Today we started our trek back down the mountain. We leave 2 of our colleagues at base camp who are climbing up to camp 2. A third member became ill, so he is headed back down the mountain with the group. The trek down is much faster than up because we are acclimatized. Today our hike is to Pheriche, which is about 12 miles in distance with a loss of 3,400 ft in elevation. Along the way, we took a short break in Gorakshep, where there was a group of climbers from India who were waiting for Wongchu to start a ceremony that was meant to be a blessing on a project to improve the trail to Everest. Both Wongchu and Tony spoke during this amazingly detailed ceremony. In fact, Wongchu was delayed so Pasang Sherpa lead us the rest of the way. This was a nice change of pace for some of us, since Pasang takes fewer breaks!
It is amazing how great I feel at 14,200 ft! At Everest base camp, just trying to get out of my sleeping bag made me out of breath. Now, I feel like I could go for a run! My Spo2 is back up to 92%. It was down to 84% at base camp .
Today was a pretty long day on the trail. Many of us have developed the Khumbu cough, which is from the extreme cold and dry air. The cooking smoke hasn’t helped either! Despite all of that, everyone remains in good spirits and we look forward to the hike down to Namche, where there are showers in the room and risers instead of long drops (toilet instead of hole in ground)!
Can’t wait until Namche!
CORY EXPLORES 
Very cool, Cory. Stay well, friend.
Is there a different trail down, or are you retracing your steps? I imagine you see things on the way down that you may not have noticed on the way up. Be well…and safe! XOXO
Same trail down for the most part. One place we take an old trail that is down by the river.
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Tiffany is right. With your new found breath you’ll see things from a different perspective.