Daily Chronicles

The morning bathroom run offered a sharp reminder of what 14,470 feet (4,410 m) feels like. Crawling out of warm sleeping bags into a bathroom that felt like a cold-storage unit was arguably the toughest challenge of the day.

Evenings weren’t much better. After sitting cozily in the dining hall around a fire pit, the idea of stepping back into freezing rooms and bathrooms was never appealing. Comfort, at this altitude, was strictly time-bound.

Our lodge-Good Luck Lodge-was tucked close to the foothills of Ama Dablam. Good luck indeed, with sweeping views in every direction.

Today was an acclimatisation day—often misleadingly called a “rest day.” In reality, it meant climbing higher and then returning to sleep lower. Our plan was to hike up Nagarjuna / Nangkartshang Peak and come back down to Dingboche.

Even climbing the first 7–10 steps from the lodge to the trailhead felt like an achievement. The scenery, thankfully, made the effort easier to forget.

Along the way, we passed flat stretches dotted with stacked prayer stones. We added one of our own. A special moment followed when we spotted a Himalayan tahr up close-one of the region’s most graceful mountain dwellers.

We climbed up to 15,380 feet. From here, the views were expansive—Makalu, Island Peak, and Ama Dablam all lined up dramatically. Below us, the Imja Khola, a glacier-fed tributary of the Dudh Kosi, snaked through the valley. We bumped into the bubbly and determined Polar Preet again.

When we checked the weather forecast for the day, snowfall was predicted in the afternoon. It was getting cloudy too and it's where our guide Dilman suggested we turn back.

The actual summit of Nangkartshang Peak sits higher, at 16,200 feet, and we watched a few determined trekkers push on. One of us chose to sit and meditate instead, soaking in the silence and the stillness of the mountains. The rest of us wandered around, clicked photos, and simply enjoyed being there. The unhurried pace—and how comfortable we felt at that altitude—was reassuring.

Returning to Dingboche, we were welcomed by chatter, laughter, and that familiar sense of community in the dining hall. We caught up again with Sophia and Sharada, whom we’d been running into for days now. They had skipped the acclimatisation hike and spent the morning stretching, doing headstands, and taking it easy.

After our usual lunch—ramen, momos, or dal bhaat—we lingered in the dining hall, chatting about the trek so far, reliving college memories, and scrolling endlessly through photos of the trek so far.

Come tea time, we strolled around Dingboche and stopped at Café 4410, replace with "recommended by the friend who had trekked to EBC in 2024. Warm drinks and snacks never tasted better. The ambiance inside the café was all the more special with people inside watching the movie “Mera” was just a perfect match for the occasion and location.

Some of us couldn’t get the Nepal Air Link card the previous day hence we searched across other Tea Houses in Dingboche for the same. As we went inside the Hana café ,the last café down street, the bakery items in the showcase looked enticing. Even more enticing was the Acoustic Guitar kept in a corner in the café. The musician batchmate picked up the guitar. Soon, the whole place was humming along—guests included. It was one of those unexpected, joyful moments that make these journeys special.

All in all, it was a relaxed, pleasant day—exactly what an acclimatisation day should feel like.

At dinner, we went through our now-familiar SpO₂ checks—everyone remained within the expected range. Dilman briefed us on the next day’s route, reminding us that teahouses would get even more basic and the weather colder from here on.

Later that night, a couple more of us began feeling feverish and congested. Out came the over-the-counter meds, throat lozenges, and massive nose blowing. The mountains were slowly testing us—but we were learning how to listen.