Tomorrow I begin my second trek of the season, my 20th trip to Everest Base Camp. This year, the mountains are no less spectacular than when I first saw them, but I am bereft of new description. The extreme geography is comfortingly familiar, the dirt trails well-worn...
More than 1000 guides nominated worldwide. Only 1 winner. Me? Me. #1 in the Wanderlust World Guide Awards!! Many thanks to Mark and the team at Mountain Madness in Seattle; to Kili, Sagar, Dawa and the team in Nepal; and to my clients who, in addition to saying...
Wow. WOW!!! I am thrilled to tell you that I am going to London as one of the top 3 finalists for the Wanderlust World Guide Award!!! I am honored and humbled by the outpouring of support from so many of my clients, who wrote testimonials about why they thought...
After a few days R&R in Kathmandu, it's time to turn around and do it all over again...the stiff climbs, the steep descents, the landscape turning from lush to stark, the stars extra crisp in the sky with less intervening atmosphere. We meet Lama...
Back in Kathmandu, the once medieval city now offers us every amenity: soft beds, hot showers, pizza & salads, shopping, drinking… We roam and relax and enjoy some wine and a delicious meal before everyone flies home! Over 17 days in Nepal, it feels...
Days 10 & 11 see us losing altitude rapidly. What took us 5 days to ascend takes us 2 to descend. It's a relief to be down below 14,000 feet, where our lungs suddenly feel FULL with air, where trees grow, villages dot the landscape, our bodies feel...
Day 8 the world turns to a moonscape. We cross the Tsang-ri glacier up and down and up and down over the rocks into Gorak Shep (place of the dead crow). Aptly named, there's not much to sustain life up here. It's an extreme world of rock and ice--and trekking...
On Day 6, the sun returns, and it elicits easy smiles despite the heavy breathing on our acclimatization hike. We string prayer flags over Dingboche and climb to 15,800 feet just for the views (and the oxygen adjustment). Day 7 pushes us higher to Lobuche, where the...
Day 5: Meeting with Lama Geshe always brightens my heart, and my trekkers were so moved by his blessing and his warmth that they were crying. This 80+ year old Tibetan lama chants over us, instructs us in mantras, blesses our prayer flags before we hang...
On Day 4, we walked out of Tengboche Monastery after the monks finished chanting prayers to find snow starting to swirl around us. Finished with our hiking for the day, we retreated to the warm comfort of our lodge, complete with iron stove and yak dung fire inside....
Maybe it was the blessing we received from the Hindu ascetics during our day of sightseeing in Kathmandu, but whatever the reason, luck was with us even when the weather wasn't. After rising at 4am to catch the first flight to Lukla for our trek to...
A few more of my favorite faces from Tsum Valley...