Trek Day 5 - Tengboche to Pheriche - 11/5/10

Today was a bitch.  I know I've said it before, but this time I really mean it.  I didn't sleep at all last night.  Not. One. Minute.  I was all congested and breathing the cold air through my mouth made my lungs hurt.  I really wanted to stay another day and told Krista.  I felt that I could stay a day and then meet them in Pheriche, since we'd have 2 nights there for acclimation.  She talked me out of it.  So after breakfast I hit the trail with the gang.

Walking toward Pheriche

We dropped down to the river just below Tengboche, crossed it and gently climbed.  No big ups and downs today.  If I hadn't have been sick, this probably wouldn't have been so bad.  We eventually got out of the trees and walked on a ridge. There were a couple of villages along the way, but for the most part, it was wide open with mountains all around.  Needless to say, I was the lantern rouge by a long shot today. Eventually, we wondered down into a large valley where the village of Pheriche (altitude 14,340 ft.) is.  Bogdan mentioned that this area looks a lot like Tibet. It's certainly populated with a lot of Tibetans and we're only a few miles from the border, so it doesn't surprise me.

Our Lodge

Our lodge is fantastic.  Unlike yesterday's flimsy plywood building, the "Pheriche Village Resort" is made of stone, has a hot shower, a beautiful dining/lounge room with plenty of sun, double pane windows, and is very clean.  The food here is fantastic and the couple that own the place are so incredibly nice.

We're all passing binoculars and my SLR with the big lens checking out some climbers on Makalu.  It looks like they're at camp 3 and possibly planning their summit attempt tonight.  I hope we see their headlights later.

There's a Himalayan Rescue Association hospital here (the other is in Pokhara near the Annapurnas).  They give a daily program on acute mountain sickness which we'll probably check out tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'm going to shower, rest my knee, and try to sleep.  Not necessarily in that order.

Pheriche valley