Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch
April 29, 2010 – A Visit with Lama Geshe and Our Trek to Pheriche
This is Leila Silveira reporting from Pheriche. Yesterday was a full day; we had our usual wakeup call at 7 am with tea in bed, 8 am breakfast and by 9 am the team was off to visit Lama Geshe in upper Pangboche. They were all ready with their kata and prayer flags.
The visit went really well, and everyone was really impressed with Lama Geshe. They all came back to the lodge with a little string tied to their neck as well as a kata and a card telling the story of Everest with their name written on it in Tibetan.
Wally Berg has come down from base camp to join us in Pangboche and Pheriche. He brought a lot of news and updates from Everest Base Camp; the climbing team had already been to camp 3 and was now back down in camp 2. As we get higher, we start getting a lot of entertaining updates from Everest Base camp, such as the "full moon" party they had planned for last night. It sounds like everyone is doing great up there. We are really enjoying having Wally around. Today he is going down to Pangboche to meet our other trekking team and might join us again tomorrow at Lobuche or Gorak Shep.
We had lunch in Pangboche and right afterwards we started our hike to Pheriche, which was a steady uphill. The trails are quite empty, either due to the fact that spring is a slower hiking season or perhaps that the volcanic ash is still causing problems with Europeans flights to Kathmandu.
We arrived in Pheriche in great time just before it started to snow. We all are having a great time, everyone is extremely healthy and we are joking around nonstop. Kerri's imitation of Horatio from CSI Miami always gets us laughing. She seems to know all of his most famous lines, and does a great impression of him and the dramatic way that he takes off his sunglasses.
Everest Base camp is getting closer and we are all noticing the weather changes as it gets cooler and is beginning to snow. Down jackets are at the ready and we are making sure to keep our water bottles inside our sleeping bags at night!