Blogs from Namche, Nepal, Asia - page 2

We rose early, keen to smash the climb to Namche Bazaar in the face. It would be our first taste of altitude, and a real test of our extensive training! We trekked from Josale, at about 2800m, to 3400m in just a few painful hours - oh the relief to come around the side of the mountain and see Namche nestled on the hill side! We were advised to stay awake for the afternoon (not an easy feat), so we found a bar showing a doco on the 50th anniversary of scaling Mt Everest - hard to believe Ed Hillary and Tenzin Norgay could accomplish such a climb with basic equipment and no path to follow! Nowadays climbers still spend a minimum of 2 months acclimatising from Base Camp up and down the mountain to Camp ... read more

namaste am welt-frauen-tag (der hier natürlich nicht gefeiert wird, zumal frauen hier einfach nicht sehr viel wert sind… wie so oft!). nach einer eher unerquicklichen nacht - uns war zwar dank super-genialen inlays überhaupt nicht kalt, aber ich habe ordentlich zu schnupfen begonnen, den markus mit meinem schnarchen wach gehalten und eine ständige atemnot hat uns beide zermürbt und das schlafpensum empfindlich verringert. nach dem frühstück geht es im rahmen unseres akklimatisierungstages, ganz nach dem motto der höhenmediziner “climb high - sleep low”, 440 höhenmeter zum everest view hotel und über khunjung zurück nach namche bazar. so hat es unser guide erklärt. in wirklichkeit war es viiiel anstrengender! nach kurzem anstieg erreichen wir also die erste kleine anhöhe mit dem ersten blick auf den mount everest, der von hier gar nicht so groß wirkt, und lhotse, ... read more

:)... read more

April is a season for trekking in Nepal, with wonderful weather, magnificent mountains clearly seen in crystal air, and rhododendrons flowering. A couple of days ago, on our way from Lukla to Namche, we were stopped by a European woman sitting on a rock at the side of the trek. She had some strange expression on her face - I thought, maybe she needed help. But what she needed was way different. She told the leader of our group that we must dress more appropriately – which means long trousers instead of shorts (it was quite hot, we were walking fast - so of course all members of our group were wearing shorts). She asserted that we were insulting local people by wearing shorts and were showing disrespect to Nepali culture. Such things do happen sometimes, ... read more

Today I saw my first view of Everest - fantastic! We are stopping in Namche Bazaar for a second night tonight as today was an acclimatisation day after the big rise in altitude. I have realised that I forget to mention any heights in my previous entry, so here goes: We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla which was at 2880 metres above sea level. On the first day we actually lost height as our first night's stay was at Phakding which is at 2640m. Yesterday we then climbed to Namche Bazaar which is at 3450m. This morning we were woken 5:15 by Tanka, our sirdar, with a cup of tea. This was an encouragement to get up and dressed ready for a short walk at 05:30. We were getting up this early in order to climb ... read more