Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch
April 6, 2008 – Trekking through the snow in the Khumbu Valley
Namaste from Khunde! First and foremost, the team pharmacist and meteorologist Todd Miller has made a 100% recovery from his bout with altitude sickness.
The last two days have been full of activity and we have covered a lot of ground trekking from the bustling hub of Namche to the isolated Thame Valley and finally to the sleepy town of Khunde. Unusual for this time of year, but we have trekked the last two days under a constant barage of snow and wind. Day by day we find ourselves in thinner air as we climb towards our goal of Everest Base Camp. Yet we are still over 5,000 feet in elevation and 25 miles of rugged terrain away.
Recent highlights;
- Visiting the weekly Namche market were people of the Khumbu who walk for hours to buy or sell anything from a leg of water buffalo to San Miguel beer.
- A game of 12,000 foot long distance Frisbee with the local kids over several plots of land in Thame.
- We had the opportunity to visit the Khunde hospital, a 20 bed facility which services the entire Khumbu region. Todd and Joselyn made a contribution to the hospital and the chief physician Dr. Kami Sherpa, gave us the grand tour of the entire facility.
Guy and Thom’s, Logo Fantastico Himalaya Culinary Adventure; the expeditions junior members have audaciously decided to disregard all warnings and indulged in the local fair without regard to digestive consequences. Today we drank yak butter tea; a salty and cloudy Sherpa tea beverage until the tea house owner refused to serve us anymore. Yummy.
Yeti Watch 2008:
A few steps from camp we awoke to find a fresh steaming dung pile of size, consistency and odor different from any droppings previously seen during the expedition. Upon tactile examination and analysis, the fur, claws and canines of a 200 pound snow leopard were found in the specimen. According to a local wildlife specialist, there is only one natural predator of the snow leopard, the legendary Yeti. We must on the right track!