The mornings are now getting boringly similar, wake up at 6:00 am, breakfast at 7:00 am and on the trek by 8:00 am or so!!! This morning was beautiful and sunny and for the first time, we saw Everest and Lhotse in the distance!! Everyone was in awe at seeing these giant peaks even though we were still quite a distance from them!! Everest had its iconic trailing cloud and looks deceivingly smaller than Lhotse because it was further away... between the two peaks is the famous south col that every Everest climber has to face before summiting!! All these views brought "Everest" the movie back to my mind and was wondering how many climbers were out there that day! Apparently that day a large group of climbers summited Everest, and we were all happy for them!!! Our trek started nicely at first with a down sloping trail, but that quickly changed and ups and downs resumed... with stones and steps everywhere, the feet torture began in earnest! Added to all that was the altitude, as we started to go higher and higher! Soon we left the tree line and started a whole new landscape characterized by short vegetation and the wind!! Cold wind that is!!! We stopped for lunch in this little village called Somari! After lunch we resumed our trekking and the up and up ascent to Dingbuche which is at 4400 meters (14,500 ft)! When we arrived in the vicinity of Dingbuche, it looked like a town in the middle of a desert surrounded by these gigantic mountain peaks!! We arrived at our hotel, Good Luck, around 3:00 pm and we were shown our rooms! We all were exhausted and took a short nap! We then looked for cafes with free wifi but there was none! One needs to purchase a card to access internet and it is for 200 MB only!!! I bought one but it did not last long at all!!! After dinner we played cards until 8:30 pm and then hit the sack for the night!
Beautiful mountains around Dingbuche
Dingbuche and surroundings around sunset!
More views of Dingbuche
Above Dingbuche pointing at AMA Dablam peak
Above the tree line, vegetation is short to none
