Day 7: Dingboche to Chhukung
Approximate Trekking Time: 2 hours
Distance: 4.5k / 2.8 miles
Overnight Elevation: 4730m / 15,518ft
Hiking out of Dingboche in the morning, we witnessed a sight that would keep us laughing for the rest of the day. Heading down the trail through the village, a yak suddenly and swiftly jumped up on a stone fence as nimbly as a Billy Goat. Until this moment, we had no idea these large burly creatures could maneuver themselves in this way. We stopped in shock. The yak looked around at its audience, peacefully contemplating his next move. A passing Nepali looked at our gasps and responded with a smile, “mountain cow”, he said, and continued down the trail. No kidding.
The hike from Dingboche to Chhukung was a relatively easy gradual uphill – and sometimes level – trek of about 2 hours. We crossed above the tree line yesterday and, with the next week or more over 15,000 ft. (4572m), it will be awhile before we see a proper tree again. The landscape from Dingboche to Chhukung was primarily rock and scree fields and boulder-strewn meadows with short scrubby bushes. For nearly the entire hike, Dingboche was still in view when looking back over our shoulders, making progress seem slow.
While yesterday’s trails occasionally had tiny rivulets of water that were frozen along the shady sections of path, today’s trek passed over far bigger streams frozen over even in areas where the sun shone warmly, and the bits of ice we walked over crunched and cracked delicately under our shoes.
Along the way, we passed rock fences with round stones stacked so precariously on top of one another, with large gaps between each ill-placed stone, that it looked like one good shove would topple the whole fence. I marveled at some of the building and it wasn’t very hard to imagine the infrastructure crumbling to the ground in a major – or even minor – earthquake.
We also passed a memorial stupa dedicated to those who had lost their lives climbing Lhotse’s south face. All of the names on the plaque were from the ‘80s. Lhotse, which means “South Peak” in Tibetan, is the fourth highest mountain in the world, and a quick Google search reveals that at least 10 climbers have died on its southern face (Lhotse Shar). The majority of those that died in the 80s were killed in an avalanche (1987), though the cause of death for three others in the early 80s is listed as “disappearance”, according to Wikipedia. Lhotse’s south face loomed massively – forebodingly – in the distance.
Eventually, after passing our daily requisite of prayer-flag laden chortens, stupas, and mani walls and bouncing across stepping stones over half-frozen creeks, Chhukung (4730m/15,514ft.) came into view ahead. A truly spectacular setting; while the village itself isn’t much to look at, it sits in an impressive amphitheater of Himalayan peaks to all sides – Ama Dablam, Taboche, Nuptse, Lhotse, and Island Peak, among others – completely surrounding the valley village.
After getting set up with a room at Chhukung “Resort”, we decided to continue hiking a bit since it had been a short trekking day to Chhukung, and set out from the village in the direction of the Island Peak Base Camp. Crossing a makeshift bridge of plywood balanced over boulders across a small, but rushing, river, we hiked uphill to a ridgeline, which we continued up for another 30-45 minutes taking in the stunning views of the surrounding mountains, the Lhotse glacial moraine field, and the clear blue skies.
We kept the hike short and were back to the lodge and in the dining room for lunch around 12:30pm. Here, we slowly moved ourselves to tables closer and closer to the central stove throughout the day in anticipation of the warm dung-fueled fires that would burn in the evening, a location we would soon seek out at each lodge as we climbed higher in elevation and nights became colder and colder.
We spent the rest of the day in the dining room with Dan, Nathaniel, Erica, and Ube, the latter three of which we had met in the courtyard at Dingboche, before they continued on to stay at another lodge. Nathaniel and Erica were from Missouri and Ube from Japan. We’d hike in tandem with this crew for the majority of the rest of our trek, an entertaining group.
In the evening, we all scarfed down our usual dinners of daal bhaat (lentils and rice, served with a vegetable side – the only meal that comes with free refills), eating enough to ensure we were miserable the rest of the night but primed for the next day’s trekking. Daal bhaat power 24 hour!
