Everest Base Camp Trek – Day 4
Date: 15 November 2017
Walked to: Thyangnoche
Distance: 6.9 miles
Altitude: Sleeping at 3,870m

The start of today’s walk was a little cruel – we had to head downhill in order to cross the Milk River again. And there’s few things worse, when you know you need to head up, than to be made to go down. Nonetheless, it was very pretty, and within minutes I was walking in my short-sleeved top because it was warm and sunny (as the days have been so far – it’s the nights that have been properly cold).

After a tea-break (mine was – of course – a hot chocolate) we started our slow but steady climb up through through the forest, where our group finally walked fast enough at altitude to pass a Nepalese person. Said person features in today’s photo; you’ll see he’s carrying a very heavy looking load, including a door. In these mountains, the walking routes ARE the main roads, and freight is carried by yaks, donkeys and humans. A good reminder of how privileged I am to have been born in a country where, whatever happened, I was never going to have to earn my living in quite such backbreaking circumstances.

We reached our home for the night, the village of Thyangboche, by lunchtime and worked on our acclimatisation by an afternoon ‘stroll’ up the flagged-decked hillside: the rule is that when you’re walking at high altitude, you must sleep lower than the top height you reached that day. So far it’s working for me, and I’ve fingers firmly crossed it stays that way – the altitude is already affecting a couple of people in my group of nine.