Everest Base Camp Trek Dispatch

October 16, 2011 – Markets, Misty Rivers and Meetings with Old Friends

It is Saturday and I am calling from Thame, a beautiful, classic Sherpa village, very orderly with large homes and big lots full of potato fields and yaks grazing, of course. It is a fantastic experience to visit Thame always, a very peaceful place. We feel the presence of Tibet to the north and we can look over to the glaciated Nangpa La Pass and over that is Tibet. The clouds are hanging low giving a very peaceful feeling here.

It wasn’t that easy to leave Namche this morning. It is never easy to leave the comforts of Namche. We started down right after breakfast to visit the weekly Namche Saturday morning market. It is always fascinating with vegetables, rice, dried goods and big sides of meats for sale. People from all over the Khumbu go to the Saturday market and they load up their yaks to take their goods home for the week. We’ve been going to the market for years and it is always an interesting experience.

Shortly after visiting the market we started walking to Thame. A highlight on today’s walk was crossing the Bhota Kosi River. To cross the river, you walk down stone stairs into the canyon. The walls of the canyon are painted beautifully. Once you reach the bridge, the mist rises up from the roaring waters below and it is really a thrilling experience.

The Sherpa staff served popcorn and tea soon after we arrived as they always do in the afternoon. As we were finishing our tea, our old friend Ang Passang Sherpa showed up. If you’ve been following Berg Adventures Khumbu dispatches over the years, you will know Passang well. He is a marvelous Sherpa man, kind with a great sense of humor and a very talented artist. He paints thanka paintings on canvas representing symbols and the spiritually of Buddhism and also the geography of his homeland in the Khumbu. Passang lost all of his fingers to frost bite in a climbing accident years ago, but it doesn’t stop him from painting wonderful thanka paintings. Several of our team members bought paintings from him and he stayed to visit with us for a while too.

It was a lovely afternoon in Thame with great friends. Our acclimatization is still going very well. Our trek is just beginning and we will continue reporting our adventures with our Sherpa friends and about the sights we see along the trail to Everest Base Camp.