Day5: Tengboche-Dingboche

Day 5 - Oct 4, Sat
Tengboche (12,665'/3,860m)  - Dingboche (14,286’/4350m)
Approx  6 hrs 7.5 miles Ascent 2451 ft Descent 948 ft

Another beautiful trail which rolls up and down for the first 1/2 hour or so, downhill about 400 feet, and then we started climbing up gradually, but mostly up for the remainder of the day, until we arrived at Dingboche.

In the morning Dunbar had got a box of chocolates to mark Shree’s Birthday! So lucky to be celebrating your Birthday surrounded by the World’s highest and most statuesque Mountains! Cannot ask for a better venue! This was also the day we began taking a picture with all of us showing the Hike Day with our fingers. All of us stretched out our fingers to demonstrate the "5th" day of our hike. It became a tradition and for the rest of the trek we would kick of the hike each day with a pic showing which Day of the hike it was. Ama Dablam graced us with her majestic presence most of the way with a turbulent and bubbly Imja Khola River prancing at her feet. We got another view of a memorial at the edge of the trail with its cone seeming a miniature of the gigantic inverted cone of Ama Dablam at the back! We stopped at a bakery at Pangboche but were not impressed by their carrot cake or their bread. It was appropriate that we had cake on Shree’s Birthday! We had beautiful views of the mountains from the bakery. We were quite amused that the bathrooms were locked and we had to go down to use them.

The views were as captivating as ever! We started by heading down to Imja Khola that was flowing beside us and crossed to the other side. I was continually surprised by the scale and dimension of the landscape we traversed. We'd descend to a suspension bridge over a milky torrent of glacial water, and just a little while later the river would appear as a squiggly line deep down in the depths of the valley we had just ascended in a grim, unrelenting climb. Even so we would be just a fraction of the way up the mountain towering above us with tiny hamlets and homesteads dotting the slopes. The trails formed a lacework of inter connected pathways amidst the thick forests or open countryside. We started climbing again and looking back we got stunning views of Kongde Ri with Tengboche in the foreground.

Ahead of us we had Ama Dablam in all its glory welcoming us with arms outstretched literally!  The views of Lobuche East-6119m(20,076ft) and Nirekha Peak 6069m(19,912ft) were stupendous! We saw Kangtega from a different angle with its hooked peak even more prominent!
We did see some Mountain cows on the way. These and the mountain goats were pretty much the extent of wildlife on the trail. As we started off we saw the brightly colored tree tops covering the mountainsides. We felt lucky to have experienced fall colors in the Himalayas. However this was also the day and trail that we crossed above the tree line. The mountain sides were soon devoid of trees - but instead ablaze with some pretty vibrant shrubs and small flowers.  The fall foliage covered the mountain sides with clumps of big yellow leaves next to burnt orange shrubs and lush green juniper like bushes.

 We saw neatly terraced fields as we came into the vicinity of Dingboche. The unique thing were the small stone walls forming a beautiful patchwork of fields that protected the crops of barley, buckwheat, and potatoes from the bitterly cold winds. According to Dunbar Dingboche is one of the highest permanent agricultural villages in the world.

We decided to not stop for lunch and after 6 long hours we finally reached Dingboche -  a large neat village with many lodges and some  very well arranged shops which we later visited. As we approached we saw a rescue helicopter land and a patient being air lifted in a stretcher. It was a little scary to witness that. After this point we saw several rescue helicopters. Shachin and I were now at the highest elevation we had ever hiked before - above 14,000 feet. Shree and Sukriti had hiked to over 16k before. 

Even after we reached Dingboche it was a long walk navigating through some small ‘gali’s’ to get to our tea house - "Family Hotel" owned by a red haired Nepali. The rooms were nice and warm - especially as compared to Tengboche. We had attached bathrooms though we soon realized that one of the hazards of that was that were quite stinky ?. Shachin and Sukriti got some Odonil from the market and that helped some. No more on that - less said the better ;-) Still it was nice not to have to step out in the cold windy nights. As we were entering the guest house we saw a sign saying "Hot shower" and we were so surprised to see a girl with a mere towel draped around here emerge from behind the door!! It was sooo cold- how could she!! Fortunately the dining room was also very sunny and bright and cozy. They even reserved a big table for us by the window.  There was a nice stone terrace right in front of our rooms that got plenty of sun. Unlike Tengboche, Dingboche is not in a valley and hence a much sunnier place. It felt  more comfortable even though it was a good 1500 ft higher than Tengboche.

In the evening they started lighting the stove in the dining room but there was some leak in the chimney and the whole room filled up with smoke! We had to go out in the cold and wait till the smoke subsided. That evening in the dining room some health workers from the  high altitude clinic came over and were advising people about the hazards of AMS (altitude sickness) They were also measuring the oxygen content in your blood with a little finger meter they had.

We had good views of Island Peak (20,306 ft) and Nagarjuna hill which we climbed the next day. Evening dinner was vegetable momo’s and garlic soup and egg curry with 1 egg ;-)  I just had daal coz I was scared about my stomach. We were now seriously limited in our food choices. Dunbar was generally very sweet about complying with most of our requests: his typical response being - "its possible". However when we asked  if we could get another egg in our egg curry for the first time we heard him say - "Not possible"! That became a huge joke with us! That night we had a little adventure with a mouse making its way into our room! It was quite scary and I sent Shachin out in the cold  night to which he attributes the cold he acquired. My diarrhea continued :( We continued getting the hot water bottles and the thermos flasks. They were really helpful.

NEXT - Day 6 - Oct 5, Sun - Dingboche (14,286’/4350m) Acclimatization day