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Katmandu: We shopped all day picking out gifts an nic nacs for our friends and family. Katmandu is one of the nest cites for tourist gifts. Never before in all of our traveling have we ever found so many things in the shops to purchase. The cities combination of Buddhist culture and camping gear makes a great place to shop. Dendie contacted us and said the trekking companies wanted to do a final dinner with us and all the other trekkers that had come off there trips. We were not in the mood for another scripted trekking dinner and declined the offer. We shopped for the entire day, picking up Buddhist sculptures, horns, prayer wheels, singing bowls, and a large Gurka knife. We found a Mexican restaurant with a great happy hour to eat our last evening’s meal in Katmandu. We catch our plane back home tomorrow so this will be the final log in the trek, so I hope you have enjoyed it (we have). |
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Lukla to Katmandu (maybe):  We awoke to a slow drizzling rain and the entire mountain was engulfed in a dark gray cloud. We were expecting to have a quick breakfast and then go to the airport, which was a 5-minute walk from the lodge. When we did not even get a glimmer of movement from our porters at 9pm we had pretty much discounted our chance for departure that day. We all sat in the cold lodge dining room and read books. I started to sort photos and write the days journal entry. An hour later the sun broke through and we all hoped for the heavy clouds to burn off. At 1030 we heard a plane land at the nearby airport. We packed our things and went to the chaotic Lukla airport. The airport is unlike any western airport. There are no lines just mobs of people with piles of gear scrambling over one another. The runway is chiseled into the hill and is only several hundred meters long. A 50 yard by 50 yard patch of cement allowed up to four small planes or a helicopter to pirouette around each other to let people on... Click the title to read more |
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Monjo to Lukla:  Nepalese Girl |
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Kenjoma to Namche to Monjo:  Our guesthouse was very nice change for us. Shawna’s knees were bothering her from the long downhill, but other than the group was in good spirits. We joked around at breakfast in the upstairs dining room of the lodge. The view was amazing as normal. Shawna and I commented on how we used to ooooh and ahhh over large white snow capped mountains towering around us, and now we just trudge on past them. We had a steady down hill for the first part of the days hike. It was nice and we walked at a steady pace. You could defiantly tell that our climbing stamina had improved. We were only a two-hour hike from Namche and soon arrived in the familiar trekking hills of Namche we had hiked a few weeks ago. When we arrived in Namche it marked the full circle of our trip. After Namche we would be backtracking across trails we had already walked. Physiologically this signified the true end... Click on the title to read the rest
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Dingboche to Tengboche to Kenjoma:  Outside Kenjoma Nepal |
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Labouche to Dingboche:  Packing up camp |
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Gorak Shep to Everest to Labouche:  Gorak Shep Lake Bed |
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Labouche to Gorak Shep:  We had hoped that the large snowstorm would make our camping area in Labouche more beautiful. However, it had not the only thing the six inches of snow on the ground had done is make the trip to the latrine a slippery and dangerous one. Shawna’s knees have been hurting her after the long Cho La pass down hill climb. She took another Motrin today and is ready to go. We waited for the snow to stop and our guide wanted to wait until afternoon to see how the next pass was. We saw most of the other trekkers packing up and getting ready to go to Gorak Shep. So we told the guide we wanted to go now just to get back on the road. As soon as camp was packed up the sun broke out and we were happy with our decision. My fingers are tingling allot while I write this because it is one of the side effects of Diamox. It is odd to have your toes or fingers start to tingle like they are about to fall asleep, however it is not painful. Because it is very cold I often have to wonder if it is frostbite setting in or if it is the Diamox.... Click on the title to finish the story |
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Dzonglha to Labouche: We woke up with our tent covered in snow. The Sherpas came by to shake off our tent, it sounded it like a freight train around us as they  beat our tent. Soon two steaming cups of tea were presented to us, and another day in Nepal started. The sun came out and melted off most of the snow in the valley and warmed up our tent. I caught up on some journal writing and even had pancakes in bed. It was a good morning and my stomach was feeling much better. We got up and they tore down the camp site and we were off again on the trail. Today was going to be a 4 hours hike to Labouche. This will put us back on the main stream trekking route to Everest. The route we had taken was newly opened and was far more difficult that the other routes. The further we went on the trail the more people we saw. It was kind of nice seeing other people again. However, we did not see many yak trains because we were coming off of the Cho La pass route, which was unyakable.... Click on the title to read the rest of the story |
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Thagnak to Dzonglha (across the Cho La Pass):  ChoLa Pass
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Gokyo to Thagnak:  Ngozumpa Glacier |
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Gokyo Day 2:  Gokyo Lake at Camp |
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Renjo Base Camp to Gokyo:  Everest from Renjo Pass |
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Renjo Base Camp Day 2:  Due to the altitude, we all had a hard time sleeping. Nicolas has a strong headache and has lost his appetite; I woke up with a light headache but no other major problems. Shawna had a terrible headache during the night but after breakfast and her Diamox she started to feel much better. We are staying at the Renjo Base camp for another day to help us acclimatize to the new altitudes. We only have 300 meters more in altitude before we cross the pass into the Gokyo valley however due to the altitude sickness we will stay put for another night. Nicolas went down to the lower valley in morning to get use to the altitude and take his Diamox. He came back in the afternoon feeling much better. Simon and Danzig the Sherpa took a day hike into the mountains to take photos. Shawna and I relaxed at base camp and will plan to take a small day walk into the mountains this afternoon. We are taking our time to catch up on laundry and to recharge our batteries (laptop and ours). I set up our solar panels and have recharged my laptop and the Thuraya phone. |
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Thame to Renjo Base Camp:  The cold weather has definitely arrived; we had strong winds and it was DAMN cold when we woke up. We had to wake up at 5am to get ready for the long day we had ahead of us. I woke up with my stomach doing flip flops. I luckily had a semi real bathroom to use (bathroom tent). I took several Imodium to try to bring me back to normal. The guide said it was going to be a gradual incline, and a very nice scenic view up the mountains. We stopped for lunch and were going to set up camp, however it had only been a few hour of hiking and we all felt like we could go much further. So far the hiking had been mild and we were moving at a good pace. Dengi asked if we wanted to press on and we all agreed. This ended up being a mistake because soon the mountain trail turned very steep as we tried to reach the Renjo Base camp by dark. We ended up moving up in altitude almost 3000 feet, which was one heck of a climb. The trick to it all is taking small steps. I don’t think my feet move any more than 10 inches at time when going up the steep trail. We ended up hiking for 4 more hours.
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Namche Bazaar to Thame:  Today I woke up with a cold, Shawna has been fighting one off since the beginning of the trip which we got after being caught in a rain storm while in Katmandu. We woke up at 6am to start our day. As normal our Sherpa Zambo started off our morning handing us two hot cups of milk tea in our tent. We were able to eat inside one of the local lodges and met a couple from France. They were going up to Everest base camp along the main route. The previous day, we leaned that America was 5th in the amount of tourists trekking Nepal. First was the UK then, Germany, Austria, Japan, then the USA. The UK had circa 2500 visitors during the last year, America had around 1500. We had a 7 hour hike ahead of us up steady inclines up to the city of Thame. Most people do not go this route because it added 5 days to the trip. We decided to go on this route because of all the mountain lakes along it. It was by far one of the most scenic routes in to the Everest area. It was recently opened to tourists, an had previously been off limits... Click on Title to read more |
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Namche Bazaar Day 2:  We woke up for our second day in Namche. The morning view was again amazing. The clear mornings in Nepal allowed us to see the deep valley we were in. Around us were large towering peeks. We had no problem sleeping the night before. We were exhausted after the long trek however the valley was full of barking dogs that kept me up until midnight. Our Sherpa Zambo gave us two steaming cups of milk tea in the morning and we sat and enjoyed the view from our tent. We had to spend the day in the area to acclimatize to the new altitude and they recommended we take a trek to the top of one of the nearby mountains. We ate breakfast then packed up our daypack to go up to the Everest View Hotel a 4 hour hike away and several thousand feet above us. Along the hike you had a perfect view of Everest and some of the most breathtaking scenery you could imagine. The lead guide Dende, told me that that Zambo had been assigned as my dedicated Sherpa to carry my camera gear.... Click Title to read more |
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Phakding to Namche Bazaar: It was pooring rain and dark the night before, so we had no idea what view we would wake up to. All we could hear was loud raging river somewhere below us. We had now real idea on where we were so it was a very pleasant surprise when we woke up and opened up the tent door. When we unzipped the tent we were greeted by crystal blue skies with towering snow caped peaks surrounding us. There was a chain bridge just down the trail that crossed the rushing aqua blue river. It was a fantastic way to wake up and to make it even better Zambo our Sherpa started the daily ritual of passing two steaming cups of tea to us in our tent. The hot tea started off a perfect morning and kept us warm on the crisp winter morning. We all slowly got up out of our tent and brushed our teeth. We went up to the lodge to have breakfast, it was nice having the lodge on the first morning, it let us slowly transition to the more and more rustic tent living that lay ahead.... Click on title to read the rest of the story
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Lukla to Phakding:  Plane at Lukla Airport We woke up and had to wait for the weather to clear at the airport. As we drove to the airport, our hopes of departing were low. The heavy clouds had completely engulfed the city and It did not look very promising that we would depart today. We made our way in to the chaotic airport and stood with a hundred other trekkers and their piles of gear hoping to catch a break in the weather. We sat in the upstairs snack bar with our two new trekking partners. Simon is very upbeat and Nicolas is a little more distant in his conversation. I had coffee an a nice egg sandwich to pass the time as we looked at maps and talked to each other about our previous travels. Finally the weather broke and we went downstairs as we heard the buzzing of planes taking of to destinations unknown. After clearing security, we boarded a bus that took us to the edge of the runway where all the small planes were coming and going. We soon learned the way up to the mountain was a cattle car service that would get as many people and cargo.... Click title to read more of the story
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Katmandu: Welcome to our first YakLog from our Nepal Trek, I hope to figure out a schedule of when I get to write these. We will have limited power on the trek so I may have to do several stories at once. I am writing this during our first camping night in Phakding. We are a days hike south of the Namchi Bazaar. So far the trip has been very good we enjoyed the one-day we had in Katmandu. It was much cleaner that what we had been told, however we don’t know if our years of living in third world countries has given us a different rating scale than the average traveler. Several of the people we ran into during our day in Katmandu were still complaining about the disjointed flow of traffic and the dirtiness. There was a lot to see and do in the chaotic city so we hope to have an extra day to explore when we get back off the mountain.
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Karachi: OK we are now in Karachi Pakistan and getting ready to get on the plane. Some of the server software was not working so I ended up staying up all night rewriting the code to allow pictures to be posted. This posting is a test of the software I wrote to do the remote updates. For the computer geeks, its all written in Perl that runs on a cron job to check when I have uploaded the files. This program does a MySQL database update to the Mambo content engine. I created a client and sever xml parser that will compress the files I send via a Thuraya phone from the mountain. We will try to make a web log post each day.
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