2nd October 2019
Day- 10 of trek
Phungi Thenga (3316 M) to Chheplung (2693MSL) with lunch at Jorsalle.
Total Trek today 28.6 KMS.
We all had a good sleep, were feeling good and ready for another 12 hour long trek as the plan was to reach Lukla as our flight was at 8 AM on 3rd October. My phone was being recharged by Supriya as she had some power left in her power bank. It also went out soon but my phone now had 70% charge.
Another important (lesson) take away is to keep Vicks or Zandu balm for as it helps you clear your chocked nose. I had forgotten one but Shreen gave me a brand new bottle of Zandu and that kept me going all through these 10 days.
We were ready by 8 after BF and morning duties. The tap water was comfortably cold. We took some early morning photos of peaks that we could see. Phungi is in a valley surrounded by huge mountains and the sun reaches pretty late in the day here.
Now we had to climb up to Namche Bazaar and then down to Jorsalle and then up again to Phakding and Lukla.
One thing of this trek is that there is up and down are in equal measures so you have to do it both ways. Kanak was struggling with his knee but his determination to complete was amazing.
Today was a clear morning and we got to see all the peaks/views/landscapes that we missed out while going. There were flights from Kathmandu to Lukla in the past few days, as we could see hordes of trekkers now. We were told it is mad rush in October.
Glad we did EBC during lean period.
Video of EBC area with live record of avalanche.
Silhouette... and Kantega Peak
Silhouette...
Kantega close up
Silhouette...
Dual color leaf plant
Ama Dablam from West side
Picture frame of Ama Dablam
Thamserku in frame
This one picture has most peaks covered.
On left are Cholatse (6440M), then Tobuche (6495M) then Everest (8848 M), Nuptse (7849 M) and Lhotse ( 8516 M) in the middle, on right is Ama Dablam (6812 M)
Everest (8848 M), Nuptse (7849 M) and small white cloud over Lhotse ( 8516 M)
Thamserku (6608 M)
North of Namche Bazaar is Kyajo Ri Peak (6186)
Everest (8848 M), Nuptse (7849 M) and Lhotse ( 8516 M) within a window provided by clouds.
Close up full 240 MM zoom.
Kyajo Ri Peak (6186)
Tea break with Ama Dablam view
The double wire rope bridge from Namche Bazaar to Jorsalle (we will cross it later in the day).
Clouds roll in after 10:30 AM. we are so happy that we were able to see all the major peaks in the morning itself.
Namche Bazaar by 11 AM.
Very beautiful Sherpa town, very clean and up market.
We had coffee break and Kanak was the last one to roll in. He was in great pain and we had small discussion about airlift to Lukla. The chopper costs USD 600 and carries 5 passengers for this short 12 min ride. Kamal was not keen as he wanted to trek it out. Lucky we did not hire it as services were cancelled for the day due to bad visibility. Had we waited for chopper then we would have definitely missed our flight out of Lukla the next day. Whatever happens happens for our good.
So we restarted again for a steep climb down.
Leaving Namche Bazaar
We had lunch at Jorsalle and then restarted after lunch towards Phakding. Not many photos after this as we had taken them while coming. We reached Phakding by 4:30 PM and picked Supriya left luggage and moved on towards Lukla.
It got dark by 5:30 PM and then we trekked in darkness till 7:30 PM till we reached Chheplung and we stopped for the night (Ama Dablam rest House) as we were tired (28.6 Kms) and Lukla was just 3 Kms away. Shreen told us if we start early we can reach Lukla in one hour.
Ram then called up Sita airline office and re-scheduled our flight to 9:30 AM (second flight).
We had Rum party to celebrate the EBC trek and we had made up the 4 days delay and were on schedule for 3rd Oct departure. Our prayer was good climate in the morning for the flights to land. None of us had the will power to walk back to Phaplu if flights could not land.
We had free wifi and power to recharge mobiles. We were back in modern civilization.
