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Day 7 Part 1: Dingboche to Memorial Ground at Thokla Pass – Everest Base Camp + Video

Day 7 (Dingboche to Lobuche) – Part 1

Everest Base Camp (5,600m)

Khumbu Glacier, Nepal
April – May 2016

Dingboche to Memorial Ground at Thokla Pass

The journey to Lobuche took around 4 hours, covering a distance of 7.9km with a gain of elevation of 500m. However, I’m breaking this journey into two parts as Thokla Pass, Everest Memorial (the 2nd part) deserves its own post.

The trek ahead of us was easy and flat for most of the time. Enjoyed the icy, crunchy steps that I had each time I landed my feet on the icy ground. The view as always, was awesome.

Dingboche White Morning
White morning.
Photo by John Teh

A very cold morning. I had my breakfast faster than usual just to get out to play around with the snow. It was amazing to see how the whole landscape got covered in snow just over a night. As it progressively got colder from this point onwards, I had a feeling that I’d be missing the sun a lot. Below you’ll find a comparison photo, side by side, on how Dingboche looked like before and after it snowed.

Before (left) and after (right) the snow hits the town.
Photos by John Teh

Different group of trekkers re-grouped outside after the usual morning rituals, preparing for the next journey to Lobuche. I left Dingboche with a heavy heart, leaving behind a very memorable place.

Namche Bazaar to Syangboche
Visibility was reduced to a mere stone-throw distance.
Photo by John Teh

The beginning of the journey was relatively easy with minimal elevation gain and mostly flat terrains. As usual, I got a few snapshots of Dingboche as we gain distance towards Lobuche. Thank you Dingboche for the great experience.

Leaving behind Dingboche for Lobuche.
Photos by John Teh

The cold was totally manageable as long we kept on moving. It wasn’t that windy, so it didn’t get any colder than it already was. As we reach a higher altitude, the snow slowly disappeared, giving way to a more rocky look to the whole trail. It was a nice cheerful atmosphere all the way as we moved on together with other group of trekkers. Eventually, we crossed a small bridge, which brought us to the entrance of a small town called Thukla.

Nearing Thukla.
Photos by John Teh

We came to the small town of Thukla, to stop by for a short break and some refreshments. We encountered a few dogs taking a nap around us and also a fellow trekker who picked up an injured puppy and carried it all the way up to base camp. At the end of our trip, we found out that the authorities stopped him from leaving from Lukla airport. Rumors confirmed that he decided to take a long route back to Thamel, Kathmandu, on foot. If anybody has updates on this gentleman, please leave your comment.

Small town of Thukla and our four-legged friend.
Photos by John Teh

Left Thukla town and moved onwards. Encountered a long steep ascent after a certain point to the next destination – Thokla Pass memorial ground. More commonly known as the Climber’s Memorial or Everest Memorial, it hosts the most distinguished climbing greats such as Scott Fischer, Eve Girawong and many more. It’s definitely was a humbling place to be, imagining the days they’ve been through. The atmosphere was surreal, with a cloudy and misty landscape, I visited each of the memorial stones, capturing as many photos as I could. I’ll cover this area in greater details in my next post.

One of my biggest regrets on this journey was that I did not capture certain experiences, particularly this one where we were climbing up right to the entrance of this memorial ground. I could vividly remember a very long steep climb through a very gloomy and misty morning. It wasn’t even a stairway up but rather a cluster of rocks leading all the way up. I also recalled all of us running down this path on the way back after we’ve reached the base camp.

On the way up to Thokla Pass Memorial Ground.
Photos by John Teh
The video below will basically cover my first trekking experience in the snow, our arrival at Thukla (4,620m) and our arrival at the entrance of Thokla Pass.

On the second part, I’ll be covering Thokla pass, also known as the Everest memorial, where structures have been erected to honour a long list of Everest greats (both climbers and sherpas) who have lost their lives conquering the highest mountain in the world.

Day 7 Part 1 – Dingboche to Thokla Pass’ Memorial Ground.
Everest Base Camp – Visit my Youtube Channel for more videos.
This post / video is a part of a 21-part series, covering everything from:-
  1. Day 1 (Kathmandu to Lukla)
  2. Day 1 (Lukla to Phakding)
  3. Day 2 (Phakding to Namche Bazaar)
  4. Day 2 (Namche Bazaar)
  5. Day 3 (Syangboche Acclimatization)
  6. Day 3 (Back to Namche Bazaar, dropping by at Sagarmatha National Park)
  7. Day 4 (Namche Bazaar to Tengboche)
  8. Day 5 (Tengboche - Dinboche)
  9. Day 6 (Dingboche & Nangkartshang - Acclimatization)
  10. Day 6 (Getting down from Nangkartshang & Snow)
  11. Day 7 (Dingboche to Lobuche)
  12. Day 7 (A Heart-Wrenching Stop at Thukla Pass and Scott Fischer’s Memorial)
  13. Day 8 (Lobuche to Gorak Shep)
  14. Day 8 (Kalla Phatthar Acclimatization)
  15. Day 9 (Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp)
  16. Day 9, 10 & 11 (Gorak Shep to Pheriche, Namche Bazaar and Phakding)
  17. Day 12 (Phakding to Lukla)
  18. Day 12 (Flying back to Kathmandu from Lukla Airport)
  19. Day 13 (Kathmandu - Swayambhunath Buddhist Temple)
  20. Day 14 (Kathmandu City Adventure)
  21. Journey to the Roof of the World: A Trekker's Final Post and Summary of the Epic Everest Base Camp Trek

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