written by tom / 25.11.2016 05:02

Everest base camp trek: Day 6, Junbesi to Nunthala: Mud and donkey poop

Day starts with easy climb towards the side of valley, where we are exited to see Mt. Everest from the viewpoint.

Brand new day and we all feel perfect again – well almost. I guess the resting day made miracles, physically and mentally. We are eager to move on, towards our destination, mighty Mt. Everest, here we come!

As we were sick, we planned to take it easy – We put on long pants and extra layer, just to protect our still a bit weak systems. This was a humongous mistake, as it got sunny, warm and sweaty in about 5 minutes.

Day starts with easy climb towards the side of valley, where we are exited to see Mt. Everest from the viewpoint (marked on the map with a big asterisk). I guess the weather gods are making fun of us, because it is sort of sunny where we are, but all the high mountains (especially Everest) are in thick clouds – Meaning we see, where the mountain should be, but nothing more.

It is long and easy descend through beautiful valley towards Ringmu, our next stop over for the night. Or is it? We get there for lunch time, with bunch of other trekkers – Some English, Americans and a German. Well, although we just got better, we feel competitive and as nobody is stopping, we surely can’t be worse 🙂

After a nice lunch, garlic soup and a lot of cold syrup (for a bit sore throat) we keep on pushing forward. And easy going replaces with steep, muddy and donkey poop roads going up and up, over yet another pass. Finally when we got up, we see that the weather on the other side of the pass is just awesome – I mean rainy and crappy again.

But thats not a problem, we are used to the uncertain weather by now and keep on moving. The pass would probably offer some beautiful views, but everything is hidden in clouds. There is a small Buddhist village, with monastery. They are having celebrations, but due to crappy weather we decide not to stop.

Wait wait, did I tell you about the muddy and poopy roads on the other side of the pass? Well its worse, a lot worse this side! I did slip and put my hand inside the poopy mud once (sounds fabulous, right?). At least the shoes prove to be mud and poop proof. Several hours through this awesome trail, with hundreds of donkeys passing, we finally reach our actual destionatoin. Small teahouse village of Nunthala at 2193m.

We see the German and go to the same teahouse, for company and possible pleasant chats. Its a small tiny teahouse, with 2 person rooms. I was quite pleased with it, exept they forgot my food, so I had to wait 3 hours and I got form little bit hungry to very hangry in the end.

We ate a lot of garlic soup and cold syrup again, to get back on line. The garlic soup is the real deal (full on fresh garlic) and does help a lot. After evening of talking, we are soaking in the idea of not only going to Everest base camp, but possibly doing the three passes also (Ultimate Everest trek, they say). Its longer and lot more difficult, but why the hell not?

After a very very very cold shower, we go to sleep at around 8PM. We are exhausted and every minute of sleeping time is with the price of gold up there.

Stats for the day:

50% party sunny, 30% cloudy and 20% rainy
8 hours of walking
About 14km of map distance
30.5km equivalent flat distance *
770m of ascents
1280m of descents
We get the first introductoin to donkeys and their poop 🙂

Total stats

38 hours of walking
About 55.5km of map distance
118km equivalent flat distance *
3960m of ascents
3786m of descents

* Using Naismith’s rule, I calulated the actual distance of the trak, taking into consideration the elevation gain.