Just ahead of the crack of dawn, we gathered for a pot of coffee and a walk up to the top of the town. From a hill above Namche we knew we'd have a chance at a million dollar view. Since the hills that form Namche are pretty much mountains by anybody else's measure, we were breathing good and hard when we reached our destination. It was all worth it though as Mount Everest was standing out big and beautiful at the head of the valley. A giant, violent and ragged plume of cloud was streaming from the summit. This was our first glimpse of our far off goal. We stood taking pictures in every direction as the mountains around us lit up with fiery first light.
Finally, hunger and the need for more coffee got the best of us and we retreated to the Camp De Base dining room for breakfast.
This was our full-on rest day... Meant to prepare us for a couple of days of travel to greater heights, and so the gang got to choose their own individual programs for how to spend the time. Most combined forays into town for shopping with naps and reading and a few games between meals. Tomorrow we'll move up to Deboche.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Best of luck to Mark Wilkins and the entire team for a fun and safe adventure and summit attempt of Mt. Everest. Mark, hopefully you and your STL Cardinals wool hat will make it to the top, as they start their season tomorrow and home opener on April 8th.
I’ll follow the blog with keen interest, and prayers for you safe return.
All The Best,
Jim Gidcumb
Posted by: Jim Gidcumb on 3/31/2013 at 4:32 pm
I’ll be following your posts almost everyday. Sending greetings to your team from Florida! Wish I was there with you all have a great trip and be safe!!
Hello everybody, this is Casey Grom checking in from the second RMI Everest Base Camp Trek and Island Peak climb. Just wanna let you know that everyone's doing well today, getting better and feeling better seems like every step, with whatever little tummy issues we were having. Today we left Pheriche in perfect weather and hiked beneath Taboche and Cholatse, two famous and iconic climbs here in the Khumbu. We hiked about four hours today at get up to Lobuche, so we made a big turn and we are paralleling the Khumbu Glacier, which is only about 300 yards from where we are camped. We are currently relaxing at the Eco Lodge, which is probably the nicest tea house, it seems like, up valley here. Everyone's doing well and we are just now sitting down for dinner and looking forward to moving up closer to Base Camp tomorrow. Alright. That's it for today. We'll look forward to checking in tomorrow with everybody. Take care, bye bye.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Missy, Elsie, and Allie,
We are all enjoying thinking of you in those beautiful mountains. I hope the tummy troubles are not effecting your enjoyment of the trip too much. Keep up the good work! XOXO Corell
Posted by: Corell Moore on 4/1/2013 at 10:21 am
Hey Guys! Loved reading about your trek—it’s so fun to be able to really know where you are and remember what it all looked like and felt like!! You never get over the views!! Spectacular!! Hope your tummies all feel better—I remember THAT part too—oh so well! Hope you all feel better soon. Don’t forget you have a Z-pac like I did! Anyway, thinking about you all and so glad everything is going well. Hope everything continues to go well going forward too. Enjoy!! XOXO, Lucy
Mark Tucker calling from Lobuche. I'm leaning up against the window to try and get some reception. Can you believe it? We have no wifi, I so apologize. The team is doing well, we're bunking down. We're going to push up to Gorak Shep tomorrow. Had a great hike from Pheriche today. Boy we have really starting to feel like we are up, up, up. So, thin, thin air and getting thinner. Tomorrow marks the 65K endurance race coming from Gorak Shep. And so we are going to root some of these folks on that we've been parallel over the course of our trip. We'll be glad to see them, but I am not too jealous of them running from Gorak Shep to Lukla in a matter of hours. I kinda like what we are doing, so we'll check in again later.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Happy Easter Elsie! I feel like I should be writing “there goes Peter Cottontail. Hoppin’ up Mt Everest’s trail…”, but the air seems a little thin fur hoppin’ right now -ha!
Easter blessings and safe journey to all :)
Mary
Posted by: mary tryer on 3/30/2013 at 3:38 pm
Happy Easter to all!!! God’s Speed and Grace ... on this Blessed Easter!!! Love you Buzz, James, Luke and Team Tucker!!! Awesome job!!!! Blessing Be to All! nancy
Tashi Delek! All is well here in Namche Bazaar. We're having a great time so far on the trek into base camp. This morning we slept in a little bit and had a nice long breakfast. After that we hit the trail for an acclimatization hike to the villages of Khumjung and Kunde.
Khumjung is the home of one of the Hillary schools and kids from all over the area walk there every day to attend class. The villages all looked nice and tidy as the fields have all been freshly tilled and the yaks are all gone up the valley carrying gear for the expeditions.
We were able to catch a couple of glimpses of Lhotse and Nuptse but Everest was in the clouds all day. That was OK though as Ama Dablam and Thomserku were out and looking very proud.
The team members are all doing well and are getting progressively more psyched as we head up the valley. Tomorrow we will spend another day in Namche acclimatizing before we move on.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Day of R&R, with a short hike to 14,600' - higher than Mount Whitney, but nothing by Nepalese standards. Most are feeling much better, with the hope that a new day will bring much-needed strength to those still recovering from the Khumbu stomach bug. Of particular interest, see attached photo: Nepalese use of biofuels. Cribbage is the bomb, hope to master it soon! Hi to Yuki, Karis, and Rianna, don't wish you were here :) yet, missing all of you. The yak cheese was really good!
RMI Climber Keith L.
You all look so happy and excited…I’mexcited for you…WOW…Mt. Everest…what could be more exciting than that. I hope to trek to EBC in 2015. FYI…I’m an animal lover. It seems the Yak does a lot of hard work for the climbers…and even provides fuel to cook the food of climbers. Are Yaks treated well? Are Yaks nourished well? I just hope Yaks receive the TLC for all the hard work they do for the climbers. I know the climbers bring in money to help the people and animals of Nepal….and thst’s a good thing. Love the photos…I will be watching all of you from Southern California until you summit and return to base camp. May God Bless you and keep you safe.
Posted by: Lynn Via on 3/30/2013 at 10:32 am
Can’t believe you are smiiling or much less eating dinner with the aroma of burning Yak dung!
The night in Phakding, with the river dependably charging past to form perfect "white noise", was conducive to deep sleep. This morning we ate a relaxed breakfast and hit the trail at 8:30 under a light overcast. Travel along the river, through more small farms and villages, was peaceful and easy. Crossing a few long suspension bridges we soon came to the entrance to Sagarmatha National Park, where Lam Babu submitted our permits. A short walk into the park took us to Jorsalle where we ate lunch at the final tea house in town. Then it was across the river again and onward to the Namche Hill where we rapidly gained altitude and shed a little sweat in the process. An hour's hard hiking brought us to the lower end of Namche Bazaar at just over 11,000 ft. We strolled the narrow "streets" -there are no cars- and made our way to Camp De Base, our home for the next three nights. The afternoon was spent shopping and exploring. We put on a bit more clothing against the cool evening air and met for a great dinner in the communal dining room.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Rest days are done. We are now in the position to go for our summit. Base Camp being our goal. I feel good with the team's condition at this time. Big push up to Lobuche tomorrow, a couple thousand feet at this altitude will surely be felt by all. We are ready, bring it on. Made some head way with climbing equipment adjustments and technical training for the Island Peak crew. Any old bench around the tea house can provide a great anchor and the door to the dining room being less than a pitch away isn't all bad. Had a wonderful reunion with one of the finest Mountain Guides in the world, Casey Grom who overlaps his trip with ours for the night. Casey is such a talent in all aspects of climbing but what a challenge for him at a game of cribbage. So fun to hangout and nice to hash over logistics, since he will be climbing Island Peak a few days after us. A light dusting of snow this afternoon but clear tonight.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Day five in the Khumbu brings us more wonderful experiences and new heights. We left camp in Deboche and headed further uphill. Our first stop was in Pangboche to visit Lama Geshe, who is the highest ranking Buddhist in the valley. He is a high ranking Lama who is close friends with the Dalai Lama himself. All the Sherpas and smart climbers visit Lama Geshe before attempting any climbing here in the Khumbu. And because some of us will be climbing Island Peak and the rest of us would never turn down a blessing, we stopped by. Lama Geshe is from Tibet and speaks only Tibetan, he chanted and asked the mountains to give us safe passage and then gave us a Kata and tied a small string around our necks called a Sunde.
We stopped off to have lunch and then finished up our hike just as the clouds decided to sprinkle us with a little snow. We are currently resting in Pheriche which sits around 14,000'. Everyone is doing mostly well (a few folks are on the Khumbu weight loss diet, aka stomach issues!) but not to fear everyone is feeling better by the hour.
Looking forward to resting.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
SO wonderful to be able to read about your days - and more importantly, see that you are all happy and well. Thank you for the beautiful photos. I have enjoyed them (and they put my mind at ease :) ) All is well here - have a wonderful adventure and continue ...for with every step that you take, you inspire all who know you.
xo Bridget
Posted by: Bridget Hodgson on 3/28/2013 at 5:35 pm
Ahhh…I remember the scent of freshly laundered clothes….hung out to dry over the Yak dung piles! Hope you get to enjoy the sunroom and take a look at the Pheriche clinic on your “rest” day (and hopefully not for the “Khumbu Flu”! ;)
Glad you all received your Lama Geshe blessings- It’s great to see the pics…and hope you get to have just one more shower stop in Lobuche!
We are thinking of you-Keep on climbing!!! xo
Posted by: Dana Marie Buchanan on 3/28/2013 at 4:57 pm
Hello from Pheriche! 14,042 feet but who's counting. After a nice dinner, the team is tucked away for the night. Lot's of hiking in all directions today. Nice to have such great Sherpa support to be able to offer many options. A few new altitude records for the team. Another day of perfect weather, and trail conditions in great shape. We are now above tree line, but lots of bushes still keep us thinking we are where life forms can survive. It is a rather tough environment to be in, we welcome these islands of paradise called tea houses. Plan is to take a rest day here tomorrow. Some day hikes and a bit of training for my crew that will go with me to Island Peak in the not so distant future. The surrounding peaks of Taboche (21,309') and Cholatse (20,784') always impress. Crazy to think that the real big ones are up this valley and around the corner. Looking so forward to reuniting with those views.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
We were up at 4 AM in the Yak and Yeti Hotel and we were packing. By 5:30 the team was at the Kathmandu airport and ready for some "hurry up and wait". The wait wasn't so long though, on this morning, before we were riding a little shuttle to our plane while watching the sunrise. We boarded the twin prop Dornier and took off in cloudless but smoky skies. Once through the thick smog layer it was possible to see a row of giant and jagged peaks out the port side windows. After a quick 30 minutes, the plane was in a steep descent toward the tilted Tarmac of Lukla airstrip. The landing was fast, flawless and loud as the pitch of the props was reversed to brake the plane. Within just a few moments we were out of the hectic 9,200-feet airport and in the quiet comfort of a tea house. The 2013 RMI Everest Expedition took its first steps at around 8:30 as we set off in perfect weather. The team only needed one rest along the way as we traveled through small farms and villages. The rock walls of our valley soared above and we could see a handful of glacier covered sharp summits floating over everything. "Traffic" was light on the trails - we leap-frogged a couple of teams we happened to know for a while, but for the last hour or so we had things pretty much to ourselves and could enjoy the quiet of the forest and the turbulence of the river. Shortly after noon Dan, James, Mark, Seth and myself, along with our Sirdar Lam Babu, pulled into Jo's Garden in the northern suburbs of Phakding.
We lunched, we napped, we ate again and now we are retiring to the rooms for the night, ready to complete the transition from airports and jet lagged city life to mountains and rivers and valleys and walking.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Best of luck to Mark Wilkins and the entire team for a fun and safe adventure and summit attempt of Mt. Everest. Mark, hopefully you and your STL Cardinals wool hat will make it to the top, as they start their season tomorrow and home opener on April 8th.
I’ll follow the blog with keen interest, and prayers for you safe return.
All The Best,
Jim Gidcumb
Posted by: Jim Gidcumb on 3/31/2013 at 4:32 pm
I’ll be following your posts almost everyday. Sending greetings to your team from Florida! Wish I was there with you all have a great trip and be safe!!
safe
Posted by: julia begley on 3/31/2013 at 1:30 pm
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