We packed, ate, and checked out from the teahouse by 8:00 AM. At this time, the clouds blanking Mount Everest had dissipated, and everyone outdoors was excited to take pictures to mark this moment. This would be the last Everest viewing for the hikers until reaching EBC. In the remaining days Mount Everest will be hiding behind other mountains; only by climbing to the top of Kalapattar near EBC can one see Mount Everest again, but then you would see it in close range.

The sky was clear today. Although Mount Everest disappeared from the scene, many splendid ranges and mounts of the northern territory of Nepal were visible. The views and landscape were still fantastic. We again had to cross several high-hanging, scary suspension bridges, sometimes racing before the arrival of long lines of load-bearing yaks and horses, otherwise, there could be a long wait before hikers' turn.

Trees and green grass were gradually dropping out of the scene. A lot of the time it felt like walking in the desert, or on a beach. A close view of photos taken over the last couple of days revealed that the faces of many hikers were painted with a thick layer of fine sand. In this region, scientists have discovered marine cephalopods and fossils of sea lilies. It is hard to imagine that the highest peak in the world was once a thriving ocean bed.

En route, we bumped into a solo female hiker from Guangzhou, China. She was on her way back from EBC, which made us jealous. She said that the higher you went, the more difficult it would be, and she particularly mentioned a “wall” before reaching Lobuche, the second to the last stop. But she expressed no doubt that we would achieve our goal since she served as living proof.

This was a hard hiking day too; Dingboche sits at 4,410m/14,500ft, a net elevation increase of 500m/1,640ft in one day. There were many orderly-laid tents in this village which were used by those real mountaineers. It was said that they would live in these types of tents and do small climbs for months before attempting the peak.

Here we would conduct our second day for acclimatization; so relieved that we would not have to walk with a heavy load tomorrow.