November 7 - Trekking in the Khumbu

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It’s the 7th of November and I’m calling you from the village of Khunde at 12,500ft (3809m).  We went out to Thame yesterday, this Ama Dablam climbing team is following the standard Berg Adventures trek in the Khumbu because it’s full of so many great places to visit, so much adventure and old friends and of course as it goes on we are acclimatizing.

We did see the Rinpoche at Thame this morning as we usually do when we’re in Thame and received blessings from him and later we all relaxed and went down to his house and just visited.  A wonderful man, I’ve know him for years and years and it’s always great to spend time with him before an expedition and such a rewarding time.

We also saw very good old friends; you know that Thame is home to many of the greatest climbing Sherpas.  We saw Apa who I personally have been on the summit of Everest 3 times with.  He, as you probably know, has more successful Everest summits than any other Sherpa at 14.

His brother Arita had been on our 2003 Berg Adventures Everest expedition, so we stopped by and saw those guys.  The entire team enjoyed getting to meet them. 

And then with beautiful, clear skies overhead we relaxed and walked around Thame for awhile and now we’ve trekked to Khunde.  Tomorrow we are going to visit another famous monastery, the Pangboche Monastery.   We are slowly working our way to our goal, Ama Dablam.  It looms above us sometimes, you can see it above Namche and I’m sure as we trek tomorrow we’ll continue to marvel at what a beautiful peak it is.

It’s our goal for the season, but in the meantime we are having wonderful experiences with Sherpa people in these mountains as we become acclimatized and our legs strengthen as we get ready to climb Ama Dablam.