Saturday, April 12, 2014

Everest Base Camp Trekking Day 06 - Dingboche (Acclimatization Day)

This is the second of the mandatory acclimatization days on this trek. It was quite a hard trail where we have to do lots of climbing. I'm all set with my Salomon Wings Sky GTX2 hiking shoes and my triclimate jacket (I sense it's gonna be a very cold day). It's the 400 m climb to Nangkartshang Gompa and higher to a point where a white flag mark the acceptable acclimatization level. From these height, we can see Dingboche village down there on the East side and on the West side, the view of Khumbu Kola Valley, Taboche (6367 m), Cholatse (6335 m) and blurry view of Arakam Tse (6423 m) peak was breathtaking.

 My room window.



 View of Dingboche.

Dawam stopped to catch his breath.

While we were descending from acclimatization point, without warning blizzard struck causing blowing snow that results in low visibility. The porters called it ground blizzard. Ground blizzard refers to a weather condition where loose snow or ice on the ground is lifted and blown by strong winds. The primary difference between a ground blizzard as opposed to a regular blizzard is that in a ground blizzard no precipitation is produced at the time, but rather all the precipitation is already present in the form of snow or ice at the surface. It was violent and very cold! Thank God I brought the triclimate jacket and wearing my Salomon shoes.





 Dawam (on the left) with Dorje and Pasang Sherpa.

 Dayummm..I looked fat!

 The Taboche (on the left, hidden by clouds) and Cholatse peak.


 Khumbu Kola Valley.


"We have to rush down now honey...the snow storm is cominggg..."


 We were up there when the blizzard struck.


 My two lovely but strong sisters.

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