Namche ta Namche- comin full circle...

Howdy Y'all! Back in Namche, Made it full circle thru tha Khumbu- 15 days or so worth of trekking and scrambling in the high mountains. left namche for thame, along w. my friends Hank and Nicolae. we spent several days working our way up from 3500m, acclimatizing ourselves for the crossing of Renjo La,the first of 3 5000M+ passes along our route. in total, we spent 10-12 days straight above treeline, in the land of snow and ice, seeing some incredibly stark yet beautiful mountainscapes..

the first pass took us from thame valley, over the renjo la to gokyo, the land of the sacred lakes. took an overnight trip up the ngozumba glacier, camping near the foot of Cho Oyu, an 8000M peak on the nepal/tibet border. isolated, sublime views of everest, nuptse, and the glaciers from this viewpoint. from gokyo,














took an overnight trip up the ngozumba glacier, camping near the foot of Cho Oyu, an 8000M peak on the nepal/tibet border. isolated, sublime views of everest, nuptse, and the glaciers from this viewpoint.

from gokyo, it was over the Cho La, another major mtn pass with some limited glacier travel and more incredible views- coming off the cho la, i took time for one last isolated camp before entering the main artery of lukla-everest base camp travel. in spite of the hundreds of people (and yaks!)following this thoroughfare each day, it is amazing how quickly one can be completely alone, only a few kilometers off the main route.... to paraphrase lew welch-"we spend our entire lives trying not to be run down, but it turns out we need only step aside and the whole machinery goes rolling by, unaware"

Seeing Everest base camp gives one perspective as to immensity of the prospect before the climbers... the camp itself is on the glacier, constantly changing shape, moving at up to a meter per day up on the mountain. all this flux creates the khumbu icefall, an otherworldly specter rock, snow, and gravity defying ice seracs stacked atop one another for hundreds of vertical feet...

Kala Pattar is another destination for many EBC trekkers, and for good reason- this ghostly sillouete of Everest is from atop KP, a climb up thru a few hundred feet of cloud cover found only me and one other soul to revel in this majikal scene...

Crossing the last of the high passes- Kongma La. this route took me from Everest valley to Chhukung, a high village (4800M) at the foot of Lhotse's south face and Ama Dablam- an otherworldy, icy environ.

met up with Henry and Nicolae in Chhukung again, spending a couple of days huddled round the yak dung fire (yep, theres no wood for miles up here and it works really, really well-you just have to watch that initial ignition... it'll blow the potbellied stove door wide open!). after much chia and chocolate, we headed back down to the land of trees, greenery, and (most enjoyably!) O2- ahhhhh...

short sleeve weather down in Phungi Tanga, on the way to namche....

the mtn spiritz whipped up one more surprise for us, just 30 mins or so from namche... couldn't have been a more thrilling way to come back into the "big city" than under a blanket of freshly fallen snow.... thats namch in the haze, below us-

up in namche, white morning...

up in namche now gang.... gotta pretty darn impressive storm last nite, complete w/ lightnin n thunder.. dumped bout 4 inches uv fresh fluffy on us, making tha decision to stay another nite a no brainer (the chance to connect via skype n email, plus the heavenly yak cheese pizzas at the everest bakery had me leanin pretty heavily that way already). ;-)





i've met up w/ some cool catz from seattle and germany, henry and nicolae', n we've enjoyed gorgin on the good food and takin in the strange vibe that is namche bazaar together... (think jetsetters from all over the planet, just fresh off the plane from lukla (via katmandu), here to "see everest", live big, and not really soak in the cultural beauty uv nepal... this combined w/ really loud western muzic, spectacular himalayan views, and pricez 10 x what one finds in rural trekking areas are the norm.... it is aptly named- Bazaar indeed! :-) nonethalezz, i'll gorge on more pizza a fresh baked goodz today, do some people watchin, and head up twd gokyo, via renjo pass tamara...
probably won't see another soul up there for a few days, balancing it all out.












till when-bistare janu ramroho.... (it is good to go slowly)....especially at 5000M! ;-)

Jiri ta Lukla, tha hard way...

lukla, gateway to mt everest region....just walked in yesterday, starting in shivalaya (home of shiva... he wasn't in that day...;-) )

it was a grinding path at times, cutting across some incredibly rugged, steep, n deep valleys on the way here (most of the rivers run north/ south from the himalaya twd the terai flatlands, this approach route runs east/west)... took 5 days to walk in, some 9000 meters of vertical gain (and loss), more than the height of everest, and i havent even started the "proper" everest hike!
it is incredibly beautiful up here, and peaceful as well (save for all the air traffic noize coming from the constant stream of planes from kathmandu...) most folks fly up here; it takes 30 minutes....
starting today for namche bazaar, the next stop along the route, then on to the high passes trek, crossing 3 passes above 5000 meteres in route to gokyo, everest base camp, and possibly climbing island peak (6000m+), if i can find a group to go with.






be up here for at least 24 more days, and possibly as much as 45 more, if hiking out to tumlingtar and makalu base camp... much warmer now than in feb, and stoked to be back in the mtz!
keep yall posted as i can, internet is rare and they're damned proud uv it!

Lookin back...

So, this might get a lil' confusing, from a chronological perspective, since tha last blog post covered events from just yesterday....but, however, comma, ;-) there are so many great pics from the journey down to kathmandu, from Langtang valley ( almost a month ago now?!?), that just beg ta be posted... humor me, your humble blogger, if ya will....

surreal views of the langtang himal w/ kyanjin gompa in the foreground.... yep it really does look that surreal.. 'n they make a mean slab o yak cheese up here too!

the view from camp, the first night outta langtang valley.... just above Thulo Syabru.

Sunset views over Gosakunda lakes... a high altitude series of natural reserviors, set at about 4000m, and sacred pilgrimage site for hindus and buddhists from nepal and india. many saddhus walk! here from as far away as south india, several thousand kilometers away...

my buddy voytek, whom i met briefly in syabru, after the trip down from langtang... we crossed paths again in Gosakunda, and, after getting separated by an afternoon snow squall on the way down from the pass, both took a wrong turn, adding several days, and a ton of great memories to our trip back to Kathmandu. thanks for all the awesome timez, Brotha!

this pic is from the top of Ama Yangri, a sacred peak above the Yangri valley, believed to be the guardian spirit of this region... either way, the views were incomparable!

Check out these lil heartbreakers. they were in our lodge at Tarke Ghyang, at the head of Yangri valley. a local community leader, and lama at the monastery there told us about the education plight of children in this area... many parents cannot afford to send them to school, so the kids are faced with few prospects for learning and many never get a formal education... starting manual labor from an early age... the lucky ones come from families with the financial means to send them to school (private, english boarding schools are quite common, and much preferrable to the government education), or obtain financial sponsorship from tourists. The amazing part: for $300 US, per year, these lil guys can get room, food, and education at a good school, in the same region as their village. If any one is interested in helping out, drop me an email at mtbglen@yahoo.com and i can put you in contact with some folks that know the best way to help.

morning assembly at an english boarding school near Tarke Ghyang... voytek and i stumbled upon this place and learned much about the difficulities, and joys that the children and teachers face in their daily routines.

thats all for now folks, cafe is closing up. next time we'll get ya down to kathmandu, round ta see some sights, and on a wild cross country bus trip to Bardia np to round up some rhinos n elephants w/ Radek and i -

peace-