Day3: Namche Bazaar

Oct 2, Thu - Day 3

Acclimatization day at Namche Bazaar  "The Nest"

We still had to wake up early to go up to view sunrise over Everest to Sagarmatha National Park Headquarters.  We were so excited to see a beautiful sunrise from our Tea House  itself! we got some awesome views of the early morning rays striking over Lhotse and Everest and the saddle they share in between! Urmi and Anisha slept in but the rest of us went up with Dunbar Sir. It was a relatively short steep hike up with steps most of the way up. But it was soooo exciting to get our first view of Everest! And we were so lucky that we got clear skies and a beautiful sunrise! We saw several high peaks - including Lhotse, Lhotse Shar, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam standing tall above the valley floor. This was our first close up view of the world’s greatest mountains, Everest, Lhotse 27,940' (8,516 m), Ama Dablam 22,349' (6,812 m), , Nuptse 25,791' (7,861 m), Thamserku 21,729' (6,623 m), Tabouche 21,463' (6,542 m), Khwande, Khumbila (holy mountain) Khwande, 18,901' (5,761 m) and many other unnamed mountains and peaks. We were so excited not realizing that we would soon be seeing some of these mountains up close and personal

Urmi and Anisha had a leisurely breakfast and then did the same hike with Revant. They saw a helicopter land in the helipad. They signed the log book and had their first real Yak sighting. We all went shopping and bought identical EBC T-shirts and the guys also got woolen caps.

We met Menaz and Madhu again. Madhu had decided to get a porter. They would now follow a different route up from us coz they were taking the more difficult and longer Gokyo lakes route to EBC. In the afternoon some of the team went for another hike to help in acclimatization and to search of "Sonam Photographer" He had some awesome pictures.

We spent a lazy afternoon catching up on our sleep and then had an early dinner in anticipation of the long hike next day. I did get a chance to chat a little with my son Pulkit on whatsapp! That was great because the next time we had any internet access would not be until we were headed back! 

Anisha had developed a sore throat and Shree had a cough from day one. Sanjiv was our team doc specially coz his brother is a doctor and he was consulting him for all our ailments.

NEXT - Day 4 - Oct 3 2014, Fri, Namche Bazaar (11,285'/3,440m) - Tengboche (12,665'/3,860m)