Entries from Expedition Dispatches
(Voicemail from Linden)
We left Pheriche early this morning and trekked our way through Thokla, this sits on the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. We climbed to the top of Thokla Pass to view the climbers' memorials draped in prayer flags. By midday we had arrived at our tea house in Lobuche.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and acclimatizing at our new altitude of 16,200'. Everyone is acclimatizing very well. We will spend one day here hiking and relaxing and enjoying the great views.
As we move through Lobuche and onto Everest Base Camp, communication can be difficult but we will do our best to keep in touch. Tell everyone at home "Hello" we are having a great time and are very excited to be so close to EBC!
Linden
Today we awoke to a blue bird sky and prepared for another day of trekking. After three nights at Namche Bazar (11,300 ft.), the team was feeling good and it was time to continue on towards Basecamp. As we hiked above Namche and wrapped around the hill side, the major peaks came into view. With the clear skies, we had magnificent views of Ama Dablam, Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse. The hiking was great and I was amazed at how well maintained the trails were. We passed many locals working on breaking rocks and stacking them into place, creating the feeling of cobblestone streets in many places. As we continued on the trail we eventually dropped down into the valley floor where we stopped and had lunch in Phungi Thanga (10,662 ft.) which Dave Hahn jovially refers to as "Funky Town"! After yet another gluttonous meal in the sunshine watching yaks, porters and trekkers go by, we decided it was time for us to continue on as well. After a river crossing on a swinging wooded style bridge, we slowly made our way uphill to Tengboche where the Tengboche Monastery is located. After resting and drinking Fanta's, Coke and water (with some making a quick dash to the local bakery for chocolate cake!), we hiked a short distance downhill thru a Rhododendron forest to arrive in Deboche (12,533 ft.). Now in Deboche, we are staying at the Ama Dablam Garden Lodge where we will spend two nights. Once again, things have gone smoothly and everyone is having a good time and staying in good health.
Late yesterday evening we were treated to a spectacular moonrise over the Ama Dablam massif here in Pheriche. The very full moon bathed the surrounding peaks in a brilliant light, the glaciers glowing so strongly that after retreating inside I was obliged to pull my curtains closed to cast extra darkness into my little room. Luckily, the clear skies persisted through the night and we awoke to another crystal clear morning, with only the highest peaks sporting their jet stream plume of clouds far above us.
Leaving our bags in the teahouse, we set off up a small trail above Pheriche, climbing quickly we passed several stray yaks and decaying chortens as we climbed higher. With the weather staying clear and the team climbing strongly, we made good time up the ridgeline, soon gaining the summit of Nangkar Tshang, a rocky outcropping around 16,500' standing proudly above the confluence of the Imja Khola Valley - coming from Island Peak - and the Dudh Kosi Valley - coming from Everest. Along the way we had excellent views of our climbing destination, Island Peak, which we will return to in a few days after visiting Everest Base Camp. Standing by itself at the head of the valley at well over 20,000', the peak does indeed resemble an island, surrounded with a backdrop of some of the world's highest peaks including Nuptse, Lhotse, and Makalu.
After enjoying the views from the summit of Nangkar Tshang, we headed back down the trail, quickly losing the elevation that we worked so hard to gain. Before returning to Pheriche, we walked down to the the sister village of Dingboche, visiting a small building built high into the cliff face above the valley on our way. Returning to Pheriche, we returned in time to sit in on the HRA Clinic daily Altitude Talk, listening to Dr. Barb Jones from the US give us the latest briefings on altitude science and demonstrating the use of a Gamow Bag, or portable hyperbaric chamber, for us.
Tomorrow we climb higher towards Everest, bound for the small herding village of Lobuche, situated just past the terminus of the Khumbu Glacier. Communication from Lobuche is difficult but we will do our best to keep everyone up to date with our progress.
Namaste everyone,
Today was our third and final day in wonderful Namche Bazaar. We had an early breakfast and headed out the door for a hike that was part exploring and part acclimatization. The weather was calm and clear and allowed us some of our first views of Everest and other Himalayan giants. It was breathtaking to say the least. Even though Mt. Everest is still miles away it looks really BIG! We climbed up to somewhere around 12,000' so that's only 17,035' more to go.
Our adventure took us to two villages called Khunde and Khumjung. Khumjung is famous from Sir Edmond Hillary having built one of the first schools in the Khumbu Valley and their delicious bakery. Along the way we stopped off at the Everest View Hotel and had a quick drink and enjoyed the view the hotel is famous for.
Everyone is doing great and we are looking forward to moving further up the Khumbu Valley.
We awoke to an amazingly clear morning with the surrounding peaks dusted in a fresh coat of white from yesterday afternoon's snowfall. We hit the trail early, weaving our way out of Deboche's rhododendron forests, across a soaring bridge high above the Dudh Kosi, and then gradually climbing up the western side of the valley, soaking in the morning sun. Taking a side tour from the main route, we climbed up past several rows of mani stones to the village of Upper Pangboche. There we visited Lama Geshe, a well known and respected spiritual leader of the area. After paying our respects to him he proceeded to lead our small climbing team through a blessing ceremony, requesting safe passage from Chomolungma, the goddess of Everest and the Khumbu area, for our trek and climb ahead. Amidst chanting, throwing of rice, the burning of incense, and many hearfelt laughs, Lama Geshe gave a letter to each of us to carry with us on our climb, draped a kata scarf over our heads, and tied a small red string around our necks. A very geniune and happy person, it is difficult to leave the presence of Lama Geshe not feeling calmed, refreshed, and excited about the adventures ahead.
After saying goodbye, we continued out of the small cluster of buildings of Pangboche, gradually ascending higher up the valley, past more mani stones, chortens, and a beautiful mural of Guru Rinpoche, the Buddhist lama credited with bringing Buddhism to the area, painted onto a cliff face. The team is clearly acclimatizing well and walking strongly because we arrived at our destination - the small village of Pheriche - by midday, even with our long stopover at Lama Geshes.
We have spent the afternoon relaxing in the comfortable dining room of our teahouse, chatting with fellow trekkers and the doctors of the nearby Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) Clinic, and getting comfortable in the thin air of 14,000'.
We will stay another day in Pheriche tomorrow, going for a day hike above the valley and continuing to prepare our bodies for higher altitudes. We will check-in tomorrow when we return.
Hi, this is Seth writing you from the Everest Bakery and Cyber Cafe in Namche Bazaar. It's a beautiful day in the Khumbu.
Our schedule calls for a rest day today in order to allow our bodies to adjust to the altitude here. It's kind of strange to have to acclimatize to a location that is a fully functioning town. But a slow and steady approach to basecamp is necessary to keep us healthy for the upcoming climb.
Namche is a beautiful village located in a high amphitheater surrounded by craggy peaks. The town is bustling with trekkers from all over the globe which give it a very cosmopolitan feel. It's the Sherpa capital and it's cool to see all of the guys moving through town on their way to basecamp. It must be climbing season.
The team is doing well and everyone is enjoying the trek so far. A few of us were able to get a glimpse of Everest this morning, which was great. It's as big as I remember!
Tomorrow we are taking a day hike to the village of Kumjung and hopefully we'll be able to get views of Ama Dablam, Nuptse, Lhotse and of course Everest.
Yesterday's afternoon clouds once again dissipated by morning and clear skies greeted us as we left the teahouse this morning. Retracing our steps back up the hill to the Tengboche Monastery, we were able to see the beautiful panorama of the Everest Massif Tengboche is well known for. Leaving the well trodden path that connects Tengboche to Namche, we set off up a small trail headed up the mountainside above Tengboche. We quickly gained elevation, walking past a series of stone chortens connected with strings upon strings of prayer flags put up by the monks. After passing the last chorten the path fell away to a small trail weaving its way up the mountain side, past small cairns and little clusters of hardy juniper. As we climbed so did the clouds, quickly building in the valley below us and enveloping us as we reached our destination - a small white chorten perched on a knoll high on the ridge above Tengboche and the Khumbu Valley. Clearing occassionally, the clouds gave us sporadic glimpses of the winding river below and the glacier capped peaks above.
At an elevation of almost 14,000' the knoll, declared Tengboche Ri (Tengboche Peak) by our Sherpas, was the perfect place to sit for awhile, allowing our bodies time to get used to the thin air and giving a good boost to the acclimatization process underway as we make our way towards Everest Base Camp. As the clouds continued to grow, we retraced our steps back to Tengboche, pulling into the small bakery there just as occasional snowflakes began to fall. Enjoying a warm cup of tea, we watched the landscape change around us as the snow became thicker and thicker, blanketing everything in a thin layer of white.
The snow continued to fall as we left the bakery and walked over to the Monastery, making ourselves comfortable in the large prayer room at the heart of the Monastery. Soon the monks began filing in, the incense and candles were lit, and the afternoon prayer session began, filling their chamber with the deep rolling chants of their prayers. We observed in silence, relaxing in the ornately decorated room as the monks prayed. It was an amazing experience to sit through: listening to the calming chants in a Monastery deep in the heart of the Himalaya as the snow fell outside.
Returning to the teahouse as the sun finally broke through the clouds, the mountains began to reveal themselves around us, painted in a fresh layer of snow. Today has been a wonderful rest day in Deboche and we are all feeling strong, acclimatizing well, and looking forward to climbing further up the valley to Pheriche tomorrow.
We seem to be repeating ourselves here in the Khumbu, saying "that couldn't have gone any smoother" over and over. Sure enough we got out of Katmandu right on schedule yesterday morning with an easy flight in a Dornier 228 twin engine prop plane. We all survived the uphill landing in Lukla, had a fine breakfast there and then hit the trail at around 8 AM. There are twelve of us at the moment, plus Raju and Lama Babu (our climbing sirdar). We'll be joined any day now by climber Michael Brown, but for the moment, there are four climbers, four guides, two trekkers and two team managers and everybody is walking well. The gang walked just fine on somewhat crowded trails yesterday, through farms and small villages to Phak Ding. There we moved into Jo's Garden, a traditional "tea house", for the night. It is a peaceful place, with the Dudh Khosi -a river of constant whitewater- flowing furiously past and erasing all other sound. For many of us, the night was our first of full sleep in what seemed like a week -what with the hectic packing, repacking, flying, packing, more flying, early starting and jet-lagging. Today all seemed to be in good moods and good health and so we joined the busy trail again for the walk upriver. By late morning, we'd entered the National Park and found a nice outside table at a cafe for lunch. A few plates of rice and potatoes later and we got back into the walking. We tackled the notorious Namche Hill and cruised past about a hundred trekkers, porters and pack animals all grinding up in low gear. Conditions were just perfect for gaining about 2000 vertical feet since the ample cloud cover and a few gentle breezes kept the heat tolerable. But the clouds did rob us of what could have been a first view of Everest from the trail. No matter, we'll see it soon enough. The team is tucked in at Camp De Base, a fine lodge in Namche, the "Sherpa Capital" as everyone calls it. We'll spend three nights here, trying to get used to the big jump in altitude (we are up around 11,500 ft now) and enjoying the shopping, communications and social opportunities of this bustling and spectacularly placed town. Tonight, since it will be the first at true altitude, we won't be able to drink much alchohol... but if we could, we'd be toasting Mark Tucker's mom, who turned eighty back in California. Happy Birthday from the RMI Everest 2010 team!
We packed up our bags this morning after several comfortable nights in Namche and set out on the trail. The first fifteen minutes are always the hardest; climbing up and out of Namche's steep and narrow streets don't allow for much of a warm up and we were quickly pulling off of our warm jackets as we climbed into the morning sun. Once out of Namche's bowl the trail quickly flattened out and we spent several hours traversing across the mountain sides high above the Dudh Kosi. The morning was clear again and we had wonderful views of Everest and Lhotse, still sailing their giant plumes of snow from their summits.
By midday we reached Phunki Tanga - known also as Funky Town - where we stopped for a pleasant lunch amongst the fir and rhododendrons. During lunch we encountered our first train of true yaks - the legendary shaggy work animals of the high Himalaya. They are noticeable larger than the yak/cow crossbreed used lower in the Valley and we all paused during our meal to admire them, colorfully decorated by their Sherpa herders with strings and even earings.
After lunch we set our sights upon our major climb of the day, gaining the several thousand feet from Phunki Tanga to Tengboche - a ridgetop community that is home to the largest Monastery in the area. The group climbed steadily and we made good time, quickly ticking off the many dusty switchbacks that led us to the top and before long we had crested the ridge and were standing in the open grounds in front of the large monastery. Clouds moved into the mountains by then and swirled amongst the peaks above us, obscuring the stunning panorama Tengboche is known for. After admiring the ornate architecture and colorful decorations of the Monastery we dropped down off of the other side of the ridge into the tiny village of Deboche, tucked amongst a large forest of rhododendron on the verge of blooming. Finding our teahouse amongst the trees, we settled in by mid afternoon to relax after a good day on the trail.
Tomorrow we will stay another night in Deboche, taking time to visit the Monastery of Tengboche and go for a small day hike above the area.
The team is in high spirits and doing well, sending their best to everyone at home.
A thunderstorm swept in yesterday evening, enveloping the peaks across the valley in thunder and lighning, giving us a spectacular lightshow from the rooms of our teahouse. Thin, whispy clouds wrapped around the summits were all that were left of the faroff storm this morning. Leaving Namche as the sun crept into town, we climbed a series of switchbacks out of the bowl in which Namche sits and up to Syangboche, a collection of a few homes perched on the plateau above town and where a dirt airstrip is found. Closed for several years to planes and accessible only by helicopter, the Syangboche strip was recently reopened to cargo flights in a small single prop plane that has been busy ferrying construction supplies - rebar, lumbar, and plastic piping. Continuing across the airstrip and into a small forest of juniper we traversed the hilly plateau to a prominent outcropping on the northeastern side. There, sitting amongst the pines, sits the Mount Everest View Hotel, a large hotel built by the Japanese several years ago that features oxygen and pressurized rooms, in addition to spectacular views of Cholatse, Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam. While Cholatse and Ama Dablam were visible the Everest / Lhotse Massif was cloaked on clouds, lifting only ocassionally to reveal it's steep rock and ice slopes. We sat down to a cup of tea on the back porch waiting in hopes the clouds would lift but they never did.
Leaving the sunny backporch of the Mount Everest View Hotel, we dropped into a shallow valley to the north, where the villages of Khumjung and Khunde are found. Although close to Namche, they couldn't be more different, as far as Sherpa villages go. Compared to Namche, steep, narrow, busy streets full of commerce, Khumjung and Khunde's big fields, winding footpaths, and quiet streets offer a very different experience. As we walked through Khumjung the path in front of us began to fill with children, running towards us, giggling and playing as they walked by, with their schoolbooks tucked under their arms. Soon we came to the grounds of the Hillary School in Khumnjung, the largest school in the area serving primary through high school grades. Classes had just finished for the morning and many of the students were returning home for lunch.
After visiting the school's grounds, we continued onto Khunde, just a few minutes walk away where we stopped in at the Hillary Hospital there - both organized and funded by Sir Edmund Hillary. While at the hospital a patient arrived carried by the local ambulance, a pony. He was quickly escorted in while his ride waited patiently outside.
We returned to Namche by climbing over the hills from Khunde, past rows and rows of Mani stones, and dropping down the steep hillsides into Namche. We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, walking through Namche, catching up on reading and writing, and savoring a last hot shower.
Tomorrow we climb further up the valley to the small village of Deboche, located in the shadow of the Tengboche Monastery, the largest in the region. We will do our best to keep you updated to our progress as we move higher.
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