Climb to Namche tested fitness level of few in group. A day break for acclimatisation was a refreshing break. It was much needed break, as it gave us time to pull up the socks, recollect the motivation that has brought us this far. Namche Bazaar is a thriving Sherpa town and has been classic stopover for acclimatisation. The Sherpa capital has two museums, several internet cafes, bakeries and more. Make your stay count by discovering the area and taking up a hike or two to Everest View Hotel and Museum. And RELAX. Then start again 🙂

Acclimatisation Day

We started our day by climbing up to the stairs to Sagarmatha national park museum.

You enter the park and see a massive bronze statue of Tenzing Norgay – the first Sherpa to summit Everest supporting Sir Edmund Hillary.

The park is the place from where we got glimpse of first 8000+ peak, Lhotse. statue is from where we saw the first 8000k (How many 8 thousander peak are there in the world? ).

And while everyone was busy clicking pictures, we got our first glimpse of EVEREST herself. I can sense a lot of excitement seeing the EVEREST. However, cloud was a quick spoilsport, and we couldn’t take our first picture with Everest. Nevertheless it was a totally different feeling. (It is just left to Lhotse) . None of us would have realised what just unveiled from under the cloud cover, until Rajendra, our guide told us.

We spent some time clicking our photos/selfies at the museum and descended.

Walking to museum, you can see a distant school. What we were considering as “acclimatisation” trek, was the daily routine of these kids. JUST AWESOME.

We then started climb to Everest View Hotel, hoping to get a better view of Everest. However, Your Plans Are Not Yours, Nature Decides. The visibility reduced drastically and entire view was covered by clouds. We climbed up but couldn’t get a better view.

Hence we returned back by noon to spend time in the by lanes of Namche Bazar.

A beautiful customer, just out of a beauty saloon!

By evening we were all back to hotel, to have a good sleep, as next day we were up for Phortse Tanga. It’s this day, when we will deviate from “standard” EBC trail route to Gokyo. (Ref map below). We will head to Maccherma, with a night stay at Phortse tanga, while regular route directly goes to Tengboche.

Next day, trek to Phortse Tanga

As been usual routine, we started off early for our day.

Next day, we climbed up to same place out of Namche, where we climbed yesterday. Post that the long and very scenic traverse up the valley of the Dudh Khosi starts. For record, the initial route, running along the seeming endless ridgeline leading out of Namche, is relatively flat and easy-going. 

On our walk way, we met a very old woman in the middle of the trail. She bad a donation box and message written in different languages. Apparently it seems, her family was maintaining the trail route all by herself and donation was meant to go towards maintenance of the trail.

In the route amazing views of Ama Dablam, Everest, Lhotse, Thamserku and other snow peaks keeps motivating you as you pass stupas along the way.

We can also see the melting snow/ice from those mountains

The regular tea stop, gives us time to play around.

Then there comes the point where route to Tengboche and Gokyo separates.

While the route got separated, the walk continued through the pine and rhododendron forest of Biratnagar province.

And finally we reached our destination at Phortse Tanga.

And before I end the day let me introduce you all to my new friend Mr. Yak. Please say hello to him. 🙂

And there ends the beautiful uphill trek. It was worth the effort.

The route trail on google

  Prologue-EBC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 – Gokyo lakes | 6 – Gokyo ri Summit | 7 – Chola pass | 8 | 9 – Kalapatthar/EBC | 10 | Epilogue-EBC