23 May 2024
I woke up late like around 7 AM. Amruta was already up. We had just started packing the stuff when there was knock on the door, I thought it was Surendra so I replied asking to wait. Then Gauri said it was her. We immediately opened the door. She was standing there almost shivering. She said Ngima had woken her up at 3 AM exact and they had started their hike to Kala Pathar at 4AM. And half way through it had started snowing. Hence, they had chosen to abort the plan and return to Pyramid. It was good that she was back safe and sound.
We completed packing and then headed for breakfast where we met Ngima. Ngima said Surendra will head to Pangboche with the duffle bag and we will take our own time to reach there. Same time, he had also arranged for the chargers to be brought at Shomare. This too was a good thing, else either we would have to go to Dingboche or buy new ones only at Kathmandu. But till then the batteries would have died and we would have missed excellent opportunity of some good pictures.
Then it was time to bid adieu to kind people at Pyramid. We clicked a group selfie and started our hike back. Time was about 830 AM.
The first was Lobuche which was just about a kilo meter and half away. Here we took a real short break and started off. Some one kilo meter ahead the route diverged into two and one arrow mentioned Chola Pass. We were to take the other route to Pheriche.
This ascent didn’t feel much to climb and we reached the Memorial. Everyone took a small break and now I didn’t want to stop. I confirmed the route and started going down towards Thukla. Soon the group followed and we took a quick break at the restaurant. We had some soup and then were on our way. I was slow as I was clicking pictures of plants and shrubs. We were
I had an opportunity to click both pink and white variety of dwarf Rhododendrons. I have never felt this fortunate. When Ngima saw that I trying to click pictures of dwarf Rhododendrons aka Junipers, he was visibly happy. He also tried to assist me.
A few hundred meters from here some houses were seen that was Pheriche. I thought maybe a kilometre but just turned out that it was more than that. At about 130 PM we reached Pheriche. We decided to have lunch. After ordering the food, I went out to see the activity of choppers which were landing and flying off frequently. They were probably making load ferries to EBC as huge boxes were being unloaded at the helipad and wheeled away immediately. Few people were also waiting for their turn probably to return home. Anyway, I went back inside to have some good food.
After the food, we started our hike again. Ngima explained the route and told us that he would be pacing fast as he had to reach Shomare at the earliest to pick up our chargers. We let him go.
Now three of us were walking by ourselves. Soon we reached another stream. When we crossed that I realised this one was not the one that we had crossed at the time of going towards Dingboche. Also, we reached a hill top where prayer flags were hanged. I asked Amruta to check the map. She said we were on right track. We kept going ahead.
After a while I saw the lonely house that I had seen on our way up. That meant we were now close to Shomare. About 20 minutes later we reached Shomare. Here a young man who I thought was an Indian due to his unnecessary accent asked us if our guide was already in Shomare. When we said yes, he hurriedly told us to go fast as our guide was worried since we were lost! I didn’t understand what he meant but we did increase our speed. Ngima was waiting for us at the same place where we had tea on our way up. Only thing was it was now closed. From here we started walking together. In few minutes we could see the lodges at Pangboche. Girls kept pacing ahead and I took too much of time to click pictures. When we actually reached our lodge, it was almost 5 PM. We settled in, had tea and coffee. Preordered our dinner and chilled in the room until it was dinner time.
Simple warm dinner and we went of to bed fast. Tomorrow was yet another day when we were to trouble ourselves with a long hike.
Today’s chat with Ngima wasn’t much interesting as I almost knew the route. Only worry was the climb from Phungi Thenga to Kyangjuma. I told Ngima that we would have lunch at Kyangjuma. He was ok with that. Apart from this there was only the time that we needed to fix the time for leaving. He suggested starting off by 7AM and I was ok with that.
Here we collected our stuff that we had left behind while going towards EBC. We redid all the packing and kept the bags ready for next day. And slept off peacefully in no time.
Quite a few things happened in the night but not worthy of noting here. Only thing was I was mad when I woke up next day.
End Time: 04:30 PM
Highest Altitude: 5015 meters ASL
Distance: 15.33 kilo meters
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