All the way back to Periche 4240 meters 14,384 ft

Today we started out the day with a great hike and made it all the way to EBC (Everest Base Camp). This was a little easier than expected since we actually climbed higher yesterday to the top of Kala Pattar. It was very emotional to actually be at the foot of Everest. While we were standing around taking pictures and eating our celebratory M&M's we got to experience two avalanches. This was spectacular!!!. There was a Thai expedition at EBC which gave us the experience of seeing how a expedition camp is set up.

After about 15-20 minutes at EBC we decided to head down. We wanted to make our way down past Gorak Shep that day due to the fact all the lodges were booked up for the night. As we headed down we made some good time to Gorak Shep and stopped for lunch. Knowing we had a long day ahead of us and I still was not feeling that great we did not spend much time at enjoying lunch. As we headed down to Lobuche we were determined to find a place other than the Kala Pattar Lodge (see previous experience). Our porter actually went ahead of us to secure a room at another lodge. When we arrived we could not find him and ASSUMED we headed to the next town Dugla. I was already exhausted at this point but thought we would stop in the next village (about 1.5 hours away). We ended up heading all the way down to Periche which turned out to be an eight our day of hiking. I was feeling pretty bad at this point and hit the sack shortly after we arrived at the White Yak hotel. Katie woke me up in the middle of the night because she was worried about my breathing while I slept. She was nice enough to give me some Diamox and some dehydration salts that next morning. It turned out that the White Yak was the nicest hotel we would stay at in all of Nepal.