Three Passes Trek Day 7

Three Passes Trek Day 7 - Nov 4 - Pengboche to Ana Dablam base camp (return).

Had a good night's sleep, thanks largely to the fact that Sama had remembered from our last trek to pack earplugs, which countered much of the stomping of boots and other activities from Trekkers in rooms adjacent and above. Earplugs are by far the most important piece of technology to pack when going trekking. After yesterday, when I lay in bed at 5:30 this morning the last thing I felt like doing was to get up and start trekking uphill, but I was glad we did. First we descended into a nearby river valley, across a bridge, then a steep climb up the other side, but with quite a few stops to catch our breath and mainly steady ascent we managed to eventually arrive at Ama Dablam base camp a couple of hours later, where we had brekky (pre packed eggs and rice) sitting on a mound of rocks overlooking the ADBC. The base camp itself was an interesting array of perhaps 150-200 tents, grouped into possibly 5 different sets associated with different climbing groups. There were lots of Sherpa camp crew milling around doing various tasks, while the actual climbing parties were already off climbing. We have met several climbers already and they are all climbing either this particular peak (which is for serious climbers) or Island Peak, which is a beginner peak.

Going both up and down (but especially on the way down) the views were again stunning. Even though we are seeing mountains every day they don't get boring and every day there are new angles and approaches that are quite contrasting. Ama Dablam itself is very steep and with a very striking shape that is impressive from every angle. There are so many other mountains whose names we don't know, some shape like pyramids, others like spiky hair or chipped teeth, and lots of smaller ones that just sort of fill in the background. As we ascended this morning they cast the most dramatic shadows across the landscape as the sun rose and we gazed down at Pengboche village far below.

At the moment I am sitting in the dining area of the guest house, this time awaiting the arrival of our Dahl baht. Dahl baht is an all-you-can-eat Nepalese thali consisting of rice, Dahl and vegetables with unlimited top-ups if required. I have this at least once a day. My other Nepalese dish of choice is steamed momos, vegetable dumplings, which the Sherpa people are particularly good at. My least favourite dish is Sherpa porridge, which is thick, doughy and bland, and doesn't really compete with muesli or toast and eggs as morning fare (but the Sherpas seem to like it).