Nepal Day 14 - Lobouche to Dzongla

4.2 miles, 627’ climbing

Hotel Zongla Inn, 15,846’ current elevation

Today was a short trek, a semi-recovery day. After breakfast in Lobouche, we headed down the main Everest Base Camp trail, probably the busiest trail in the region. Helicopters were up and flying. Bire told us that a lot of people hike up and book a flight back when they don’t have time for a full trek. Flying up and hiking back isn’t a viable option because of the risk of altitude sickness. 

A rider on a horse with bells galloped past us dressed in traditional clothing. We saw a pair of Kongma fly past (Tibetan Woodcock). Before we reached Thugla, we turned west off the “Everest Highway” and headed west towards Cho La, a pass connecting the Khumbu Valley (east most of the 3 valleys coming north from Namche Bazaar) to the Gokyo Valley (center valley from Namche). We will head over the pass and stay in Gokyo in a couple days. 

Although the Cho La pass and trail are pretty heavily trekked, there were only a few other trekking groups. We’ve been told that 80% of treks were cancelled due to the Iran war. It’s particularly difficult for trekkers from Europe to reach Nepal since transit would typically go through the Middle East.

The trail was quiet away from the hubbub of trekkers, yaks, helicopters in the Khumbu Valley. The trail was narrow, and in some places exposed. A stumble would be a bad idea. As we contoured around the hill, gradually gaining elevation, the trail had slippery spots with melting snow and mud, requiring some attention. Thus we only looked around during breaks. As usual, the scenery was stunning. Bire spotted a pair of climbers descending the snow field near the top of Lobuche Peak, one of the trekking peaks (under 8000 meters). Some of the trekking peaks are quite technical even though their peaks are lower than the biggest peaks here. 

We slowly picked our way through rolling hills strewn with boulders. The plants were low grasses and the fragrant suunpati. We arrived around lunch time. There are only a few lodges here. Clouds descended and it started snowing after lunch. It was pretty cold until the lodge proprietor lit the stove.