Pangboche To Dughla

October 7th 2008
Start: Pangboche, 4000 m, 9:05
Arrival: Dughla, 4600 m, 14:10
Duration: 5:05
Breaks: 15 minutes on the way to Pheriche, 1 hour in Pheriche
Estimated climb: 800 m
Estimated descent: 200 m

Next Day

	Getting out before breakfast for sunrise photos started to become a routine. Today it was particularly interesting since we had arrived in Pangboche surrounded by clouds and were curious how the valley would look like. We headed up a hill for a few minutes until we arrived at a good vantage point close to the local school and a stupa. To the west, we got a good view of Kongde Ri just beyond Namche Bazaar.
	To the east we got our first view of Lhotse. It had snowed down to about 5000 meters during the night.
	Thamserku was almost straight to the south.
	The local stupa in front of Teng Kangpoche and Thamserku.
	This image shows Pangboche from above. The trail we came up from Phortse the day before is visible on the hillside. The red building in the lower right is the local gompa.
	A yak herd in pangboche.
	Our lodge in the morning. The rooms were on the second floor.
	A closer look at the Pangboche gompa.
	We returned to the lodge around 8, had breakfast and packed. We left Pangboche at 9:05 and headed straight to Pheriche. The picture on the left shows both Lhotse and Amai Dablam.
	Just before Pheriche both the trail and the river fork, the northern valley leads to Pheriche and the eastern valley to Dingboche. We took a left and arrived in Pheriche around 11:25. We stopped for lunch in the first lodge of the village called Hotel Nagarkot. It was run by a former cook and the food was very tasty. We had a great home-made garlic soup and a very aromatic vegetable curry.
	After a lunch break of about 1 hour we continued on through Pheriche. The trail leads up the valley quite gradually and only gets steep close to Dughla. The picture on the left was taken about 30 minutes beyond Pheriche looking back. Amai Dablam is partially visible in the clouds and Pheriche is in the lower right. Half way there we met Iris and Marcel from Switzerland again which we had first encountered in Gokyo. They had crossed Cho La and were now on their way down. We chatted a bit, exchanged emails and then continued on to Dughla, arriving at 14:10. Dughla only had one lodge worth mentioning and it showed. While the food was actually quite decent, the rooms and the toilets were quite dirty. The windows did not open and there was mold all around them. Not very pleasant but our only option. Fortunately we did not have any more problems with the altitude, staying at 4400 meters in Machermo for 3 nights had helped.
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