below the tree line

my first impression as we started the walk from lukla towards phakding was that the place looked like lauterbrunnen of switzerland. except that the paths had the occasional yak poop. the days would start at 8am, and the walks were very tiring. sometimes the uphill is relentless, and the higher the altitude the more easily breathless i got.

i liked how there were many dogs along the way. when we went from phakding to namche, a dog followed me for about 2 hours. he was so cute. the last segment up towards namche was truly gruelling. but i was put to shame by the many locals who were carrying immensely heavy loads and simply climbing up the hill in slippers.

namche was colourful, and the peaks that stood around were already so majestic. on my acclimatization day, i got a sneak peek at many of the mountains before the clouds came in rapidly. deepak brought me to the everest view hotel, where there was no view of everest, but the hot chocolate was good.

the walk to tengboche was equally gruelling. from afar, i already saw the countless switchbacks on the slope of the hill where tengboche was perched on. that hill took me more than 2 hours, and it had begun to rain. but the lodge was cozy and i got to visit the tengboche monastery, where there was a chanting session and a very senior lama. that night, the rainclouds cleared from the sky and the stars came out to shine. the next morning, i got to see the entire nuptse-everest-lhotse range, with ama dablam at the side, and kangtega behind the monastery.

subsequently, we walked towards pheriche, and that took us even higher, above the tree line.