EBC Day 9: Gorak Shep to Pheriche...

Today began with an optional trail up Kala Pather to watch sunrise over the peaks. I opted to sleep in, but Terri, Carlin, Kent and Qudeer enjoyed the two-hour roundtrip where they managed to see Everest for the first and only time. In case you’re curious, I have no regrets that I passed on the only opportunity to actually see Everest.

Since Rosie was still sick, she and James had arranged for a helicopter ride down the mountain and Qudeer opted to join them, so our group was back down to our original four. We had lots of helicopter discussions ourselves, but no decisions had been made at that point.

Kent got the bad news today that Island Peak was not ready for him to summit as the guide wires had not been set for the season yet. He was disappointed, but determined to come back someday with his son Rowan to climb three Himalayan peaks.

Ironically, at the time we had no idea that those extra days built into our itinerary would come in very handy.

Please note that Kent doesn’t have hiking poles in this photo. In fact, he never used poles at all. I was completely in awe as they were an essential extension of my arms at all times. Luckily we never needed any technical gear nor did we have to do any hand scrambling. Personally, I prefer to hike with my feet rather than my hands.

There was a lot of yak poo along the trail; in this case, the dung patties are drying to be used for energy. Instead of saying “cheese” when playing photographer, Ishor said “yak poo.”