Progress

Today I left Namche Bazar. Mingma stayed behind to deal with a family matter, but should be in Lukla Sunday, the day after tomorrow. Pasang and I made great time, and got all the way back to the airport town of Lukla before dinner. My knees and ankles are asking … Read More

Yesterday evening, I went to bed while rain softly fell. When its intense rhythm on the metal roofing woke me in the middle of the night, I knew the airport in Lukla would be closed today. What a perfect bottle neck for the 100 or so marathon runners trying to … Read More

I am amazed by how quickly one can descend from such high places. I am already back in Namche Bazar, even after taking a detour uphill to Khumjung. The drop down into the river valley, that I enjoyed the day we left Namche, was today a protracted climb. But I … Read More

In the morning of my last day at Gorak Shep, we asked about, and confirmed that our prospective site never has surfacewater flow. We chatted with the owner of the guttered tea house. They said they added the system a year ago, with no failures and have harvested 2,000L during … Read More

So I spent my first night in Gorak Shep in the very last room available, located in the basement of a tea-house, filled with dozens of folks prepping for the Base Camp to Namche marathon. I was to the left of what smelled like a gas-can storage room and beneath … Read More

Today we finally reached Gorak Shep! I ate a lunch of hashbrowns with cheese and an egg in under two minutes. Anyway, sitting at 5,140m drinking tea with my guides in the sunshine, I was all smiles. Once we had our things settled, we set out to view the two … Read More

Today has been a wonderful day. I have finally reached Luboche, at 4910m above sea level. My breakfast of porridge was uneventful and we completed our trek in under 4 hours, even with a 45min break for lunch! The walk from DIngboche to the river crossing at Dughla was the … Read More

This morning the light of dawn woke me up and I went outside to see the mountains unhidden by clouds. I took some quick photos and by the time I had, the peaks up the valley could not be seen in the intense sunshine breaking above their ridges. Thirty seconds … Read More

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 … Read More

I got myself together by around 8AM and found the team already at work back at the Gompa. I returned to sketching the main building of the monastery ate some pancakes. Mingma was there and he and I discussed the schedule of the next few days while the others kept … Read More