Oct 20, 2005 - Hike to Dengboche



Started off with a beautiful morning hike from Phortse. The trail wasn't too bad. It started off steeply, but moderated. We saw some climbers that were actually at the summit of Ama Dablam! However, the clouds soon started to move in and it got quite cool Stopped at a Buddhist monastery and "toured". As we climbed to where we had lunch, the weather turned worse & started raining/snowing. Also, I was feeling quite unwell from not having eaten since breakfast. I feel I just made it to where we had lunch. However, I felt much better after and had little problem making it to the hotel where we were staying in Dengboche (4400m, 14,500 ft). We are staying at a very new teahouse which is really quite nice! The bunks are the nicest so far. We volunteered to participate in a Stanford study about the effectiveness of Diamox vs. Advil on AMS (altitude sickness). An oxygen test showed my level at 71%, which concerned me a lot, but I feel fine and Matt (who is a doctor) said not to worry about it. Everyone else's was in the 80's. Well, we'll see what happens... Playing Crazy 8's with Anna, Mike and Dave... going to bed soon. The trail today once again reminded me of Grand Canyon, but the snow this afternoon reminded me of home!