"Hell hill number one"

April 19th '08

Dingboche-Lobuche

Today we left Dingboche and hiked up to the same ridge that we did yesterday. I took a picture with my sherpa friends Furi, Jimmi and Lhakpa. There was a big hill that Jim, our new group leader since Papa had to leave, called the first of two "Hell hills". I didn't find it that hard though and pumped up my music, singing and dancing away. "How does it feel," Lauryn's "Killing me Softly," and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody are some of the songs that helped me dance my way to the top of this 'Hell hill" I had a lot of fun with Numa Numa by O-Zone too. Haha some Indian hikers stopped to dance with me a bit as well.

We got to the top of 'Hell hill number one' and there were memorials there to fallen climbers from over the years. One of the first ones that I saw was that of Scott Fischer, I remember him from the book by John Krakaar "Into Thin Air," about the 1996 expeditions. I saw one of a fallen Japanese climber and one of a Nepali climber. The sun was shining bright and hot all day. Dustballs blew up over the dry landscape and sand deserts we crossed. Huge boulders were placed along the sherpa flats that we crossed. I wore my shredded wrap around my mouth and nose and Lhakpa had a matching one. We had a picture taken by some stone houses that were in between the high ridge and 'Hell Hill,' that are inhabited during the monsoon season so that the jok joks, cows and yaks can eat the grass up here that grows in the wet season. Tonight we'll sleep in Lobuche.