Hello From Lobuche!

Welcome from Lobuche! We are spending the night on the other side of the moraine from the bottom reaches of the Khumbu glacier.   We hiked here from Dingbuche.  Now that we are here many in the group are really feeling the elevation.  For whatever reason I feel amazing though.  One of the group commented tonight that it was nice watching how happy I am at just being here.  The closer we gt to he run the less anxious I am about fast trekking 26.2 miles from 17,600 ft.  After we arrived at our lodge my roommate and I hiked up to the top of the moraine and debated walking down to the glacier.  It looks very strange here because after melting so much the top is nearly uniformly covered in rocks and dirt.  But look closely and ice cliffs are visible.  As we looked at possible routes down we were​ distracted by the amazing views and kept going further up stream along the top of the moraine.  Eventually we stopped and while taking it all in began to hear the crack and crash of movent coming from the glacier below...  such a good thing we didn't go down there!  It seems atop the moraine we were at 15,600 ft! 

On the way here, above Thukla are the climbers memorials.  These are stacks of stone or boulders with plaques affixed.  These are the shrines to the many dead taken by Everest over the years.  I knew we would be seeing these and we were told it would be an emotional part of our day.  I don't generally feel too emotional when climbers or clients die.  Frankly, it is and has always been part of the business of climbing dangerous peaks.  So I approached these with the thought of reading the plaques and taking some photos... not tacky selfies as many trekkers were given to.  As I passed one particular memorial I was overcome with emotion and began sobbing.  It was no one I have heard of but I couldn't detach from it.  I took a photo of the plaque and will look up the climber when I return home.  after that a number of the stone monuments had that effect on me.  I was walking around reading the details of these past climbers and openly weeping.  There was another plaque that mentioned a climber who perished on the descent and named the sherpa who held the man as he died.  That place had a much larger impact on me then I could have imagined.