Day 6 -Pheriche - 4 May

We're staying for two nights in Pheriche (14,000ft/2,250m) at the Himalaya Hotel which is one of the bigger lodges we've stayed in so far. It has a huge dining room and a warm stove, fired by dried yak dung 'logs'. The communal toilets are in the hallway and are 'sit-down' with a tub of water and a jug for flushing and the used paper goes in a bin - very clean though. The twin rooms are very big and very, very cold.
Today we went for an acclimitisation trek up the hills behind Pheriche. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to 15,000 feet where we sat and rested for an hour or so. This the highest that all but three of the team have ever been. We were all in pretty good shape as we took a very steady pace an everyone felt good at the top. On the way up, Angura (one of our amazing Sherpas) showed us his yak call. Moments later we were under 'yak attack': The first of about eight yaks came down the mountain stampeding towards us. We all scampered up the hill to get out of their way. It turned out that they were yak calves having fun bouncing down the hill! The Sherpa boys were hooting with laughter at us fleeing from these cute calves ...
We had a beautiful, huge condor fly over us at one rest stop.
To see see the mountains towering over us in every direction is spectacular. We could see Makalu, Lhotse, Ama Dablam, Island Peak and Lobuche East amongst the giants.
It took us barely 30 minutes to scurry down the thousand feet that had taken over two hours to climb up.
We had a very interesting medical brief on from a volunteer doctor who is part of the Himalaya Rescue Association and learned of the dangers of AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness), Cerebral Edemas and HAFE (High Altitude Flatual Expulsions).
It may sound strange, but the last couple of days have felt like we are really experiencing trekking in Nepal: hot, cold, windy, rainy, Tibetan Lamas, monasteries, challenged by altitude and bonding with a great team.
We're inspired by the trinity of:
- the enormous, beautiful, towering landscape;
- the spirituality with the prayer wheels, chorten, prayer flags and poles, the endless carved stone mantras, the monks and Lamas;
- and the friendly, welcoming, strong, weathered, laughing and gorgeous Nepalese and Sherpa people.
We are all in great shape and looking forward to the trek to Lobuche tomorrow.
Ed
P.S. For more photos, www.2011basecamp.blogspot.com