Day 214: Nepal Trek Day 12: Kala Pattar
Today was the beginning of the end. We had a final day-hike to the summit of Kala Pattar scheduled for the morning, but after that we would be making our long, long, long way back to Lukla. Thankfully for us, the trail back would be new territory up until Namche, as we arrived via the loop from the Gokyo Valley.
Perhaps against our better judgement, we asked Purba to start our morning hike at 5:30AM – a half an hour earlier than he originally suggested – as we overheard the huge Exodus group planning a 6AM start as well. In hindsight, we needn’t have worried about sharing the trail with them – the hike up Kala Pattar was very similar to Gokyo Ri in that was it a nearly vertical ascent, which quickly created distance between exhausted hikers.
More importantly, it was FREEZING. When we hiked Gokyo least the sun came up within the first hour, thawing our stone-cold fingers and toes. Kala Pattar, however, was right in the shadow of the biggest friggin’ mountain in the world – Everest refused to give us any warmth during our entire 2.5hr. climb.
Another pre-sunrise start for our day-hike up Kala Pattar
The sun slowly starts to light up the peaks around us, but Everest (not shown here) and Nuptse stubbornly hide the warming rays from us
View of the Khumbu Glacier and surrounding mountains from the summit of Kala Pattar
When we finally reached the top, we barely had the energy to exhault in our achievement – at 5,644m it was the official “high point” of our trek! We could see the halo of light the sun was casting around the peak of Everest – we knew it would only be a matter of minutes before the sunshine finally came out…but we couldn’t wait that mong. It was so cold, everything just *hurt*. We took as many photos as we could stand before abandoning the summit and heading down the hill as fast as possible. We were about a quarter of the way down the hill when the sun finally crested the mountaintop.
“Do you want to go back up?” Igor asked Lindsay. She looked at him as if he had three heads, “Not even a little bit! Let’s go get breakfast.”
View of Mount Everest and Nuptse from Kala Pattar
We get a great view of Everest and the Khumbu Ice Falls from the summit of Kala Pattar
The view is spectacular, but it is so COLD! We want to stay until the sun climbs over the Everest peak but ourfingers are toes are so frozen we can’t hold out any longer
Returning to the teahouse for breakfast after our grueling morning climb
After a warming breakfast, we finished packing up our room and met up with our porter to start the long journey back. According to our itinerary, we would be spending the night in Pheriche – one of the larger settlements along the EBC trek – but since he knew we really wanted to get back to Namche ASAP, Phurba suggested we continue past Pheriche another hour (which turned out to be at least two extra hours, since Lindsay was going so slow).
Even though the trail itself wasn’t that difficult (it was mostly flat, and some gentle downhill), the Khumbu Valley is known to be *extremely* windy near Pheriche, so the weather was incredibly cold all afternoon. We usually power through our day of hiking and wait until we get to the next teahouse to rest, but it was so cold today that we had to stop for lunch at Thaknak and again outside Pheriche for a warming cup of tea. Just when Lindsay was starting to regret the decision to alter the itinerary, we finally stumbled into our teahouse for the night. We were on our feet from 5:30AM to 5:30PM – definitely our longest trekking day of the trip!
Heading back towards Lukla on the EBC Trail, catching our last glimpse of the Khumbu Galcier as we continue into the valley
Even Igor bundles up today – it is windy and cold!
Hundreds of memorial stones and cairns decorate the hillside just outside Lobuche
A safe distance away from EBC, friends and loved ones have erected a memorial site for all those who have perished on Mount Everest. Sadly, there are A LOT of plaques dedicated to those who reached the summit, but died on the way their way down because they wanted their “no oxygen” ascent to “count”
Stopping for lunch at Thaknak, about halfway between Gorak Shep and Panboche
Passing by browsing yaks and bright blue mountain streams as we make our way down the valley
The last few hours of the trek were tough – the clouds rolled in and the wind was brutal! Lindsay was so relieved when we finally arrived at the teahouse in Panboche and collapsed into our bed