It was a clear day as we started and the views amazing, great color combinations. The 200m climb is spread over 5Km so the gradient is pretty Ok and you are not tired for the first hour or so. The going is slow but no real huff huff. There is a small 15 min climb of around 50-70 m which would be difficult especially when you get used to slow gradual climb but again no real worries. After this climb the kumbhu glacier and the terminal moraine shows up. The trail is marked and is always busy but still this can be changing. The moraine is shifting. The trail should be negotiated carefully for ankle twist and things like that.  There is a chance of getting hurt here but then you dont need great deal of skill to get around this moraine. You are now getting closer to 18000 feet and this is clear from the brightness around you. Its almost impossible to walk with naked eyes, the white peaks, the kumbhu glacier, the white rocks, everything is bright, too bright. The only soothing color around is your destination place "Kala Patthar" simply means black rock. Its relative though, for us Indians, black rock is what you have in shayadris or for that matter the Himalayas is more black than the "kala patthar" but because its so bright around here anything less bright is black :)

Kala patthar is a hill just beyond the dry lake of Gorakshep. Its actually an extension to the ridge of Pumori. The trail that climbs up the patthar is clearly visible after climbing out of lobuche. Till we got into Gorakshep I was actually very very hungry and also very thirsty. So Once I checked in tot he hotel I drank like 2 liters of ORS water and immediately ordered breakfast. 2 fired eggs toast butter and tea. All of us reached gorak shep together at around 10AM. The weather was still very clear and we had a chance of dashing it tot he top of kala patthar. But after the breakfast I felt that I should relax and rest for a while. At noon the weather turned bad and the clouds set in covering nuptse and everest. Now there was no point climbing up.

Out the 16, 10 had already left to the base camp along with Dhan our guide. We just waited in the dining room gathering energy for the next morning. We ordered lunch at around 2PM and again the weather started to clear, we thought of going to the top but the clearing was not for real. Finally we called off the plan at around 3PM and just waited for the folks to come back from base camp. The base camp team came back by 5PM and they were truly exhausted. We decided to start early for kala patthar the following day and we had a poll on what time to start many decided to start as early as 5 AM I wanted to start around 6AM.

We decided that every one should pack there bags that night and be ready to leave at around 10AM once they return from the kala patthar summit. This is a better idea so I suggest to follow the same it works well did work for us. So even if you start at 6 AM you surely will make it back to Gorak shep by 10 AM ready to start for Pheriche. You will reach Lobuche in the next 1 hour 30 mins where you can have some tea and then in the next hour reach Dughla for a full course lunch.

Next Day