Day 6 of the trek to Mount Everest Base Camp starts high and goes higher, as we are now well above the treeline and into the land of rock and snow.

Leaving Dingboche, or nearby Pheriche if that is where you stayed, you have a relatively gentle ascent in the morning, through rock strewn grasslands and past a number of stone yak herder shelters. Lhotse dominates the views to the north, and Ama Dablam the views to the south

Pass through or above Pheriche, a lonely but picturesque village located in a windswept valley; helicopters buzz overhead coming to and from the medical facility here.

Lunch will be in Dhugla or Thukla, each of which are at the foot of a steep 30- to 60-minute climb up to an area with dozens of makeshift stone memorials to climbers who have perished in the Khumbu, including Scott Fischer and Rob Hall.

From here, it’s a mostly flat hike, often in eerie fog or light snow, alongside the Khumbu glacier, all the way to Lobuche. We will share the trail with other trekkers, Sherpa on horseback, and (in season) porters ferrying gear to Everest Base Camp for climbing expeditions.

Lobuche has sort of a wild west feel to it. It is not much more than a dozen guest houses, usually packed to the gills with nervous, sleepless trekkers anxious to make the final push to base camp. That is for the next day, Day 7.

Trek the Himalayas

with Embark Exploration Company!