I ate two bowls of oatmeal for breakfast and Mingma led the way to Dingboche at 10AM. It was a very relaxed start to the day. I was able to see the peak of Chomolungma peaking through the clouds just before we left, but the conditions became cloudy as we continued to walk up the basin of the Dudh Koshi. When we stopped for lunch I talked with the other trekkers. They were all here for a marathon run that proceeds from Everest base camp, at 5364m, down to Namche Bazar, at 3440m. No thank you! Mingma pointed out to me a local who has won this race the last three years in a row. His last time, the best time ever, was 2 hrs & 27 minutes. This man is in his mid thirties and is super-human in my belief. Mad respect.

Anyway, we took our sweet time in getting up to Dingboche, at 4410m and arrived before 2PM in mist. The plan is, that we will stay here another day to acclimatize before we head to Lobuche and then Gorak Shep. Three days until Gorak Shep. Things are becoming real. I will spend probably 3 days there, or more if there is additional information to gather. During those days I will most likely proceed up to Everest base camp, but won’t be running back down.

I am very excited to help bring the Mt. Everest Biogas Project forward. The most important thing, which will decide wether or not this actually happens, is the choice of the local porters who stand to operate and benefit from the project. They have already agreed to receiving free biogas, but this was before there was any sort of concept as to how such a thing would happen. I am to present to them our team’s design, with the help of Mingma as interpreter. If they are willing to feed the digester, dump a bucket of digested effluent and open & close a window shutter daily, then the project can move forward. The initial design will change a great deal based on the information collected during this trip, but I am hopeful that in the next couple years we can make biogas at Gorak Shep.