Author Archives: Encore

9 April – Pheriche, with day hike to Dingboche on the Imja Khola.

Those who’ve looked carefully at pictures of buildings have noted that all are made of well-fit granite blocks. Given no bulldozers here and no apparent block-cutting industry, one is left to wonder how all these buildings came together. I’ve not seen joists, but roof pitch does not look like it would support a great dealContinue reading “9 April – Pheriche, with day hike to Dingboche on the Imja Khola.”

7 April – Tengboche and Debuche

Today was our second hardest hike after the Namche leg, but the day started with a ceremony offered by the mother-son owners of the Panorama Lodge, Migu and Doma. Climbers were blessed first and then we trekkers.We traversed in leisurely fashion from 3440m up the Imja Kohla river on our right well below where weContinue reading “7 April – Tengboche and Debuche”

6 April – Hotel Everest View

Today’s acclimatization hike felt surprisingly good after yesterday. We climbed from 3500m from Namche Bazar to 3880m (just over 12,000ft) over two hours before resting and enjoying lemon tea and snacks. The trail was quite steep for the first 45 minutes, eased a bit to the first high point, and then traversed the rest ofContinue reading “6 April – Hotel Everest View”

5 April – Phakding to Namche Bazar (where bandwidth is awful and dogs bark most of the night! ;)

This hard leg took us up the Dudh Koshi river across several suspension bridges, including the highest of all, past several more villages. Pictures show the place at which we stayed in Phakding, one of oodles of attractive young Nepalese children, through the entrance to the Sagarmatha National Park (Everest is called Sagarmatha – theContinue reading “5 April – Phakding to Namche Bazar (where bandwidth is awful and dogs bark most of the night! ;)”

4 April – Happy Easter! – Lukla to Phakding

Today we flew to Lukla – the most dangerous airport in the world – and enjoyed the surprisingly fast, efficient process of checking in, getting tickets, boarding the aircraft, and taking off. Upon landing, climbers and trekkers (us) enjoyed breakfast together and set off to Phakding with our day packs leaving the heavy lifting toContinue reading “4 April – Happy Easter! – Lukla to Phakding”

2 April – final travel day

2 April – A quiet, uneventful half-day was spent at the Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. Directions to certain things are rather lacking, but there was ample time to wander around. On the home-bound layover, we will try the Stay N Sleep bunk pods. Madisons liked them. The Doha-Kathmandu leg began at 0205am andContinue reading “2 April – final travel day”