NEPAL DAY11

LOBUCHE ̶ GORAK SHEP ̶ E.B.C.
As many mornings before, we had breakfast at around 6:30 consisting of porridge with cinnamon, toast and eggs. Today we were going to Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp (EBC) and then back again to Gorak Shep, which meant we had another long day ahead of us. The trail started off gentle and wide but soon got rocky as we went up and down the moraine of the Khumbu glacier. This turned out to be a pretty tough walk. The view of the day was Pumori 7090m, a perfect pyramid-shaped mountain located in front of us and Nuptse 7900m, connected to Everest and Lhotse. We reached Gorak Shep for lunch, a very small village by a dried out lake at around 5200m. This was our last stop before Everest base camp.
The trek from Gorak Shep to EBC looks easy on the map and the altitude gain is not so much, but the walk takes about two to three hours over big rocks and boulders on the moraine. And being above 5000 meters slows everything down quite a bit. Walking there you will see the top pyramid of Everest pretty close and Pumori is even closer. The EBC in autumn is not much to see because there are no climbing expeditions this time of the year, they are held during spring. You will find a pile of rocks on the glacier with some flags and a lot of people taking pictures. EBC is around 5300m.
The walk back seemed longer but the light was changing and we got a glimpse of Everest and Nuptse glowing in the afternoon sun.
While gaining a lot of altitude the last few days we noticed people's health deteriorating gradually, most people in the Gorak Shep teahouse didn’t look so good, constantly coughing. This is the notorious Khumbu-cough from the dry, dusty air combined with high altitude, lack of sleep and high physical efforts.

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