My Socks Could Drop A Yak At 50 Paces.

I'm back from my trek after a grueling 6 day hike from Namche to Jiri followed by a long bus ride back to Kathmandu. I'll start dumping photos tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm off to have the steak that I've been dreaming about nightly for the past week or so.

Sagarmatha, Goddess of the Sky.

I'm back in Namche Bazaar after two weeks hiking up to Everest base camp and the Gokyo valley. Here are a few pictures of Everest from various spots.



I am probably going to walk out to Jiri instead of flying from Lukla so it may be a week or so until I get back to Kathmandu where I'll be able to continue regular posting.

Namche Bazaar

I'm in the large Sherpa town of Namche Bazaar on the Everest Base Camp trekking route. Made it up here this morning after a steep but much shorter than expected walk up from Josale yesterday. The normal first night's stop is Phakding but I got there so early yesterday I continued on to make today easier.

Internet here is too expensive to post much, but here are two photos. The quality of the first one is horrible but wanted to post it anyway because of what it shows.

Off To Lukla

I'll flying to Lukla early tomorrow morning to do the trek to Everest Base Camp. This trek could take anywhere from 2 to 3+ weeks depending on whether I decide to do the Gokyo Ri valley and/or walk back to Jiri instead of flying. I *may* have internet access during the 2 or 3 times I pass through Namche bazaar but can't promise anything.

No time for a real blog post tonight before I leave, which is too bad because I have a few pictures from Kathmandu that I wanted to post.

Hiking To ABC Part 4: The Path Back

And finally I'm up to the last post of the Annapurna trek.

Day 9: Himalaya Hotel To Sinua

This first picture was actually taken the evening before. Shortly after I got to Himalaya the clouds rolled in and stayed for the evening. Unfortunately this became a pattern that continued for 3 of the last four days of the trip.



Sinua is the town on the far side of the "final" valley from Chomrong. I'd liked it when I went through on the way up and thought it would be a nice place to stay instead of Chomrong so this was another short day.




Day 10: Sinua To Landruk

The morning was a hike back down that valley and up to Chomrong. The rest of my trek from this point was following the trail I took up on my first trip in reverse. The first part was a short but very steep descent to Jinu down a hill that I remember well from my first trip.



I'd originally planned to stay in Jinu for the hot springs but didn't want another short day so decided to push on another 3 hours or so to Landruk.




Day 11: Landruk To Pothana

This was another short day to Pothana with one last steep climb in the afternoon. This made for a short day but I didn't want to go all the way back to Pokhara that day and Pothana is a much nicer place to stay than Dhampus. Also, I remember it from my first trip so didn't mind spending my last night there.




Day 12: Pothana To Phedi (And Back To Pokhara)

Finally, my last day was yet another short day with a gentle downhill to the large town of Dhampus.



From Dhampus it is a long steep descent to Phedi where I picked up the bus back to Pokhara. I remember my climb up these stairs from my first trip (my original introduction to hiking in Nepal) and was interested to see if they were as bad as I remember. Turns out that the intervening years did not exaggerate them in my mind and they were pretty much as long and steep as I remember.



Thats finally it for the Annapurna trek posts. I have some pictures from Kathmandu that I hope to post tomorrow. After that I plan to fly up to Lukla on Monday to do another trek to Everest Base Camp.

Hiking To ABC Part 3: The Base Camps

This post picks up where the last one left off with my arrival at MBC.

Day 6 (cont): MBC

Not much to say about this day since I already covered the walk up in the last post. Here are the pictures I took at MBC that evening. The lodge I stayed in, although different from my first trip, was definitely on the same spot and I recognized the area well although it was no longer covered with snow.




Day 7: Christmas Eve at ABC

I took my time getting going in the morning since I only had a short 2 hour walk up to ABC. Last time I did this walk I remember having to walk up in the snow and it being a long slow trudge however this time it was an easy walk up the path to ABC. Being somewhat acclimatized from Tibet, and not being sick this time, also helped make this a much less strenuous hike than the first time.



Once I got up to ABC I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at my lodge and walking around base camp. ABC was one of those places on the trip that I had thought I'd forgotten but remembered as soon as I got there. Although I have no pictures from my first trip as soon as I got up into the sanctuary the view of the surrounding ring of mountains was very familiar.




Day 8: Leaving The Sanctuary

I had originally planned to spend Christmas day at ABC but with the short walk the day before I decided to start the walk back instead. Also, although ABC wasn't as cold as I was prepared for, it did get cold early as the sun went down behind Hiunchuli around 2 PM in the afternoon. Although the next few days are just retracing my steps back to Chomrong I still managed to take a few pictures on the way back.



This is a good place to end this post. I'll continue from Himalaya Hotel tomorrow or the day after.