“Pretty Mellow”. A climb of Mount Everest truly begins at ABC. Advanced Base Camp is the first major camp past BC, and where many climbers spend most of their time. It is about 22km from this gravel pit we call Base...
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O Generator, Where Art Thou? Everest Base Camp might be in the wilderness, but there’s more technology here than in some small countries. Luckily, our little generator has arrived from Kathmandu. When you’re shooting...
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Time To Climb! Finally, the Everest climb has begun in earnest. Today, the team consisting of Lhawang, Ben, Lhakpa, Boca Lama and Pasang started up the trail to Advanced Base Camp. Well, the five of them and 40-50 yaks and their...
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Yak Yak Yak. Yesterday everything we own here was weighed to discover how many yaks will be needed for the trip up to ABC. Today, it’s time to pack up and ship out! All of our yaks and their herders are on scene this...
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Things Are Getting Heavy. Climbing Everest is not like a typical backpacking trip. We have so much gear and food that you can almost hear the mountain groan under our weight. This is pretty much par for the course. Imagine...
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Party Over Here. With our Everest puja concluded, we finished things off with a party the likes of which I’d never seen before. Really, I’m no stranger to the occasional rager, but we really kicked it Tibetan style...
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Asking Everest’s Permission. This afternoon we had our Puja ceremony to try and get the mountain’s blessing before beginning the climb. A couple of monks arrived from the Rongbuk Monastery down the valley to conduct...
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Can You Hear Me Now? Ben has brought a satellite phone with him to Everest, and we were able to call Karma back in Kathmandu to get a status report on Major. Apparently Major’s doing fine, but it was difficult for me to...
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Heavy Lifting. Well, Major left Everest Base Camp yesterday and we have no idea how he’s doing. In the meantime, we’ve begun building a stupa for our camp. This alter will be used in our blessing ceremony, or Puja,...
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Altitude is the Wildcard. Today was a difficult one. Overnight Major has become too ill to stay at Everest. As the sherpas begin to organize all of the expedition’s food, Major lay in his sleeping bag in the Dome and...
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Dumbstruck by Everest. I was not prepared for how awe-inspiring the last few kilometers of driving would be. As we headed up the Rongbuk Valley all you could do was look up at the massive North Face of Everest. This mountain...
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“One step at a time, boys”. It was so great to leave this morning and head back out on the road. Today’s driving brought us up to the top of Pang La Pass and some amazing views. We’re on the final stretch...
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“American Prayer Flags”. Well, we’re now in the shadow of Mount Everest, in the little town of Tingri, Tibet. This place is around 14,000 feet and a popular spot for climbers to start getting used to the...
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Everything changes before Everest. It took a while, but we’ve made it up the side of the Tibetan Plateau. It’s striking how different the terrain is up here. After all of this driving uphill in our fleet of Land...
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Why is everyone speaking Mandarin? We finally cross the Friendship Bridge into Tibet and enter the town of Zhang Mu. Of course the experience is anything but friendly. Once we’re in Tibet we’re immediately under the...
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Everest here we come! Kathmandu has been great but it’s time to get moving towards the mountain. We start the day off with the first of many, many kilometers along the Friendship Highway. This road connects Kathmandu,...
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Looking good is half the battle. Lhawang said that every step brings you closer to the top of Everest. Well, I guess some steps are smaller than others. Today is the final day we’re spending in Kathmandu, and it’s a...
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“Down with the U.S. Imperialism.” Lhawang, our head Sherpa, or Sirdar, and Ben’s Everest climbing partner finally arrives. It was great to meet Lhawang after hearing so much about him from Ben. The two were...
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Om Mani Padme Hum. Major finally arrives and the Everest expedition continues. We check out the largest Stupa in Nepal: Boudhanath. I can’t get over how amazing this place is. I just want to spend the day walking around...
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Forget Bob Seger. We’re not going to Kathmandu, we’re already here. The gateway to Everest. Unfortunately, Major’s still behind in Bangkok but he’s on his way. Ben and I visit Swayambhunath Stupa, where...
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