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Mountain Madness

Everest Base Camp Trekkers Winston Ho and Richard Kelliher Report From Dingboche!

Today, April 5th, we trekked from Teng­boche to Ding­boche at 14,500 ft. We crossed the tree line so no more forests, just low lying shrubs. And this town is the high­est per­ma­nent vil­lage (in the world?). After this point there are only sea­son­al­ly vil­lages cater­ing to climbers and trekkers. As usu­al, the scenery was super nice. It was the first day that we felt like we reached the moun­tains, as we are sur­round­ed by snow cov­ered peaks on all sides. The sky was clear and we had a nice breeze to keep us cool.

In the morn­ing we vis­it­ed a Bud­dhist nun­nery where a nun has been in med­i­ta­tion for the past 40 years. And at such nun­nery, we saw our first cat as well as a dog we named Scout.

Our lunch con­sist­ed of the stan­dard fare, gar­lic soup, and pas­ta with toma­to sauce, fried rice, and noo­dles. Richard, as usu­al, over-ordered. We also met an out­go­ing French Cana­di­an pro­fes­sor who is mak­ing a doc­u­men­tary on Ever­est climbers. We may be inter­viewed by her fur­ther up!

Every­day you are here you come to appre­ci­ate some­thing new about liv­ing in mod­ern civ­i­liza­tion. Today, it is ramen noo­dles. Dish­es here in the Khum­bu Val­ley are approx­i­ma­tions of the orig­i­nal, some clos­er than oth­ers. We dis­cov­ered Rarar and Wai Wai ramen noo­dles, the dif­fer­ence between them being about $0.30 and the Wai Wai is a bit tasti­er. These noo­dles are actu­al­ly very close to what we have back home. Even the health nuts in our group could not resist the temptation.

Peace.

Win­ston Ho

Every­one’s excit­ed by the first views of Everest!

Hap­py trekkers tak­ing a break

Mak­ing way for yaks on the trail…beautiful view of Ama Dablam!

We awoke the morn­ing of April 4th in Nam­che Bazaar after yesterday’s chal­lenges of ​“warm” show­ers, in-room baths, and coconut mac­a­roons at the bak­ery across from the Piz­za Hut. Hav­ing had our deep tis­sue mas­sages from Thubean, a Tibetan herbal Doc­tor, we were ready to head out for Tengboche. 

Our route fol­lowed the Dud­ha Kosi Riv­er up to a point where we saw our first mag­nif­i­cent view of Sagar­martha (Ever­est). We con­tin­ued on through Rhodo­den­drum and Birch forests to Kan­go­ma. It was here that we met and made friends with ​“Hen­ry” the Yak. We learned that if you want to make friends with a Yak it helps to have a buck­et of pota­toes that you’re will­ing to ​“share”. We also learned that Henry’s own­er is an avid Oba­ma supporter. 

From there it was uphill to Teng­boche. Arriv­ing at Teng­boche there were two build­ings that our group noticed imme­di­ate­ly — the Teng­boche Monastery and the Teng­boche Bak­ery. Guess where we went first? At the bak­ery we enjoyed two types of choco­late cake along with choco­late brown­ies accom­pa­nied by hot choco­late and brewed cof­fee. We then attend­ed a dai­ly wor­ship cer­e­mo­ny at the Monastery with the Bud­dhist monks. The chant­i­ng was very calm­ing and for me at least sleep induc­ing (no I did not snore). 

Now it’s just before sup­per and we are sit­ting around chat­ting, read­ing and dis­cussing spir­i­tu­al mat­ters. Oh, our dessert orders include Snick­ers and Mars Pie.

We’re look­ing for­ward to anoth­er chal­leng­ing day on our way to Dingboche. 

Hope all our loved ones are doing well at home. We are all healthy and enjoy­ing our mag­nif­i­cent trip. 

Warmest regards,

Richard Kel­li­her