Base Camp Hike Update 4

The Six Pack and the Mountain of Destiny

Click on the photo to go to  for a “Trailer” of our Everest Adventure

We are at Namche Bazaar, two days’ hike into the adventure.

I think the past two days’ hike was as hard as the summit day on Kilimanjaro. Fortunately we were not at almost 20,000 feet like we were on Kili!

Two days of incredible scenery – I think the most beautiful I have EVER seen!

After three days of trying to get from Kathmandu to the mountains we finally hired a helicopter.   After an incredible flight following the Dudh Kosi River all the way from Kuthmandu, dodging mountain tops and seemingly missing cliff sides by inches, we had a very short window in which to get to Surke from Kathmandu.   Surke wasn’t a village; it was a flat piece of dirt carved out of the sheer mountain side.  We were met by Ramesh who is to be our guide for the next two weeks as we hike to Everest.

We hiked 7 1/2 hours that first day, carrying our packs and struggling up incredibly steep mountain sides, and eventually arrived at a sweet little mountain inn run by a lovely Nepalise family in the village of Phakding – pronunced Fakding.  The guys had some fun with that name…

No heating in the rooms, and no blankets – very basic, but welcome after a very difficult hike.

Left early yesterday morning, our second day of the trek, and hiked for almost eight hours (think climb – up-and-down) which almost did us in!  The hike was a brutal climb, mostly up, never-ending, very challenging. We arrived at Namche Bazaar totally exhausted, but exhilarated.  I paid $4.00 for a hot shower – maybe the last in two weeks.

Namche is at 11,340 ft. and an important step in our process of adjusting to the higher altitudes to come. Tomorrow would be an altitude acclimatizing day. We will stay in Namche Bazaar, but take a four hour hike to a higher altitude, and then spend the night here.

I made a short video trailer and uploaded it to 

Day 3 – Everest View Hotel

Today did a wonderful hike up to a fancy hotel built by a Japanese Magnate.  The hotel is called Everest View.  Unfortunately, after an almost 3-hour climb, everything was still fogged in, and we had no view.  We made it back down to Namche Bazaar in about 1 1/2 hours.  Rest of the day we rested and prepared for the severe hiking starting the next day, Day 4.