16 March
(Day 6 of trekking)
“Day 6 was a very fresh start to the day with a temp of -15 outside. It was so cold that our windows were covered with thick ice on the inside so I took the opportunity to promote the event. Recognising that the Tea Houses have no heating in them other than in the common room in the morning for breakfast and the evening for dinner, the moisture from your breathing overnight makes your pillow wet which then wakes you up because that becomes cold
.
.After another great porridge and tea breakfast it was time to leave for our relatively short 5.5k trek from Dohle to Machermo which sits at an altitude of 4,410m.
Today was an interesting one in that the landscape was quite different to previous days. We are above the treeline now which means that things look very different, very scrubby and rocky and extremely dusty. Whilst that might be the case, the stunning (and still surreal to me) peaks continue to amaze.
With a stop at Luza for a rest and tea break out of the way, we continued on to Machermo, admiring the views but starting to appreciate better the impact the weather can have on you. Definitely signs of things to come as we get higher and higher, not arriving at Base Camp until Friday 22 March.
Arrival at Machermo saw us hook into lunch and plenty of black tea. Following lunch, a number of us took up the opportunity to participate in an acclimatisation hike to an elevation of +\- 4,600m.
After a slow but steady climb we arrived at our stunning finish point and it was here that we got an even better appreciation for how the weather behaves up here, -8 to -10 air temperature and wind chill of -20 to -25.
Return from the climb saw us welcomed with more hot black tea.
A lazy couple of hours and then a dinner of spaghetti, eggs and potatoes then hot drinks, before the usual banter while we are still getting heat out of the Yak dung fuelled heater ended the day.
Here’s the link as always, and thank you all for helping us pass the $30k mark on our way to a target of $100k.
– Tony
