I failed my duty of being the voice of reason 12/9 Day 7
We didn't know what we were going to do when we woke up. Andy wanted to do Tilicho Lake w the others, I was up for it but didn't want to bring the heavy ass bags. Over a breakfast of museli, we decided to leave a bag here and head out w the group of 4 Australians, a German, and another American. We packed super light with only the necessities, we'll be wearing the same clothes for a few days. We were almost out of cash, luckily Andy found a place to exchange our USD. I'm not sure what we would have done, we still have many days on the mountain.
We started at 8:30. It was an easy hike to Khangsar. It was supposed to take 3 hours, it took 1.5. We took a lot of breaks enjoying the sun along the way. We stopped for lunch at Siri Kharka. The weather was perfect, sunny and blue skies.
After a couple hours in, it was time for the infamous landslide area. This shit was legit and terrifying. I should have said no fucking way (voice of reason part), but we went. The first landslide part had a herd of mused deer (blue sheep/ look like rams). We stopped and let the rocks fall in front of our path. If we took one misstep, we would have fallen to our death below. I couldn't look down, just where I needed to step. Some parts you had to slide down the path and watch the mountain fall away. I went first and Andy followed. The switchbacks got me. I had to slide down and carefully turn. At one point a guy we were with had a leg cramp and we had to pass him. He had multiple cramps and Andy had to go back for him at one point. It was the most intense path I've ever been on and it took over an hour.
We made it to Tilicho Base Camp lodge at 3:30. The lodge is lovely w windows all around with a view of the mountains and glaciers around us. Reaching the lodge made the hike worth it- we went up another 1600 ft today to 14k. The lodge owners started the fire at 5 and everyone quickly surrounded it. It put out so much warmth and the wind was kickin outside. For dinner we had mushroom soup w Ritz and fried noodles. So damn good. Let's see how well we sleep at this altitude and with the wind howling. The stars are our but half the sky is covered by a big cloud. Tomorrow is going to be intense heading up to Tilicho Lake.