I made it! Kala Pattar, 5545m/18,200ft, the “closest you can get to Everest without climbing it”. It indeed was a spectacular view of Everest and Nuptse (which appears taller in the pictures because it is closer). Today was much better, I set out around 8:15am and the 400m climb straight up was much easier than the 200m the day before. The sky was brilliant blue and Everest was quite impressive, a very nice pyramid shape. I took a LOT of pictures, I’ll try not to overdo them here.

On the way up to Kala Pattar (means Black Rock, but should mean Place of Dust)

Everest and Nuptse

Mt. Everest

I had lunch when I got back down and then walked back to Lobuje. That same bit of trek was still no fun, although not as excruciating as it had been the day before. I met a couple that had a terrible time on it on the way up, then foolishly pressed on, never made it to the top and turned around. Seems such a waste to come this far and then not get there because of haste. (Treebeard would have a thing or two to say about that.) Also ran into a couple that only made it halfway from Lobuje. So I am just glad I made it. Now I will attempt to get down in 3 days what took me 9 days to climb.

The Everest Icefall

Ama Dablam in the distance

On the way down

Mission accomplished