Or second to last, not sure how far I’ll make it tomorrow. The last two days have been a strike, nobody on the roads, thanks to the Maoists. I forgot to add that when I was rafting, there were many Maoists on the shores and one of their first questions was, Do you have any …
I made it! Kala Pattar, 5545m/18,200ft, the “closest you can get to Everest without climbing it”. It indeed was a spectacular view of Everest and Nuptse (which appears taller in the pictures because it is closer). Today was much better, I set out around 8:15am and the 400m climb straight up was much easier than …
My first and only miserable day on the trail. I only had a measly 200m to climb today from Lobuje to Gorak Shep. I had been feeling so good that I thought I could go on to Kala Pattar or Base Camp the same day. NOT SO. I almost turned around on the trail, it …
I think this was my favorite day. I felt good, I had been at 4400m with just a tiny headache for a short time, and the trail to Lobuge was the best it had been. A gradual uphill, no loose gravel, no big rocks to pick through, no dust. Easy walking and great views. I’ve …
Tengboche (3800m) – I couldn’t find this village to mark on the map, but this was my destination after Namche. It was a nice walk, here they have a famous Buddhist Monastery. I walked around it but I was wearing my sandals and had to take my shoes off and could only bare to stand …
Namche Bazaar is the main commerical center of the Solokhumbu (the region in which Sagarmatha (Nepali name for Everest) National Park lies). There are probably 50 guesthouses. Every day there is a Tibetan Black Market (as far as I could see, they just sold comforters, but am told you could buy anything there). On Saturday …
(I tried not to make this too wordy, but if you want just skip the texts and look at the pictures, I think with the captions it should cover anything of import.) Flew here to start out my trip. Although well maintained, the landing strip for this airport is ridiculously short and ends in the …
To Nam and back – Day 26 of 26 I’ve made it back to Kathmandu, and have brought approximately half of the sand of the Karnali River with me. It was a great trip, although it didn’t start out so great. First the bus ride was hell. With traffic jams and bus breakdowns (we had …
Tomorrow I start my rafting trip…we will drive 14 hrs to Surkhet, then hike a few hours to our put in point of Sauli. We don’t start on the river til Tuesday, then have 7 days on it. On Days 3-5, we will be about a five day hike from anywhere, the river will be …