During ISKL's Spring Break (3/27 - 4/6), Nancy and I were joined by good friends Jim and Sara Orvick from Wisconsin
for a flight to Kathmandu with 21 other ISKL-ers -- a very congenial group of students & adults -- for eight days of trekking in the Mt. Everest region (Everest pictured above & is the highest "bump" to the left in the pix below). We hiked 40-50 miles over the 8-day span assisted by porters (who cooked for us) and yaks who carried most of our gear.
One of Nancy's least exciting moments (pictured in yellow rain poncho) was crossing long suspension bridges over deep river gorges with yaks before-and-behind! (Pure-bred yaks have long hair which is suited for the cold at high altitudes, but most yaks are a cross with Holstein cattle and look more like a normal steer.)
During the eight days we encountered every kind of weather -- beautiful clear skies, as well as clouds and fog, rain, hail, sleet, and snow! Rustic "tea houses" provided our overnight accommodations, usually with twin beds and a toilet outside the room --sometimes a flush toilet; on one occasion an outhouse that you had to stumble to in the middle of the night! Food was almost entirely vegetarian, but very good. Nancy, Sara and Jim experienced symptoms of altitude sickness on more than one day; I attributed my health to the tried-and-true practice of drinking coca tea every day -- a practice we learned some years back while trekking in the Peruvian Andes.
The picture below was taken of Jim Orvick, Horst Richardson and myself on the second-to-last day of our trekking when we did a day-hike to a high viewpoint, only to discover that clouds had mostly blocked the spectacular view! Of special significance is the fact that the three of us were the oldest members of the ISKL group with ages that totalled 204! Even old men can do it!
More pictures and commentary will be forthcoming in the next few days! (By the way, it was not uncommon to see Sherpa porters like the one pictured above carrying huge loads like the 7 8-10' 4x4s.) - rw
2 comments:
wow, what was he building up there? those yaks look like cows. gorgeous pix though.... wow.
oh, you added that picture, of you old men. that's a lovely pix.
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