EBC trek: Day 9 - Kala Pattar

Sun rise at Everest

Woke at 4.15am to leave for Kala Pattar (5555m). I put on every layer of clothes I had, but the temperature was still freezing. So much so that by the time I needed a drink, my water had ice inside, and more annoyingly the lid was also frozen shut too.

After half an hour of walking it became light enough not to need the torch, but I was really feeling breathless by this time. Every few meters I had to stop, and I came very close to turning back.

However, I persevered, and at about 7pm reached the top of Kala Pattar. I was cold, thirsty and was panting like a dog on a hot day, but I didn’t care. I can’t describe just how happy I felt to reach the top. Blinking away tears of joy, I was ecstatic!

I took some photos of the sun rising behind Everest, which gave it a halo, and thanked Chhatra for getting me this far. Yan didn’t make it to this point as he had gone ahead when I was very slow earlier, and ended up veering off the path. Still, he had some good news from where he was too apparently. As the sun finally rose about Everest, we went back down, and the journey which had taken 3 hours up took a mere half an hour down!

I desperately wanted a full English breakfast, but settled for beans on toast (according to the Canadians conforming to my country’s stereotype!) before we headed down to Periche to spend the night a comfortable 1000m lower than last night.