April 28, 2007

"Climbing is the only cure for gravity." - Unknown

Arrived in Dingboche around noon after a 3 hour hike from our previous camp at the junction of the trails to Island peak base camp and Ambulapcha La. It was an uneventful hike although we did encounter some yaks and naks (yaks are male, naks female). We also got caught in a yak traffic jam on the narrow streets of Dingboche, Kaji and I had to scramble up a large boulder in the middle of the path to let the hurrying yak pass. After lunch Kaji and I hiked up some of the near by hills NW of town to visit some old chortens (chorten, according to Kaji, is the sherpa term for stuppa). While in need of modest repairs the chortens were in the perfect location over looking the valley that Dingboche occupies and the valley that leads to Everest base camp as well as looking up at the towering peaks, the most notable of which being Ama Dablam. Today was the first day I was able to properly observe Ama Dablam in all its magnificent glory. The eastern ridge it forms with Ombigaichan is an impressive wall of ice and snow and appears very much impregnable, it must be seen to be believed, I spent a good 15 mins just staring at this ridge.
I finished reading the 2 books I had brought along with me: Shackleton's South: The Endurance Expedition and Dostoyevsky's Notes from the underground and The double) on my last rest day and so now I am finding it a bit difficult to occupy my leisure time. Luckily today Kaji found me a copy of Hemmingway's Old man and the sea, unfortunately I enjoyed it too much and devored every word in 3 hours.
After lunch Kaji and I discussed our plans for the remainder of our trip as we are 3 days ahead of schedule. We will be staying at Namche Bazaar for 2 nights which was not on the original itinerary and basically visiting most of the small villages between here and Lukla. We will be heading back to Kathmandu a day early, I'm glad to have an extra day in KTM as I feel like I barely scratched the surface at the start of April.