NEPAL DAY12

GORAK SHEP ̶ KALA PATHAR ̶ PANGBOCHE
The night in Gorak Shep was the one at the highest altitude and also the coldest. It was real hard to get out of the sleeping bag and even harder to put the ice cold clothes on. The goal for the day was to get to the highest point of the trip, Kala Pathar. Kala Pathar means “black rock” and is not a mountain, rather a bump on the Pumori south ridge. But the altitude is around 5550 meters and it requires some real effort climbing 500 meters at this altitude. We started off just after 4 am, climbing with headlights slowly, slowly towards the summit. Reaching the top we were once again rewarded with spectacular views of mountains above the clouds in the sunrise. We got to see Ama Dablam, Pumori, Nuptse, and the main attraction (and reason for climbing Kala Pathar) Mt Everest up close. We also got a glimpse of camp 4 on Everest located in the South col between Everest and Lhotse and even the Lhotse summit just behind Nuptse. It was cold on the summit so we got our pictures and then ran down as fast as we could to get some warming breakfast.
After this early morning effort we had another 17 km left to walk to reach Pangboche at 3900m. The way was rocky and felt long. On the way we stopped by the Mt Everest Memorial, an open space with rocks, signs and prayer flags to honor the Sherpas and climbers who have died trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest. We had lunch at Thukla located a tiring and long way below the memorial park. At least we were going down hill, meeting exhausted people going up the same way made us feel lucky not to be in their shoes. From Thukla the trail was easy, pretty nice and we walked with great views of the Ama Dablam and Taboche 6542m. As the air got thicker at the lower altitude we felt the strength slowly returning to our bodies, we went faster and felt more energized. After a long day we finally arrived in Pangboche and were rewarded with one of the calmest and most comfortable lodges on the whole trip.

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