Prepping for the summit 12/11 Day 9

We had to backtrack back to Manang today to get our heavy shit. I think Andy now understands the beautiful feeling of not carrying a heavy load because he's not discounting my porter comments. We set off after 8 w the crew after a breakfast of Tibetan Bread and honey. Man was it good. 

It was really cold this am, I was pacing waiting for people and my toes went numb. It was probably negative last night but we were still warm in our bags! Too warm actually. Not a bad problem to have at this altitude. 

We passed the scary landslide area w no issues. Going up the scree is much easier than going down. We took the lower path by accident and ended up crossing the ravine over the icy rocks. Andy went first and crushed some of the ice for everyone so we could step on rocks not ice, Paul called him a machine. The machine is back! Although we had to hike back up the hill, we passed the terrifying switchbacks against the cliff that I was dreading. 

A short break, the crew stopped for lunch before heading for Yak Kharka and we broke off for Manang. Walking along the ridge, an eagle hovered over us no more than 10 ft. It was huge! Probably had a wingspan of 7 ft and the body probably sat 3 ft tall. It could have done some damage to us and we were a bit nervous as it hovered above us for 10 seconds. Amazing!  We reached the town after 1 and the wind was howling. After 5 hours of hiking I wasn't really down for 4 more so we called it a day. 

The rest of the day we spent prepping for the pass, getting a porter (yay!), and eating and relaxing. I got some of the most fantastic apple crisp and read a bit. It's going to snow tonight. It's gnarly out there! I hope it warms up a bit for the pass or I'm hiking in my big puffy jacket. 

I now understand I won't have a rest day. I just want to get over this pass. 

24k steps, 11 miles