Bill Allen, Dingboche. April 9, 2011

We’ve all met up finally in Dingboche at our favorite lodge, the Snow Lion. Gregg Mellon and Debbie have been trekking with a group of friends and have already visited base camp. They came back down the valley to join us yesterday here in Dingboche, and Gregg will turn around and head back up to base camp with us in a few days.

Scott and his crew came up from Deboche today, and Bill’s group had a lovely day here enjoying the sun room at the Snow Lion lodge, the fresh baked pastries and real coffee. Dingoboche is a great place to acclimate a bit before moving up any higher, it is also a beautiful village with giant peaks towering above. We enjoy spending a few days relaxing, and hiking around the valley as our bodies get used to the high altitude. It has been great to finally meet up with the entire expedition team, and the friends that have joined us for the trek in to base camp. There are a total of 14 of us for a few days here, so we pretty much fill up most of the lodge.

— The whole team in the sun room at the Snow Lion Lodge —

We’re getting high in the Himalaya now and we left the last trees below us. The landscape is much more open up here, without any trees in the way, the view and hiking is spectacular. We have woken up to beautiful blue skies every morning, but the afternoon clouds have been consistent and we received a bit of new snow again last night. Temps dip below freezing shortly after the sun goes down, so we all move into the dining room where there is a stove in the middle to warm things up a bit.

Below Dingboche we passed through the village of Pangboche where we all stopped in to see Llama Geishi who traditionally gives a blessing to passing climbers. It is a really neat experience and it is important to the Sherpa and climbers to receive these blessings before going into the mountains. The Llama is a pretty happy old guy and seems to be as entertained by the climbers as we are by him.

—- Chris and the Llama in Pangboche —

Anyhow, we’re having a great time and Scott rented the Scrabble game from Natang in Namche for the price of a Mountain Trip hat, so the Scrabble will continue tonight!