Even higher than Everest Base Camp stands Kala Patthar (5550m). This is apparently the place to go for exceptional views of the Himalayan mountains. We set off at 5am from Gorak Shep only to find that our guide had a mobile phone for a torch....yeah we felt very safe(!)

Before we knew it the cold defeated us, we had made it up two thirds of the way up Kala Patthar but our feet and hands were frozen and so painful that we could not continue. Our guide was rubbish as Helen succumbed before Nick and the guide told her to wait on the mountainside while Nick went to the summit. So we didn't get to summit Kala Patthar as we made a joint decision to head back to Gorak Shep. So close yet so far, but we did manage to get some views of the Himalayan range so all was not lost. Mount Everest took its place of pride and glory amongst Nuptse and Lohtse.

After having breakfast at Gorak Shep we headed to Pheriche at 4240m. The trek downhill was a breeze, mostly downhill as we had to lose about 1000m or thereabouts.

We had lunch at Lobuche, never mind witnessing a car crash we only went and did better. We saw a helicopter crash! Luckily everyone in the helicopter was ok. Helen obviously being nosey wanted to see who the helicopter was rescuing, and it was a guy that we had bumped into several times over the last week (he was a big guy who looked determined to make it to EBC) but altitude sickness had gotten the better of him.

The helicopter had struggled to take off and it crashed down, our guide had said that the helicopter was overloaded because of the big guy but as we had watched a film in Namche we learnt that helicopters struggle in thin air as the rotors can't gain momentum.

The scene made us appreciate the fact that we had made it to EBC safe and sound and the afternoon was spent reflecting on the crash and walking downhill over streams to Pheriche.

To sum up today, We were very angry at our guide for being naive on Kala Patthar and for thinking that the helicopter was 'overloaded'. Today was pretty uneventful apart from the helicopter crash which was surreal.