I’m sitting in a cyber cafe in Namche Bazar, capital of the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal and the center of Sherpa culture. The culture that I can see, however, is lodges, shops, internet cafes, bakeries, and all the other trappings of western society. These people are very, very smart.
We flew to Lukla on Tuesday, March 31. The airstrip is now paved, though it’s like landing on an aircraft carrier with the deck pitched upwards at 30 degrees and with a rock wall at the end. Quite sporty, and lots of air traffic to boot.
There are jillions of trekkers/climbers, and there are about twice as many in October! I won’t whine about crowds, though, as I knew what to expect. But it is a bit like rush hour (though you usually don’t dodge yaks at home). We’ve walked two days and did a rest day today (which involved gaining 300m and getting our first view of the Big E).
There are four of us westerners traveling with two Sherpas. They handle all the logistics. Our biggest job is deciding what to order at meals, since we eat in lodges and not in a trekking kitchen.
We are scheduled to arrive in Base Camp on April 8. You likely won’t here from me until then. Oh, and if you check Explorer’s Web, you find out that I’m the Base Camp manager for Phil’s team. Feel free to email them to correct their mistake. I haven’t given them permission to use my stuff, so the error might be understandable.