the age of 24 and I can hardly imagine what a shock it must have been for her to see the world again. When she made the choice to dedicate her life to prayers and no human contact, Nepal was still closed to the world and Everest hadn’t been summited yet. Can you imagine if she were to actually come fully out of her little room and see how busy the trails are and the numbers of tourists and the influence we have had on the environment?

We had another great surprise today; we saw a Musk deer and he came quite close to us. We took lots of photos of him, I just hope the quality is good since he was moving all over the place, including crossing the trail right in front of us.

Wally Berg has joined us in Khumjung on his way to base camp. He hiked with us to Pangboche and tomorrow will go directly to Everest Base Camp where we will see him again in a few days!