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-