SUMMITTED KALA PATHAR

We all reached our destination at Everest Base Camp.  We were elated.  After many photos, resting and taking in the scenery, we headed back to our tea house for the night.  It was a restless night for me as my friend Sandra was suffering from a cold and was very congested causing her to wake up choking on her flem.  She recovered but by this point it was close to 4am and time for me to get up and get ready to hike Kala Pathar with our guide Hom, another porter and our friend Shondra.  It was an early start at 4:30 am with temperature around -10C.  I could feel the cold air in my hiking boots but as long as I kept moving, I was comfortable.  In approaching the summit, my spirit soared and out came the camera, the flag, my GPS for a geocache photo and then I tried to capture the experience.  I was fortunate to find someone to take my picture at the highest point.  Time past quickly and we needed to get back to the tea house for breakfast.  It was 8:30am; we gathered our gear and hiked down to our next tea house at Periche for the night.  It was a long but rewarding day.  It was still cold the next morning waking up.  We huddled around the woodstove before departing for Namche Bazaar.  I was so grateful to have experienced this.