Ama Dablam first view

We hiked about 1100 feet higher above Namche Bazar, to get views of the town, then our first view of Ama Dablam and Mt Everest. I didn't sleep much because of stomach cramps and when we came down I went straight to bed. The views of the mountains were glorious, I just hope I can get out of bed tomorrow.

Monastery in Tengbuche

Rhododendron forest, monastery in Tengbuche

Walking to Namche

The walk is incredibly interesting, past tiny settlements, little lodges, waterfalls, across chasms, and always a huge mountain in the distance. We need to gain altitude today, to Namche Bazar, which is about 11000 feet. I am just glad to be moving, to out of Kathmandu, and to be hiking up. We pass many trekkers, long lines of horses, yaks, and the porters going in both directions. Also children, some dressed in school uniforms, wonderful faces. After a long climb we come into Namche, built entirely on the side of a mountain, and are shown to our little cabins.

Walking in the Himalayas

We walked the rest of the day, but slowly for the sea level people to acclimatize, past many Buddhist prayer wheels and rock tablet shines. I asked Nima, our sherpa guide, and Mark and Mark's personal sherpa for the climb, what they all meant. I decided they were Buddhist prayers and poems for good luck, suggestions for the right way to live, and pointers toward enlightenment. The mountains are immense, reminding me of Peru, except when one of the real 6,000 meter peaks come into view, which dwarf what you thought were mountains. We walk by a river with turquoise glacier water, young boys and older men carry huge loads on ther backs, everything here must be carried in, there are no cars, no roads, only this amazing rock trail. We stop for lunch, where they serve ginger lemon tea, the best thing I have tasted all day. In normal life I rarely have a real lunch, and now I have long social lunches every day. We stop at the tea lodge where we have little cabins, next to the lovely river. Mark and I are very happy that Sima is our Sherpa, he has climbed Everest twice, Ama dablam and many of the other peaks in the area. He also knows the names of each mountain.

Flight to Lukla

Left for airport at 5:00 am, on the small aging airplane the nicely uniformed flight attendant brought bottled water for the pilot and offered ginger honey candy and cotton for the ears of passengers. The plane flew very low through mountains and landed, blam into the very short runway which angled up about 30 degrees, in Lukla, about 9000 feet. We waited around the airport for a few hours, getting the porters set up, then started walking. There are no cars here.

last dinner Kathmandu

Ang tshering talking to Chris

 last dinner in Kathmandu, with the Nepalese trekking people, discussing, what else, climbing strategies for Ama Dablam and other Himalyan mountains. I spent the most of the day recording the dogs and children, and figuring out how much all this gear weighs, but I really could not part with any of it. But we can only take 15 kg with us on the trek to base camp. 

repacking and reweighing, 45 kg, total weight

Sima, our sherpa talking to Mark

the climbers

Maryl

Jung-Taek Yoon

Elizabeth Hawley

walking to Asian Trekking

Mark

 A typical day in kathmandu, wake up around 5, wonder where you are, then realize that you are in a room surrounded by a mountain of gear, laid out on the floor, the beds, but were too tired to sort last night, at 7, go to yoga, namaste is the greeting for everything, except at the end of yoga. Then there is breakfast, which consists of hot chocolate and eggs, where we discuss once again, climbing strategies and tell climbing stories.  Today Cam recounted breaking his ankle a few months ago.  This takes quite a long time.  Yesterday, we had a meeting with Elizabeth Hawley, a famous documentarian of Himalayan climbs, who knows all the mountains, has met the great climbers, but does not climb them herself. She said, be sure to enjoy yourself, what does it really matter if you get to the top...That was followed by a long meeting with the Asian trekking company, who discussed our weight limits. They are the ones who will accompany us to base camp.   Mark and I are so overweighted with everything we decided we would need that we are not even close to the weight limits (35 kg)...we will be sorting all day to figure out exactly who has the most. Then we talk about climbing strategies some more and discuss other mountains. I will introduce some of the team here.

Chris

breakfast

Camilo