Today is what’s known as an active rest day which really means we are staying another night in Namche Bazaar but going on a trek up the valley to the Mountain View Hotel, built in the 70’s it held the record for being the world’s highest hotel and at 3,880m the rooms come with oxygen just in case its needed and for some it is, only recently the hotel was temporarily closed after a number of guests died whilst staying there - not the kind of review you want on Tripadvisor!
After a delicious breakfast of ginger/lemon tea and apple pancakes we grab our gear and head upwards out of Namche, there are a large number of trekkers this year (mostly down to the movie 14 Peaks by Nimsdai of Elite Exped that has put the Himalayas on so many peoples ‘to do’ list) and the trail is fairly busy as people work there way upwards, at the top of Namche village the trail forks and thankfully many of the trekkers go right to continue their trek towards Everest Base Camp and we continue on up to the view point.
Its a beautiful blue sky day and the sun is burning my skin already, thankfully I’d covered myself in sun cream before we set off! Its not long before the majestic Ama Dablam mountain comes into view and everyone has their cameras out to capture the image, I summited Ama Dablam with Elite Exped in November 2021 and looking at how steep it looks to the summit I still can’t believe I did it, but I did and it was amazing, so I swagger on up the trail feeling pretty confident in myself :-) hoping someone will ask me about it, nobody does!
We stop at the tiny land strip half way up the trail for Azay (our guide and photographer) to take some photos and TJ and I do our best to work the camera to get some decent shots - we will see how they turn out! We continue on the trek passing the waste recycling/arts centre that has been built recently, they work to keep the mountain clean and ask trekkers to carry a 1 kg bag of waste back down to Lukla to try and get some of the rubbish off the mountain, (see www.sagarmanthanext.com for details of their carry me down campaign) , the art centre uses the waste found on the mountain to make sculptures.
Its not long before we reach the Everest View Hotel at 3,880m high, we take some more photos now that we have views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse and Everest and then head in for a hot drink on the terrace with the best views of Everest and Lhotse and our challenge ahead. We stay around an hour to get the most of the altitude acclimatisation and then start to head down, I’m in front and lead a swift pace back to Namche as i know lunch in Sherpa Barista Cafe awaits.
A free afternoon to catch up on some emails and a nap we head for dinner in the Khumbu Lodge Hotel, dal bhat - the national dish of Nepal it consists of steamed rice, lentil stew/dal, meat, vegetables and other side dishes and each is topped up as you eat it until you have to plead with kitchen to stop sending out more food, its delicious though!
I’m feeling good and ok with the altitude and tomorrow we head to Tengboche.
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