May 6, 2007– Snow Up High, Warm Temperatures Below

When we stepped outside of our lodge today in Khumjung we were awed by the amazing sight that we really had no idea we could see having walked into Khumjung in the clouds the afternoon before.  Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam were before us and it was really an amazing sight.

The next two days walk in my opinion is probably the most beautiful mountain walk in the world.  We’ll be going closer to our goal, Everest Base Camp and Ama Dalam will be before us the whole way and the most beautiful mountains in the world are all around.

We enjoyed that scenery every step of the way and we arrived at the Tangboche monastery by 11:30am today.  This monastery is one of the most famous Buddhist monasteries in the world, because of the amazing location of this sacred spot, once again surrounded by the greatest mountains in the world.

I photographed Everest a lot from Tangboche today, something I have had done in the past but I’m really struck by the amount of new snow on Everest for this time of year, it should be much drier than this on the southwest face of Everest and across the high reaches of Everest and Lhotse.

Also it’s extremely warm here this year in the lower elevations, everyone is talking about that.  As a matter of fact we saw some monks strip down to their boxer shorts out in front of the monastery by a little stream with their maroon and gold robes hanging on the rocks around, cooling off in the water.  A sight I have never seen, normally it’s very cold at the Tangboche monastery.

Now we’ve moved on up to 13,000 feet (3960m) and we are at Ang Temba and Yanzing’s Highland Sherpa Resort, which is the headquarters for Berg Adventures in the Khumbu.  It’s a lovely spot here, as the evening comes on here of course the temperature drops.  Right now the whole gang is up in what we call the ‘skylounge’ relaxing and enjoying a good dinner.

We did talk to Kathmandu today by satellite phone and Nuru had called from Lukla telling us that he and Brad arrived in Lukla, feeling better at the lower altitude.  They are scheduled to fly to Kathmandu on the first flight from Lukla tomorrow.  So we wish them well and look forward to hearing from them when they reach Kathmandu.

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