13 NOVEMBER 2013 - HEADING UPWARDS TO LOBUCHE

Wednesday (13th November) – our goal today is to reach Lobuche (4910m). Back to the truly bone marrow – freezing temperatures and the air which is so thin you feel as if you have one lung missing. The trail is endlessly upwards. Today we will gain a further 670m altitude. The team is strong, save for the excruciating Khumbu cough which most of us have in varying degrees. Once you start coughing it becomes wholly spasmodic. You only stop coughing because your whole shaking body is too tired to carry on with it! Up and up we go. Many false summits dog our journey. Just when we are ready to savour a half-way lunch break (in our case at Dughla (4620m)) we are met with an awesome sight….. a steep path dragging heaven-wards for over 2 miles with a gradient not less than 1 in 4. This awaits us once our soup and hot chocolate drinks have settled in our stomachs. For some of us this is not the best way of starting the afternoon shift. For all the struggles on this trek to-date one pervading major bonus blesses each day. The weather since we left Lukla airport has been stupendous – the best I (Steve) have ever encountered in these high , remote regions over 15 years. There has been wall-to-wall sunshine and virtually cloudless skies. Thank you God. At Lobuche, the team will rest overnight ahead of a major shift of strategy in the morrow (read on….).