Everest/Lhotse 2016: Arrival at Base Camp
I walked by Gorak Shep, the last and highest of the Sherpa villages, on the way to Everest Base Camp (EBC). The climber and trekker traffic has picked up considerably. The walk to EBC follows a narrow dirt path along the top edge of the age-old moraine dug out by the Khumbu Glacier. Yak trains […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: The Other Side of the Mountain
Every mountain has two sides, or more 🙂 As we took an “active rest day” at nearly 14, 500 feet in the village of Dingboche, we took a walk and were rewarded with seldom seen sides of two famous peaks: Lhotse and Ama Dablam. We ran into a few climbers on their way back from […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: Living in the Moment
Sometimes you have to look behind you to appreciate where you have come from before you go on in order to live in the moment. As we left the Rivendale Lodge at Deboche, we walked thru the last vestiges of the pine forests knowing it would be weeks until, as Anatoli Broukreev said, “touch grass […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: A Beautiful Day Trekking in the Khumbu
Another beautiful day in the Khumbu. After a few days of low clouds and a bit of rain, today was absolutely perfect. We were rewarded with stunning views of Ama Dablam, Lhotse, the Nuptse ridge and, of course, Everest. Once again, I was struck by the lack of traffic on the trail. I only saw […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: A Day around Namche
We went to the Everest View Hotel and were rewarded with a nice view of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam between the clouds, then to Khumjung for a visit to the Sir Edmund Hillary school where the boys were playing football in the fog. Plus some yaks decided to break free! 🙂 News: Weather has been unusually […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: Khumbu Echoes
The alarm went off at 5 am this morning; I was already awake. I looked over at my trekking pack next to my hiking shoes, my red jacket draped on the back of a hotel chair. In a few hours, I would be back in the Khumbu on my way to Everest Base Camp and […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: Signs of a Quieter Season.
I arrived in Nepal and immediately felt something was different. The normal crazy drive from the airport to the hotel was, well, almost relaxing. Traffic was reasonable, drivers almost polite … Kathmandu has changed. In speaking with guides and other climbers, there is a sense of calm anxiety about this year’s Everest season. Perhaps it is […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: Preparing to Leave
How many times have I written that headline for myself, and for so many others? Its the end of March and climbers from around the world are on airplanes flying to Kathmandu in hopes of reaching a long sought after goal. For many,  too many, it is deja vu – all over again. Excellent Kathmandu based reporter Rajan […]
Everest/Lhotse 2016: I’m Returning to Nepal and to Climb Lhotse … again
So many reasons to stop and only a few to keep going … – The devastating earthquake in Nepal on April 25,  2015 took 9, 000 lives and destroyed millions of homes plus created havoc in Nepal’s tourism industry. It would be easy to stop going to Nepal … – Only 1 of 244 compounds in 413 Alzheimer’s […]