Nov 4 2024 – Tengbouche to Dingbouche

It was a cold slog of a day. Basically followed the imja khola river all day.

Last night before I went to bed my SpO2 measured 74%. When I was planning this trip I made a completely uninformed rule that I’d turn around and head for lower altitude if it dropped below 80%. I’m not showing any symptoms of altitude sickness though, so I decided to do away with that rule.

From Tengbouche the trail descends down to the river before climbing up the other side to Pangbouche. The clouds were very low and colors were very muted, which gave the morning a “Walking to Mordor” vibe. About 2 minutes after I realized that I came around a corner in the trail and saw a sign for the “Rivendell Lodge”, so clearly I’m not the first person to have that feeling.

Heading into Pengbouche is mountain goat territory. They blend in with the rocks really well. I only noticed them because I took a long break after crossing the river and had a “Wait, did that rock just move?!” moment.

Also had a trail dog pal with me for a while and the trail into Pengbouche. Though she was a fickle bitch. A faster moving group of Germans passed me and she went with them.

Pengbouche was also where I first started seeing proper Yaks.

From Pengbouche the trail just continues along the Imja Kohla river until it gets to a split. One trail goes off to Periche and the other goes to Dengbouche.

Today was the day of impossible to regulate temperatures. The high has been 41. It started snowing when I reached Dengbouche. But, all the huffing and puffing on the trail left me sweating and hot, but every breeze would freeze me.

For the first time I’m the only English speaker in my lodge. There’s a large Japanese group and a moderate size Italian group here. And me.

Also for the first time I don’t have easy access to power. My phone is down to 30%. My power bank is dead. The lodge will charge my power bank for me for 1200 rupees (roughly $10), but it will take until sometime tomorrow. This is the elevation where it’s just solar power. Because it’s cloudy as hell my own solar panel doesn’t get enough light to charge anything. The lodge has a much bigger array of panels, but significantly more need for their reduced capacity.

So, to end, this is Dengboche:

Tomorrow is a rest day, so I’ll be here tomorrow night too. My climb high activity will be to climb the 16,664 foot Nangkartshang peak and visit a hermitage that’s up there. We’ll see how well that goes.