The Himalayas are fantastic. Truly the most spectacular mountains I've seen. I guess that is probably no surprise, but they beat my expectations.

I flew into kathmandu a few weeks ago and met my guide/porter, Kancha ( sounds like Can Cha, as with all of my updates, please overlook spelling on places and names ) from Above the Clouds Trekking ( the Nepal based one ). Great guys. We flew out the next day to Lukla. That flight was one to remember. You land on a short, I mean really short, runway which actually tilts uphill . . . dramatically. As you fly in you have this sense of being underwater because the moutains are so close and rise way above you. Then you see this crazy runway and you think, "We are landing on that?!" Quite the thrill.

From there, it was two weeks of trekking. Each day we had a view of a different and famous Himalayan peak. We saw Thamserku, Ama Dablam, Makalu, Lhotse, Nuptse, Pamori, Choletse, Cho Oyo, and of course Everest, plus many, many more. We also did the popular attractions such as Gokyo Ri, Kalapatthar, Cho La Pass, and Everest Base Camp. Two were vantage points of Everest and we had clear views. The route was a circuit which took us through 5 valleys and towns such as Namche Bazar, Gokyo, Lobuche, and Penboche to name a few.

The first two days are spent hiking up a river valley with pine, rhodadendrum, and suspended bridges. After Namche, you round a corner and BAM!, an unreal panorama of Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Everest, and Nuptsue ridge from right to left. From then on, each day is dominated by a view of each mountain or a very different perspective of the same mountain. First a full frontal view of Ama Dablam, then from your back, Thamserku appears fuller and fuller, and
then Cho Oyo is right in front of you. We climbed Gokyo Ri next and had wonderful views of Everest and the surrounding mountains as well as the Cho Oyo glacier. It had snowed the night before so it was a winter wonderland.

In the middle of the trek, we made it to Everest Base Camp. They camp right on a glacier so camp is re-erected each year. It is at the base of the famous Khumbu Ice Fall. You see the young guns, the Sherpas, coming off the ice fall in the afternoon. They look like tiny, tiny ants. We walked around the camp and had lunch at two of them. My guide knew a few of the cooks. These camps are well run machines. The climbers have a whole army behind them. The cooks drink lots of Everest Whiskey. I think it gets a little boring in Base Camp. The next day was the big finale, the hike up to 18,000 foot Kalapatthar for the sunrise view of Everest. What a view. Everest really is quite impressive to view. The biggest mountain in the whole world could have been just a little bigger than the surrounding mountains or inconspicuous. Not Everest. It stands there as if to say, "Yes, I am the biggest mountain in the world. Any questions?!"

There were many sights along the way. Many, many sherpas carrying loads and wearing horrible shoes, even thongs. They have these great walking sticks that double as seats. They will quickly stop in the trail and put the Y shaped sticks under their bums. Also, lots of Yak trains. Yaks were in every stop as well. In Gokyo, I had to circumnavigate them at night ( also in the snow, they just lay there covered in snow ) when going to the outhouse. Yes, outhouses . . . that is a whole other topic which would take pages to fully describe. The rhodadendrums were also great. Tons of them, red, pink, and white mixed in with the pine. From a distance, the dark red looked like Captain Crunch Crunch Berries. The view was making me hungry.

The guest houses or tea houses were nice for the most part. You eat lots of potatoes, rice, and fried eggs. You drink lots of milk tea. No fruit, veggies, or meat. They were built from plywood mostly ( plywood palaces I call them ) and each had a small dining area with a metal stove. Yak shit went into the stove and that was the heating. I met a ton of really cool people at these tea houses. I keep running into them again here in Kathmandu.

It is a magical world up there. The mountains are so magnificent. Too many other sights and sounds to describe. You'll have to come up here yourself. Off to Tibet tomorrow!