Gorakshep to EBC & Return

Wednesday, May 30th

Just after I got up I went outside and took this pic of the sun rising behind the mountains.

Left the teahouse at 0745. Mike feeling a little better after breakfast but still feeling the effects of mountain sickness.

We walked across a dry lake bed that had been full three our four years ago, according to Ramesh.

Here Mike and I are ready to start the climb

Russ is in the international hospital in Kathmandu. Jeff decided he needed to be with his father-in-law so he caught a chopper out yesterday morning leaving Mike and me to continue the trek. We continue, thinking often of Russ.

We followed the west side of the Khumbu Glacier.  The glacier is receding with a heavy overburden of rocks and debris with open spots where glacial lakes show through.

As we approached EBC, we walked on the glacier, carefully. We never knew when a patch of sand and gravel was a thin veneer covering slippery ice. Here and there we saw a stone supported by a pedestal of ice.

The Khumbu ice fall feeds the glacier. In this photo the ice fall is coming down from the right and curving around to join the glacier.

 
Since the wall of the glacier valley is higher than the receding glacier, we were a little over 18,000 feet before starting down to the glacier and base camp where we posed for photos, ate a picnic snack and started back down.

 From base camp, Everest isn't visible. I got this shot on the way back down.  Everest is the dark peak in the middle.

Back at our teahouse I screened and culled photos and began writing.