Charlie had set his alarm for 0530 hours at eh
direction of Kaji but at 0500 hours we were woken by Kaji knocking on the window
saying we may as well get up as everyone else was.
Today we were going to KALAPHATAR and back but we
had to go into GOREK SHEP first considering it was at the base of KALAPHATAR
Gorek Shep
After we had our breakfast at LOBOCHE we set off which was about 0600
hours (our normal time for the alarm to go off). There was a little smattering of snow on the
ground but not enough to hamper our trek and it was pretty cold as the sun
hadn’t come over the mountains. The
actual trek to GOREK SHEP wasn’t too bad, it was steady going until you got
near to GOREK SHEP and then it was like ‘up hill and down dale’ until we arrive
around 0800 hour. We stopped for a quick
brew before staring out ascent on KALAPHATAR, that was not steady going, it was
quite a steep start then it levelled out for a very short bit before you got
into the rocks and boulders that you had to clamber over. However, when we got to the top the views
were amazing and we even got to see EVEREST BASE CAMP
Everest Base
Camp from Kalaphatar
Kaji our guide took mine and Charlie’s picture with EVEREST in the
background
Everest in
the background
The one good thing about climbing KALAPHATAR is tat we were actually
higher than EVEREST BASE CAMP and we cam in at about 5530 meters which is just
about 3000 meters below EVEREST SUMMIT
Showing our
height at Kalaphatar
We didn’t stay at the top too long as the winds had
picked up as it was around midday so we started to head back down, which
incidentally I preferred as it was quicker than going up and with the help of
gravity it was a bonus.
On the way back down there was a bird (Snow Cock)
that wasn’t bothered by people (but then most birds here weren’t bothered for
you to get close) so I managed to get a good close picture of it
Snow Cock
Once we got back down to GOREK SHEP it was time for
a bit of food before heading back to LOBOCHE, but whilst we were at GOREK SHEP
we spoke with Kaji and change our itinerary for getting back to LUKLA; we are
now leaving LOBOCHE in the morning and heading straight for DEBOCHE completely
missing out DINGBOCHE, then we are heading straight for NAMCHE to spend 2
nights there before heading to LUKLA to spend 2 nights there completing missing
staying out PHAKDING and so that Kaji can get back to his family a day early.
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