Today was just utterly exhausting. Seven hours of uphill hiking from the small village of Phakding to the much larger village of Namche Bazaar.
Went from an elevation of 8724ft to 11,286ft (for reference, Denver, where athletes go to “altitude train” is 5280 ft). So far, thank goodness, there’s been no altitude problems for any of us. We’re all taking Diamox and making sure to hike *slowly* (I’m the slowest, for sure).
The days are great —busy, hard, full of sunshine. But the nights are cold and long. There’s no central heating anywhere so we stay in the lodge’s (called Tea Houses) main dining room until right before we go to bed. Rooms include two twin beds (plywood frames with a thin mattress that you sleep on in your sleeping bag). Rooms are better than tents but not very warm.
For those of you who said we were crazy for doing this, congrats, by the time we finished our hike today we agreed with you. But I know that tomorrow morning after a good night’s sleep we’ll be in great spirits again. And tomorrow is an acclimation day, so very little hiking.
But even when we get discouraged we can’t forget that today we looked upon Mt Everest with our own eyes. Few in the world can truly claim that.
Our first sighting of Mount Everest!
Our teenage sherpas, Robbie and Not-Robbie (called such because we can’t remember how to pronounce his name)
Namche Bazaar, our home tonight and tomorrow
The route: We're in Namche Bazaar.
