May 5, 2013 - The Orphanage

Saying good-bye to the children Our time at the orphanage has sadly come to an end and we are now back at our hotel awaiting the arrival of our friends before we start our trek to Everest Base Camp. Leaving the orphanage was an emotional day. The children wrote letters for us each and Shankar, who runs the orphanage, bought us each a small gift. It was truly a rewarding and fulfilling experience for the four of us; one that we shall never forget. I can honestly say that we have grown to love each and every one of the children and hope to be...

Apr 26, 2013 - We are now in KATHMANDU!!!

Kathmandu We left Australia and after 21 hours of travelling we finally landed in Nepal. We arrived in Kathmandu late at night and got to our hotel around midnight. Leaving the airport is always exciting as you are inundated with taxi drivers, hotel peddlers and pick pockets. Needless to say we were all tired by the time we arrived at the hotel at midnight. We spent the next day walking around Thamel, a district in Kathmandu, showing Sarah and Amy all the exciting sights the area has to offer. I was here in 1991 and this was Glenn’s 9th...

Mar 28, 2013 - Phakding to Monjo

Phakding to Monjo We left the lodge at Phakding at 8:15 after a very full breakfast. Th e trail to Monjo only gained some 800 feet in elevation, but this, shall we say, was misleading. There were considerable ups, but also some considerable downs, elevation that had to retake before we reached Monjo at 10:30. The story was that this was a relatively easy hike. Justin has the same unusual grasp of realism as Martin who is convinced the every hot dog he eats is "the best ever"This was a very difficult hike. As difficult as any I have ever...

Mar 28, 2013 - Fire Marshal MIA

The fire marshall seems to be on vacation The rooms in the lodge have an unusual locking system. Each room is locked with a padlock, and the room key actually just unlocks the padlock. There is a bolt that slides into the door jam to lock the door itself. The door can be semi secured with just the sliding bolt. When the bolt is slid into the door jam, a person on the inside of the room is effectively locked in. At about 2:00 AM Valery reports that she got up to go to the bathroom down the hall, but found that she and Greg were locked in...

Mar 28, 2013 - The road to Phakding

The road to Phakding We hiked until about 1:30 when we reached the Sherpa Farmhouse Lodge in Phakding. I was ready for the hike to end. My knees were talking to me a good bit of the way. The elevation at Phakding is actually a few hundred feet lower than Lukla, but the trail was a series of ups and downs. Almost nothing that was level. The bad news is that I was more than ready for the end today. Tomorrow we will hike a bit farther to Namche Bazaar, but pretty much a continuos up. We will gain some 2600 vertical feet over a course of some 5...

Mar 28, 2013 - Road to Namche road to the sky

Geez. Forget everything I said about the hike to Monjo. It was a walk in the park compared to the hike to Namche. I have never been tested physically as I was this afternoon. On paper it appeared to be tough because we were gaining some 2500 hundred feet over about 5 miles. This, though, was very misleading. It is true that we gained 2500 feet, but what we did not understand was the there were many, many downs which also had to be reclaimed with an up. When we finally reached the base of Namche Hill, we still had some 1880 feet to climb up...

Mar 28, 2013 - Friday plan

It is 5:40AM Friday morning in Namche. Once again, we went to bed very early, and, in my case, I woke up way to early, 4:15AM in a very cold room. I could not see my breath, but it felt like I should have. One advantage is the omni-present water bottle is always cold.. But I am not particularly tired or sore after yesterday's ordeal. I will be interested to see how the rest of the group fares this morning. These seems to be, for obvious reasons, a general fitness distinction between the Trekkers and the Climbers. The Trekkers have another...

Mar 28, 2013 - Lukla to Phakding

Kathmandu to Lukla to Yulning We left the hotel on schedule at 5:00 AM, all of the Kentuckians were on the first flight. The was a short delay at the airport waiting for security and the flight to be called.  It was amazing how quickly things happened when they call our flight. We were loaded on a bus taken to our Twin Otter airplane that seated 20 counting the flight attendant. The aisle was about 8-10 inches across. We were airborne less than 10 minutes after leaving the bus. It was very cloudy but it was a very smooth flight all the way...

Mar 26, 2013 - Wednesday morning 4:00 AM

I can't remember the last time I was dressed and more or less ready to go at 4:00AM, but here I am. And I am not alone. I slept very fitfully, waking again and again thinking I had puts something in the wrong bag. I finally gave it up at 2:55 and went to take shower. The bad news was is that there was no hot water, so the shower was, shall we say, brief. I got downstairs at 3:45 with my bag for the yaks, thinking I was first, and there were no bags in sight. But, when I placed my room key on the desk, there, already sitting there was the...

Mar 26, 2013 - The final countdown

It is now 9:30 Tuesday night and we have just finished our final sorting and backing. There seemed to be more stuff that we would like to take on the trail than we could fit in our duffle and backpack. Everyone had to make some hard choices. But it is finally done Now it is time to take my new drug of choice, melatonin, and try to get to sleep. I am not really sleepy, but 3:45 is 3:45. We had the team dinner tonight and got to spend more time with our team mates and the guides. I feel comfortable with everyone I have met. The second Brit is...

Mar 25, 2013 - Kathmandu

It is now about 6:00AM Tuesday morning in Kathmandu. I just awoke after a pretty restful sleep of 8 hours feeling good, not as discombobulated as I feared, though the immediate reason for my awakening was a cramp in my left calf that was demanding I get out of bed and walk t off. The four hour flight from Doha to Kathmandu yesterday was unremarkable but for four thoughts. One, as we traveled east from Doha we crossed the southern edges of Iran, Pakistan, and India. (I had a window seat this leg on the left side of the plane). The terrain...

Mar 25, 2013 - More from kathmandu

I have, I hope, successfully uploaded three photos to the journal. The first should be of the five Kentuckians. The second should be a shot of the hotel lobby; and the third should be a view from the hotel rooftop where we held the team meeting this morning. The meeting was at 9:00 and was run by Justin and Greg. Justin is sort of the head of our portion of the IMG presence. Greg seems to be the the primary logistician for the entire IMG effort. Our little group, which leaves for the mountain in the morning, is just one of three IMG groups...