Elevation: 3477m to 3871m to 3477m
Distance: 4.05 km
Hiking duration: 2h 22min
Having hiked until past sunrise for 2 days consecutively, we slept in more on this day. The day ahead was a relaxed one, only going to the nearby Everest View Hotel, so we slept all the way until 8am. After a simple breakfast, we began our acclimatization hike.
The objective of today was to do an acclimatization hike. At around 3000+m, many people start to experience mild signs of altitude sickness, headache, breathlessness and sometimes nausea. That's why everyone who does the EBC hike stops at Namche for 1 day to let their bodies acclimatize. The goal here is to climb high, sleep low. Today, we hike from Namche (3440m) to Everest View Hotel (3880m). By doing this, we let our bodies experience and adapt to the higher altitude, while not exhausting our bodies. We then return to a lower altitude to let our bodies rest and recover in preparation for hiking even higher altitudes in the coming days.
The hike starts with gentle slopes up to the top of Namche. From there, the route is a lot steeper, with non-stop ascents. from the top of Namche, we add a nice view of the whole town!
After around 40 minutes, we reached a section with gentler ascents. Here, there are a few resorts and hotels and even an old aeroplane landing strip!
After some more time, we reached a flatter section. Here, we saw the first view of the famous Ama Dablam!
Ama Dablam was magnificent. Because of its sheer steep faces, it is also known as the Matterhorn of the Himalayas. I just knew that one day, I want to be climbing it. As we moved past this section, we could see below on the right side, was the road that we would be taking the following day to get to Dole. After about 20 mins more of walking through the fat land, we made it to the famous Everest View Hotel.
Everest View Hotel was way more high-end than I expected, the entrance was grand with a whole lobby with a fireplace, grand piano and other nice decorations. They have a cafe which is open to public guests. It offers beautiful balcony seats that have a direct view of Mount Everest! I can only imagine how much it would cost to stay a night here. Probably in the hundreds. We had some small snacks at the hotel cafe, biscuits and tea. The prices here are also jacked up a bit compared to Namche. Most people, like us, hike here for a short break and head back down for the acclimatization.
After chilling for awhile at the hotel, we made our way back to namche to explore the town. Our guide, Thile Sherpa brought us to the Tenzing Norgay Sherpa Heritage Center to know more about the history of the Sherpas and the Everest region. I touched a rock from the top of Everest!
We had lunch at a place called Sherpa Barista Bakery & Coffee shop. We got some pies, cakes and burgers!
Afterwards, we did some shopping around the streets and also stocked up on snacks and water for the coming days. It was soon dark and we had dinner and rested for the tougher days ahead.
