Five hours until departure from Newark airport. Fourteen hours on a plane before descending on New Delhi, India. The first stop on an open ended travel to the subcontinent and south east Asia.Ill be meeting Jay in Kathmandu, Nepal some time next week.
Im anxious and excited . Jay and I have been planning this little adventure for a few years now. Even as I moved to San Francisco I did so with the understanding that it was a temporary home. Somewhere beautiful and exciting to hunker down and earn my travel fare. During work hours Jay and I excitedly chatted back and forth, listing off potential destinations and longings for how life would be. How we would bust out of our monotonous nine-to-five existence and see the world.
Well, now that time has come. I quit my job on August 12 and left the first place that felt like home to hit the road, literally. Its exhilarating to talk and plan a great adventure, but now that departure is upon me, im kind of alarmed. The goal of this trip is to become comfortable with the unknowns in life. Confident enough to know that whatever arises, Ill be able to handle it. A great writer once said "People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground". Its time to take the plunge!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Down Time
Finally back on the internet again. 2 weeks without a reasonably priced connection! The mountains are a truly unforgiving environment. I have been all over the place the past 14 days... I went to Everest base camp and discussed climbing conditions with an Argentinian guide who has been there ten times, traversed the Cho La Pass where some french people got naked and crossed yet another insanely massive glacier (the Ngozumpa) while viewing collapsing ice shelves and rock slides around me as i walked through the eerily unstable environment. I then spent a couple days at the lakes of Gokyo which were the color but not temperature of the Caribbean, climbed Gokyo Ri to get that classic view of Mt Everest and several other 8,000m peaks, and then walked down yesterday through Gokyo along the Dud Kosi River on one of the most scenic days I've had so far. All this was a combination of the three main treks in the area (Everest Base Camp Trek, the Three Passes Trek, and the Gokyo Trek) and have now finished my custom Khumbu Circuit. The perfect way to see the whole region.
I've met alot of really great people along the way from all over the world and all walks of life. Surprisingly the average age of trekkers around here is around 35-40, (many are even older retired folks and i had the pleasure of having dinner with one 75 yr old from California who made it to just below base camp around 17,000ft). He started hiking in his 50's and has been all over the world now...pretty amazing all you can squeeze into life when you never take a moment for granted.
Its been quite an amazing trek. Now I'm at Namche Bazaar again hanging out for a couple days and using the Namche Laundromat (all your clothes in a tin bucket with soap and water while a Nepali woman stomps on them with her bare feet) before heading back up to attempt to climb one of these monster peaks with a group of people i have yet to meet. Although its at 12,000ft, the air at Namche seems a whole lot thicker than it did when i got here 2 weeks ago and I feel like i can just about blast off and fly out of here like its the Matrix. Just had a hot shower, pringles, and a mars bar, so i am really living the high life right now. Might even treat myself to a sizzling yak steak, but maybe ill save that for after the climb.
Until then I'm going to relax and attempt to make sense of some of the more nonsensical journal entries i jotted down as brilliant ideas while under the influence of thin air the past couple weeks. Be patient for photos, i'm awaiting the arrival of my USB cable when i get back to Kathmandu and have probably over a thousand pictures to sort through. Mostly of Yaks.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Himalayan Dispatch - recap of past week
I am in fact alive and thriving in the mountains. What an adventure it has been the past week! I just completed an 8 day trek through the Solo-Khumbu, which is where you find barely any tourists and experience the "real" nepal. I stayed with familys and ate nepali food with them most of the time. I have been out of touch for a week as these people have no phone, internet, and often no power or hot water.
I have reached Namche Bazaar (12,000ft elevation), the main hub for the tourists entering the Everest area, which is why i am back in contact. It has been 8 days up steep mountain passes of 10-12000 feet and plunging down
into deep valleys across long suspension bridges only to climb another 3-4,000 feet back up. There are no roads in this area as the terrain is too steep to allow road construction.
99% of the thousands of tourists who come to the everest area fly from kathmandu to Lukla and walk to namche in 2 days. They employ a guide and a porter to carry all their gear as most people cannot carry a full backpack up the steep mountains especially getting into higher altitudes. I decided to take the harder route for training and adventure purposes and took a bus to Jiri (which was an adventure in itself sitting on the roof on top of a pile of luggage and boxes of fruit with my feet dangling over the cliffs - my asian sized bus seat was too small for my large white body.
into deep valleys across long suspension bridges only to climb another 3-4,000 feet back up. There are no roads in this area as the terrain is too steep to allow road construction.
99% of the thousands of tourists who come to the everest area fly from kathmandu to Lukla and walk to namche in 2 days. They employ a guide and a porter to carry all their gear as most people cannot carry a full backpack up the steep mountains especially getting into higher altitudes. I decided to take the harder route for training and adventure purposes and took a bus to Jiri (which was an adventure in itself sitting on the roof on top of a pile of luggage and boxes of fruit with my feet dangling over the cliffs - my asian sized bus seat was too small for my large white body.
I trekked through the region where the Sherpa people are from called the Solo Khumbu carrying a 55 pound backpack. It was very difficult at first trekking 8 and sometimes 10 hours a day carrying this weight. I made friends with the only other 2 crazy people along the way (2 Germans from the Bavarian Alps about the same age as me) and trekked with them for the first 5 days during which it rained most of the time and i ended up getting a fever.
I continued trekking growing more ill and weak, barely managing to carry my pack over the passes. Eventually i wore down and had to insist that my friends move on while i take a rest day. I physically could walk no further and needed to recover. The reason i pushed it this far while already sick was because the only place with any medication was still 4 days away in Namche and i had to try my best to get here quickly if my illness got serious. The only way to get here was on my feet. I spent a day recovering in a small town where i drank 10 cups of strong ginger tea, ate several bowls of tibetan noodle soup, and slept for 13 hours. My fever peaked that night and being alone in a remote village curled up in my sleeping bag with no one for miles around that could help me and no way to call/email anyone I had possibly the loneliest night of my life. I kept having dreams of being with my friends only to wake up back in my dark hole with no heat deep in the mountains.
I continued trekking growing more ill and weak, barely managing to carry my pack over the passes. Eventually i wore down and had to insist that my friends move on while i take a rest day. I physically could walk no further and needed to recover. The reason i pushed it this far while already sick was because the only place with any medication was still 4 days away in Namche and i had to try my best to get here quickly if my illness got serious. The only way to get here was on my feet. I spent a day recovering in a small town where i drank 10 cups of strong ginger tea, ate several bowls of tibetan noodle soup, and slept for 13 hours. My fever peaked that night and being alone in a remote village curled up in my sleeping bag with no one for miles around that could help me and no way to call/email anyone I had possibly the loneliest night of my life. I kept having dreams of being with my friends only to wake up back in my dark hole with no heat deep in the mountains.
The next morning i woke up feeling absolutely amazing. Never have i recovered so quickly and strongly from being sick in my life. I had a massive breakfast, drank 2 cups of coffee and literally jogged through the mountains my pack feeling lighter than ever before. I was flying up and down passes as if i woke up with an entirely different set of legs. I felt such an amazing sense of freedom being alone for the first time while trekking and the excitement gave me even more energy. Not to mention being thrilled to be feeling better again. Despite being 4 hours behind, I made
up all the lost time that day. Today i woke up feeling even better, which is good because it was the toughest climb so far. I managed to make the 3,300 foot climb to Namche in 5 hours which was one hour less than average while carrying one of the heaviest backpacks on the trail (besides the Nepali porters of course who carry in excess of 80 pounds). I am taking 2 rest days here to prepare for the high mountains and am feeling as healthy and strong as i have ever felt before. I am really excited to get to the high mountains of the Khumbu. My trek takes me above 17,000 feet and my climb will be to 21,000 ft. The rain has cleared and the biggest peaks in the world are shining impossibly high above me. It will be great weather now as the monsoon is over.
Despite its luxuries of pizza and wifi, Namche is still a small village resting in a notch with 20,000ft peaks looming overhead. There are valleys plunging thousands of feet below these peaks and waterfalls carrying snowmelt the entire way to the river below.. Its an other-worldy place, well the Himalayas are another world altogether.... This may not be my best thought out entry and merely a day to day recap, but internet is very expensive here so i had to be quick. It will be another 2-3 weeks before my next dispatch as im going way up into the mountains now.
Until next time,
Jason Sherpa
up all the lost time that day. Today i woke up feeling even better, which is good because it was the toughest climb so far. I managed to make the 3,300 foot climb to Namche in 5 hours which was one hour less than average while carrying one of the heaviest backpacks on the trail (besides the Nepali porters of course who carry in excess of 80 pounds). I am taking 2 rest days here to prepare for the high mountains and am feeling as healthy and strong as i have ever felt before. I am really excited to get to the high mountains of the Khumbu. My trek takes me above 17,000 feet and my climb will be to 21,000 ft. The rain has cleared and the biggest peaks in the world are shining impossibly high above me. It will be great weather now as the monsoon is over.
Despite its luxuries of pizza and wifi, Namche is still a small village resting in a notch with 20,000ft peaks looming overhead. There are valleys plunging thousands of feet below these peaks and waterfalls carrying snowmelt the entire way to the river below.. Its an other-worldy place, well the Himalayas are another world altogether.... This may not be my best thought out entry and merely a day to day recap, but internet is very expensive here so i had to be quick. It will be another 2-3 weeks before my next dispatch as im going way up into the mountains now.
Until next time,
Jason Sherpa
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