15 Lobuche

Looking south from the ridge above Dingboche .... Ama Dablam with a different angle view now

View looking north, while walking thru Dusa's Yak pastures ... and Dughla still an hour away

We cross this wooden plank over a Khumbu Khola stream (4620M) to get to Dughla side.

That's Dughla across the stream; we stop here for tea & rest (9:30AM) and look at the steep rocky climb ahead .. over Kumbhu's moraine

After a steep & tough climb of 1.5 hrs we reach the top of moraine hill and the memorial area of Chukpilhara. This is the memorial of Late Babu Chirti Sherp, who climbed Everest 10 times and even stayed on the summit for a stretch of 21 Hours.

Looking over the edge of the ridge we just climbed up from Dingboche, we see Pheriche below and further south snowy peaks of Kantega to the left of Temaserku's icefall saddle

Amazing pic above (worth seeing in full-size) ... we are nearing Dughla (at 9:00AM) .... Dughla is the blue roof hotel you can see as a small speck (in pic center) across the Khumbu stream & terminal moraine ... you can see the lower trail coming from Pheriche rising (from bottom left) to meet our Dingboche trail. You can also see the trail beyond Dughla, snaking up and climbing steeply up the terminal moraine to the Memorial Area of Chukpilhara (just below cloud to the right-top edge of picture).

Looking down back towards Dughla (Teahouse blue roofs in center of picture) and Pheriche at end of valley; from the Chukpilhara top.

After a 30-minute rest in memorial area, we start trek again; the trail goes over Khumbu Glacier moraine over piles of rocks and stones!

Lobuche (4930M) appears on the trail, at Noon

After walking for about 40 mins by the side of the Khumbu moraine we reached Lobuche at 12:10PM. Here we checked into The Kalapathar Lodge; which was pretty basic and a small single room was NRs 30o. Still it was pretty comfortable, in this desolate & cold altitude.