(As i write this, my teeth are chattering and lungs filled with yak-dung smoke in the warm and smoky dining hall at the ghost-lodge in Pheriche)
Woke up to see the ground covered in a thin layer of snow( will we be able to leave today!)..Clumsy me was a little skeptical - i fall on perfectly nice and dry gravelled ground..and this was snow! I think it was a good test for my Salomons:)...and they passed the test!...My first testy step onto the cold ground was a soft crunching sound which i totally loved!Phooey! i think i can do this:). Passed a lot of beautifully arranged prayer stones. The trees seemed closer and to be thinning out..This is the day that you go above the tree line and the geological landscape significantly and completely changes. When you step out of the lodge at Tengboche/ Debuche, you are still surrounded by rhododendron forest and as you walk, and as the hours pass, the trees turn to brown bushes, and brown bush into grey rock, and grey rock into dust.The mountain peaks seem closer, as if the whole trail got squeezed. Today it really sinks in you ARE really walking towards the roof of the world.
The thud thud of choppers heard yesterday while we walked from Namche to Debuche could be heard. Passed a beautiful bridge- overlooking fields this time..the scenery was beautiful...again up up and up:)..passed a lot of prayer stones.. Stopped in a village and cooked cous-cous in the open.Boy it was windy!- ate straight from the pot....hate having to wash vessels:D.....but was good- to eat like that, in the open, surrounded by beauty and a few kids practicing some martial arts, a few horses in an enclosure right next to us)
The cold barren beautiful grey-white mountains seem to be nearer....began to feel the thinning air....met a lot of people -all headed to Dingboche- that's what the porter recommended:)....we stay adamant not wanting to take a larger altitude jump than necessary and split ways to Pheriche.( Just after crossing the river the last time, go rightwards to Dingboche and leftish towards Pheriche)....see some sole houses on the way...who wouldn't wanna live up here:)...there is barely any vegetation now...we've risen above the tree line ( which means lesser options to pee unseen). Barely any people on this route- mostly porters heading back to Tengboche presumably( Tengboche thanks to the monastery, is somehow a cultural centre in this region, despite the number of its residents being in the lower hundreds). SO we keep walking in the tree parched land wondering what happened to whom ( and praying that we don't have to be air lifted like that) when we hear the constant thud thud of choppers flying in and out, above our heads. We can see the clouds coming in and walk quicker- don't wanna be out in the dark and cold now.
We have to walk down down down into what seems like a valley and across the stream and that's where Pheriche is. It does seem like Pheriche is ON a dried up river bed.Around are those beautiful mountains again- they feel even more closer and colder...I think we walked in here at 3-4 p.m. Seems like a ghost town except the occasional chopper overhead. Few people milling around. In all these days, this is probably the least number of people we've seen. Boy! Pheriche does seem unpopular. Kinda happy at first- all that noise at Revendale, Debuche was a ear-sore:). However, after freshening up, as we hit the warm dining hall, we realise that the only other person present is an old Korean trekkker and his porter. Hmmph. I realise also that there is NO network here. Ask the host f they have a phone- she shows me her cellphone and a window sill. Says 200 bucks for a call( WHATTT)... well i gotta call my ma! SO thing is you have to maneuver around the window sill in the kitchen and there is just one spot where you get ONE bar to make a phone call..However somehow- unable to get a tone. So i bring out my iphone- and after 30 mins of trying to hit the sweet spot, Bullseye! iPhone balanced on the windowsill above the kitchen platform , i'm sitting crouched on the platform, my ear stuck to the window:).....the porters and villagers who've come to socialise with the lodge girls-hosts giving me the incredulous stare- IS SHE MENTAL! Yeah i am...i need to tell ma where i am!...Inform ma i wont be reachable for 2 days atleast- and thats how its done:)...i sure am glad nobody took a pic of that:)
Enter the dining hall back to acrid smoke. Snow's falling , its dark already, COLD and to turn up the heat they let the smoke into the room rather than letting it out from the indigineous chimney! just perfectly brilliant! We sit and talk to the porter about his hard life, about his son who he's sent off to Darjeeling, India to study and how he visits him once in a while. Talks about his newborn son. The Korean trekker talks about his treks.They have actually finished EBC and on their way back( Apparently that's what most people do- they stay at Dingboche on the way up and Pheriche on the way down). We try to take tips from the porter about how we should plan the next few days. Earlier we were thinking of setting off the very next day to Lobuche, which is a huge 600 m jump. But the porter advices us to acclimatise. We dilly dally between setting off for Lobuche since we're feeling great anyway and halt at Dughla and Lobuche the next day, or acclimatise one day and then head straight to Lobuche the day after. We flip so many times...the last thing before we sleep off is stay back, acclimatise and then to Lobuche. Temperature check- MINUS EIGHT degreees....brrrrrrrrrr
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