Two inches of sparkling white snow fell on Deboche last night. By morning whatever clouds had deposited the snow were long gone and blue skies prevailed. We ate breakfast while staring out the windows at massive plumes ripping off the summits of Everest and Lhotse. The team hit the trail by a few minutes after 8 AM and made easy progress through the snow coated rhododendron forest. In a short time, we crossed the river to the sunny side of the valley and made our way up to Pangboche and the home of Lama Geishi. He'd graciously consented to bestowing a blessing on the team. Revered by all in the Khumbu region, 80 year old Lama Geishi greets one and all with a smile and a special head butt while tying a sacred knotted string around each visitor's neck. He let us know that he was asking Chomolungma -the mother goddess of the earth- also known as Mt. Everest, to allow our climb to her summit.
We thanked Lama Geishi and resumed our hike, stopping in Shomare for a lunch while gazing up at Ama Dablam's impossibly steep flanks. Then it was just a short and quiet thousand vertical feet of climbing and we were walking into Pheriche and our tea house for the next two nights. The lodge is packed to capacity tonight with about six or seven teams of trekkers and climbers. In the evening we were happy to meet up with Mark Tucker bringing his team down valley. After he goes for Island Peak we will eagerly await his arrival in Basecamp as our teammate on the Everest Climb. Tuck will once again be basecamp manager and Khumbu Glacier mayor.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Great hearing about the venture. Good luck. Looking forward to photos and hearing about your ventures. Be safe. ABQ Uptown #985
Posted by: Rachael C. Lujan on 4/2/2013 at 9:43 am
I look forward to reading and looking at photos of your amazing adventure. Good luck team. “Mayor” Tucker is a great title. I can just see Mark holding a “town” meeting and getting the good citizens of basecamp rolling.
Lulled to sleep by rock and icefall, what a night at Everest Base Camp. A few comments that it was the best dinner since arriving in country. Short lived this time, we are already back in Pheriche gearing up for Island Peak. Should be deep sleep tonight here in the thick air of 14,000 ft. We'll bid farewell to the Trek team in the morning. As usual a whirlwind tour for the group. Lots of firsts for all. Once again the mountains provided fantastic views with perfect weather. Times like these are what bring you back to challenge the physical and mental. In time the photos will overshadow the tough conditions you are subjected to on trips like these. Maybe Hawaii next time, but I bet down the road another adventure of this type just can't be avoided.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
L & P- A Dream realized!....and you are changed forever!! Kudos. YEA!!
You epitomize YMNTBP!! Our Congrats to the entire team!! Thanks again, Mark…yes we think more Adventures will be in the offing!
Much love M & G
Posted by: Gretchen & Mike on 4/2/2013 at 9:06 am
just love following “team tucker”!!! what an adventure!!! safe trek to pheriche!!! tons of hugs buzz…Nancy
Mark Tucker from Everest Base Camp. We hiked most of the day under fabulous conditions and arrived for lunch by our favorite cook, Kumar. Lots to see here at Base Camp, we did some exploring. Dinner went well, Kumar cooked us a cake. He can bake us a cake because he actually has a small oven up here. Very comfortable, I'm so spoiled. Pretty white on the ground at this point. Hopefully it's just an evening flurry and we'll wake up to some blue skies. We have a good hike tomorrow. We're going to head back down to Pheriche. That is our target for our hike. All is well up here at Base Camp.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Nice going big brother! Of course you made it.
Love you much. Enjoy some well earned down time with Sue and everyone in the Maldives.
Linny
Posted by: Linda Hill-Lindsay on 4/2/2013 at 10:46 am
Congratulations to all of you! What an amazing accomplishment. I can only image how blessed and beautiful you must have felt to see all those amazing sights.
Vacation in Namche was great, today it was back to business. We were out of the comfortable Camp de Base by a little after 8 AM and walking up the steep hills out of town under perfectly clear skies. A couple of turns of the trail brought the dependably spectacular view of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam. We seemed to be out ahead of most other trekking/climbing groups and so we enjoyed a relatively quiet walk on the trail. Much of the day was spent walking in the shade of pine forests. By midday we'd reached our lunch stop at Phunkytanga (funkytown, as we all call it) and so we sat for an hour or so before beginning the big hill up to Thyangboche Monastery. We took just an hour to switchback our way up 1,600 ft of vertical. The work was made a little easier by the cloud cover that had moved in and some gentle breezes which kept us cool. We enjoyed the view of the great castle-like Monastery on top of the hill, but we didn't stay up there long with weather obviously moving in. We hopped five hundred feet down the other side of the hill through thick Rhododendron forests to Deboche and our teahouse for the night.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello again everyone.
Just one more day to go before we reach our goal of Basecamp! Today we arrived in Gorak Shep, the original Base camp that early expeditions used. Being that this is the last stop before the normal BC it is rather small, only about 4 tea houses here. Originally we were planning on climbing Kala Patar this evening, but due to reoccurring stomach issues and clouds rolling in we have opted for a morning ascent. The standard weather is clear in the morning and clouds in the afternoons, so hopefully it will continue to be the same.
Just so everyone back home knows, I have spoken to a few doctors about the issues (just mainly upset stomachs) and they have informed us that there have been many trekkers with similar symptoms this season.
Everyone is still smiling, just not all day long.
We are looking forward to Base Camp!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Elsie and Casey, wishing I was with you guys even with the little stomach challenges…be safe. Go Team..
Posted by: Fletch on 4/2/2013 at 4:59 am
Stomach issues still haven’t cleared up? I’m praying that all of you will be well and back to normal soon. At least the weather seems to be cooperating. Good luck on getting to base camp!
What a day! Easy climb up to Gorak Shep where lunch and rooms were waiting for us. Took a nice break then it was Kala Patar. Perfect conditions up the 1,400 ft climb to the summit. We timed it to be on top at sunset and just a bit of descent in the dark with headlamps, what an adventure. A good physical challenge for the team but perfect technique and perseverance paid off. Can't tell you how many times I have done this climb, it never gets old, and is always a thrill. The view of Mount Everest does not get any better than from that vantage point, no wind and clear cannot be beat. For me to look up at the summit and think of all the time and effort I have spent over the years on that beast, brings me so much emotion it is hard to convey. The connection you make after you summit Mount Everest is a bond forever. I take pride in sharing what I have learned through my 15 expeditions over here with every team. I felt the mountain helping me, while also keeping tabs. Base Camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Thank you for telling about your climb to the summit of Kala Patar…it sounds like something I would like to summit for the awesome view of Mt. Everest. I’m adding it to my list of things to do when I do my EBC trek…as long as it’s not a technical climb.
Posted by: Lynn Via on 3/31/2013 at 7:36 pm
Mt. Everest will be forever blessed now that you have flown the Notre Dame Leprechaun and McMunn’s flags, as you promised. So proud of you, Billy.
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
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Great hearing about the venture. Good luck. Looking forward to photos and hearing about your ventures. Be safe. ABQ Uptown #985
Posted by: Rachael C. Lujan on 4/2/2013 at 9:43 am
I look forward to reading and looking at photos of your amazing adventure. Good luck team. “Mayor” Tucker is a great title. I can just see Mark holding a “town” meeting and getting the good citizens of basecamp rolling.
Posted by: Stephani on 4/1/2013 at 11:57 am
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