On the way to Everest Base Camp, we always pass through a beautiful rhododendron forest where Buddhist nuns have taken refuge from the instability in Tibet. About 14 nuns live in a small community in the forest. Many of them speak only Tibetan, having crossed...
Video: Helicopter Take-Off http://youtu.be/sr4vm_tKr18 Helicopters come and go overhead each day, mostly for emergency evacuations. We happened to catch this one simply ferrying people back to Kathmandu. Ama Dablam in the background and a beautiful view towards...
Video: Everest View Hotel: First View Up The Valley http://youtu.be/1iDaLqsmcA8 After 13 treks to Everest Base Camp, one might suspect it has lost some appeal. Not so. The swathe of snow-capped mountains rearing up and surrounding us over the course of...
Distortion Pedals At 17,575 feet, Everest Base Camp is perhaps the Himalayas' most transitory town. The conditions are inhospitable even during summit season, which has the best weather of the year. Below freezing temperatures, wind, snow, and not a green shrub...
Lukla airport is the gateway to the Everest region. Considered one of the most dangerous airstrips in the world, it is situated at about 9,200ft (2800m) and is accessible only to twin otters using visual flight rules (not radar). As many as 50 flights per day arrive...
Sometimes being an Everest Base Camp guide is like this: Happy and excited trekkers listening to me weave stories of Nepali history and culture as we walk through our days---yoga and stretching in the sunshine of an alpine valley with only the sound of wind and...
We all relish the comforts of civilization, but everyone does R&R in their own way. A final day in Kathmandu...for shopping the dazzling array of wares in absurdly small stores packed with all they can hold...for gazing up at 17th century pagoda temples stretching...
On the final night we have a big Nepali dinner all together: rice, lentils, vegetables, chicken curry. Our Nepali staff sing traditional songs, feed us local moonshine, and then send us out on an early morning flight to Kathmandu. Both Nepalis and clients are moved as...
Retracing our steps.... Down to Debuche where I sit and meditate in the quiet nunnery. Down to Namche and the feeling of towns and people. Down to Lukla in a long day of hiking where we celebrate the end of our trek.
Heading up a trip means not only caring for 8-18 clients but also keeping an eye on 15-80 Nepali staff. At lunch I looked over to see Mani, one of our wonderful sherpa client escorts, scratching his stomach. Then I saw him do it again...and something looked wrong to...
Today, it's on a patio--and we welcome the sunny warmth back in a land of vegetation and village homes. U.s. Marine Corps
Pangboche is home to a 600-year-old monastery (the first in the Khumbu Valley). Built around a rock where a famous lama once meditated, the dim interior is filled with old statues, crumbling relics, wrathful deities behind locked doors, and the exaggerated faces of...