Day 10: Lobuche

Hiking time: 4-5 hours

Above Pheriche, the character of the terrain changes, and we’ll begin to understand the starkness of the high alpine landscape. Our path climbs the terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier and continues to the settlement of Lobuche (16,174 ft./4,929 m), where we’ll spend one night. This trail passes through a famous memorial that honors the many Sherpa who lost their lives in the high mountains. Lobuche is located on the flank of an old lateral moraine of the Khumbu glacier.

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Update from the Team:

Greetings from Lobuche! Sitting at just above 16,000 ft we found ourselves with another blue sky day. Boy are we grateful! We are now at 50% oxygen available compared to the 100% available when at sea level. We feel it! The air is getting thinner, colder, and the sniffles have increased. 

The first part of our morning led us through a valley with 360 degree views of some of the world’s tallest peaks surrounding us. It was magical! We’ve officially decided that we are out of adjectives to describe what our eyeballs are witnessing. We were reminding of the old liturgy, “The Valley of Vision.” 

And while a poignant piece of writing, “the way down is the way up,” proved to literally be true. After our lunch stop we had a steep ~700 ft ascent over less than a mile through the Thok La Pass to the Memorial for Alpinist and Mountaineers. This memorial honors the lives of those who have died on Everest and peaks in the valley. Quite the spot to ponder and to be reminded on how puny man is to the force of nature. 

Today’s group effort came when our guides surprised us with Yak cheese at a water break and from there we discovered that with all of our various snacks, we could make a mean charcuterie board once we arrived to the tea house. (See picture) The joy that this brought us and to share “the art of charcuterie” with our Nepali guides felt like quiiiiteee the contribution to their care, kindness, and humor getting us to EBC. 

We are one sleep away from Base Camp! The crew continues to respond well to the altitude and is in high spirits for these two last days in the mountains (and arguably the hardest)!