Ama Dablam appears

The sky finally cleared last night, and even under the light of the moon, the views were amazing. For the first time, we saw the iconic shape of Ama Dablam, and I spent ages trying (not entirely successfully) to get a decent long-exposure night-time photo.

This morning it was still clear, the beautiful blue sky raised everyone’s spirits. We set off with fantastic views of Ama Dablam then, during the morning, the cloud further up the valley cleared, and we finally saw the highest point on earth.

We had a long relaxed lunch today, then Andy lead us for the two-hour climb up to Dingboche, as he was keen to avoid anyone racing ahead. He told us that today is key in our acclimatisation: we’re just over 4,400m here, which is where he reckons most people encounter their first problems if they’re going to have any. As a result, he’s re-organised the rooms so that no-one is on their own - one of his biggest worries is people having strange breathing patterns during the night, so we all have someone to keep an eye on us.

Along the way we passed a field where the farmers were drying out yak dung. This is the main source of fuel up here, used on fires to cook food, heat homes, etc. Some of the lodges we’ve stayed in have burnt dried yak dung in their stoves, and it doesn’t smell as bad as you’d expect! It’s actually barely noticeable.

Tonight’s lodge is a bit more basic than some of the earlier ones, though the room is OK. Batter charging is still available at this altitude, but it’s getting pretty expensive: 100Rs for a complete charge in Namche, 150Rs for an hour in Deboche, and 300Rs for an hour here. Unfortunately we don’t have much choice, as when we leave here on Thursday we’re going to be camping for the next six nights so there won’t be any opportunity to charge for while.

The weather has deteriorated during the afternoon (which is apparently standard practice) and the mountains gradually disappeared. The sun is still shining through every now and again, but there are no views anymore.