Tengboche to Pheriche

This was a very cold morning when we left Tengboche. I could not wait for the sun to poke it's head out and warm us up. We also started off going down which didn't help. It was very cold. We did actually hike more up than down this day. That felt like the first day we did that, at least to me. We were going to be hiking up to around 14, 000ft this day.

Finally we could see that after the bridge we would get some sun.

 It was interesting to be in Nepal in the winter. i could tell that the spring would be beautiful here. Everything was dead in December but you can always see that there is hope for life as the weather warms up.

 The morning was similar to our other days. We moved through little villages and enjoyed the sun on us as we hiked.

 When we got our lunch stop it started out with the sun on us. I would always add a layer at lunch because we usually ate outside and it is always colder if you aren't moving. Quickly our lunch turned very cold as a storm started to blow in.

 We sought shelter inside.

 We met a cute family from Australia with twin 13 year old daughters. They were on their way down. I was so impressed that the teenagers had made it and seemed to be ok. I could not wait to get moving again. Once we started there were some snow flurries. For the first time on the trip I also added a layer on my legs. i put on my water  proof pants. these really helped with the wind as well. The storm had blown in. It was chilly and cloudy.

 We were on the sam path as lots of other trekkers until there was a fork in the road. Most trekkers go and stay in Dinboche but we headed to Pheriche. After the fork we hiked without seeing anyone else. In a storm. It was crazy. It was also weird not to see the mountains. We knew they were there bu you couldn't see them.

 We got up to the last pass before we dropped down to our tea house and our guide said we had to wait 20 minutes to descend. He wanted us to acclimate. That is great, except it was so so so cold. We were freezing.

Cyndee and I trying to stay warm behind the shelter of a rock.

My face when I was told I had to stay longer?????

Finally he let us hike down to our tea house and into Pheriche. So happy to be almost done for the day.

 Little did I knw our tea house would be FREEZING!!!!! And they would refuse to light a fire until 5pm. At this point all the fires burn Yak poo so they don't put off very much heat. It makes for a long night.

I was trying to take a selfie while showing my breath. We were inside and you could see our breath.

Here is our little room.

And the common area.

We would spend two nights here and I was a little nervous about that. It was so cold. We met a lot of people in the tea house. Many of them were hiking on their own without a guide and many of them did not make it to base camp. The weather had been to much. This was dissapointing to hear and made me a little nervous about whether we would make it or not. We still had a lot of uphill hiking to do.

Periche is in a valley a very cold valley. My first nights sleep here was really rough. I had a bad headache that was quickly accompanied with nausea. I ate very little for dinner and headed to the warmth of my sleeping bag early. I slept with the garbage can by my bed and made many trips to the bathroom, all of which were freezing. Luckily I never threw up and I did feel better in the morning. I think maybe the altitude was bothering me a little. I was also done with the food. The food wasn't bad on the trail. It is all just very bland and very different than how I eat at home. We had also survived a very cold night in the tea house. Luckily my sleeping bag was working like a champ. That thing performed so well and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to travel in very cold temps.