Approximately 5 miles. Total gain: 1,645 ft.
Dingboche to the bottom of Thokla pass: 690 ft. gain in 2.5 miles
Bottom of Thokla pass to the top: 690 ft. gain in 0.5 mile
Top of Thokla pass to Lobuche: 265 ft. gain in 1 mile
Waking up to the view of this mountain behind our campsite.
Packing and about to leave Dingboche.
The porters on the trail leaving Dingboche.
The nice, easy, part of the day, with a gentle climb along the trail into Pheriche valley.
A small shelter seen along the trail.
Prayer flags at Thokla pass.
Scott Fischer memorial at Thokla pass. Scott Fischer was an American mountaineer who lost his life in the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. You can read about it in, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer.
More memorials on Thokla pass honoring the sherpas and mountain climbers who have died.
Last stretch into Lobuche, a sparse trekkers' outpost.
From this day on and the next 2 days were some of the toughest. The altitude makes you move slower and slower and there is a constant cold you cannot escape from. I'll never forget going to the "toilet" at the small outpost before ascending Thokla pass. The "toilets" all along the trail consist of small wooden shacks with a hole cut in the floor over a pit. On this day, the shack was over the largest pyramid of frozen stool I had ever seen. It must have been at least over 6 feet tall. The tip of the pyramid was all the way up to hole at the floor of the shack. With the cold at this altitude, it just doesn't decompose. It stays frozen. Luckily, the cold also makes it not smell so bad. Definitely unforgettable.
