Trek to Everest 2017 Day 14 : 11-12-2017

We awoke this morning to begin the descent from Thore to the village Debuche. For the first section of this walk we continued along the side of the valley, following the Dudh kosi river. As per usual, the track was dusty but provided stunning views of the mountains, as well as the track we followed and villages we passed on the way to Gokyo on the opposite side. Due to missing our original flight to Lukla earlier in the trip, this day was longer than planned. We had to make up a day by combining two days’ trek into one. Because of this, we stopped at Phortse for lunch, located on a flat area on the side of the valley. After lunch, we made a steep and mildly sketchy descent towards the river and crossed over a small bridge to the other side. At this point, we got glimpses of Ama Dablam and Mount Everest. Continuing through the ever-changing environment, we began to climb through a mossy forest, coming across icy streams and small landslides along the way. We even managed to spot a musk deer and take a few photos (spoiler: they have unnecessarily large fangs). We arrived at the Debuche campsite in the mid-afternoon, to prepare for a chilly evening.