Island Peak and Kala Pattar, Nepal Cybercasts: April 2014

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, Lucky Trekkers checking in from the wonderful city of Lukla.

We were able to make our way down-valley, or actually kind of up-valley. We left the riverside from Monjo, we began our climb up a couple thousand feet to the airport town of Lukla and it took us most day, but we had great fun along the way laughing, singing, great spirits and once we got to Lukla the party just kept on happening.

So we’ve had a very satisfying descent down to our takeoff town that’ll hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to catch a flight early, early in the morning back to Kathmandu.

So stay tuned to the further adventures and see you in Kathmandu! Ciao for now.

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, this is The Lounging Trekkers checking in from beautiful downtown Monjo, down on the river. Yes, we dropped today. After a very tense morning of shopping and eating hamburgers, we packed up everything and headed down, down, down, down the rocky wall to the river. We crossed the big bridge and came downstream even further until we went up the many, many stairs.

General merriment broke out as people played spoons and if we’re not careful, someone will get an eye put out with one of those spoons before it’s all over. So general laughter and merriment has already taken place a day early, we’re ahead of schedule. And we’re down at about (asks team in background) nine thousand something (“thank you” said to team in background).

So tomorrow we begin the long climb up to Lukla. So join us then when you hear Lance say “whose spoon was that?”

Ciao ciao for now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones once again, it’s Laughing Trekkers checking in from beautiful downtown Namche Bazar.

“It was a long day” to quote one of the trekkers. We actually dropped three thousand feet, but in the meantime gained two thousand feet in the process so you do the math. It was a long day. We were on the trail for eight hours plus a little bit of lunch thrown in; oh, some people believe it was more like fifteen, oh okay, I got it. Ah, anyway we had lots of good things to say about the views. We didn’t get snowed on today; we didn’t get rained on. And the clouds were there when we needed them going up the hill and we got hot showers. So we had a pretty good day.

So thank you for checking us out and tomorrow we’re going to do the Namche scenic tour and drop down to Monjo, another two thousand drop day, so we’re going
down. You can too, join us tomorrow. Ta ta for now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, this is The Lucky, Laughing Trekking Team reporting in from beautiful downtown Dingboche.

We’ve descended seven thousand feet after a big day where we actually climbed Kala Pattar, got some great views of the Himalayan range, some of the highest mountains in the world, went down and had breakfast, and then packed up and headed down valley. By the time we got to Lobuche, it was blowing and snowing. And by the time we hit Dughla, we had to take refuge from the storm, had big bowl of rara soup, and then continued in the teeth of the gale, white-out conditions, blowing snow, blizzard, and just trying to hold the whole group together. It was great fun, everybody focusing on each other, and trying to get down to Dingboche.

After awhile, we were able to do just that and were surprised when the chortons and the ridge popped up in front of us. We just had a great meal and Eric once again serenaded us on the guitar and everybody had a great time singing the national folk song, Resham firiri (रेशम फिरिरी). Everybody’s heading for bed now.

And we’re going to go down to Namche tomorrow, so join us at the Bazar! Ta ta for now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, this is Vern Tejas reporting in for The Extremely Lucky Trekkers.

Today it was very clear and we were able to hike to Base Camp. Many people on the trail, lots of yaks, but everybody made it and we’re really excited about that.

We spent about an hour in camp and to eat our best meal of the whole trek that was served up by the Alpine Ascents chef, Ali, and we really enjoyed it. And then we made it back…(transmission cuts out.)

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, this is the Team Light, Laughing, Lovely Trekkers calling in from downtown Gorek Shep. We moved up today; we moved all the way up onto the glacier, moraine that separates Lobuche from Gorek Shep and we were able to make very good time.

We got in right before it started snowing and we had a great dinner. Everybody’s resting up for the great push on to base camp tomorrow.

So stay tuned when we get to our very highest point of this trek and enjoy some good weather. So ta ta for now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, this is Alpine Ascents Trekking Team, The Laughing Trekkers.

We were able to push up from the big city of Pheriche all the way up to the big city (that means like three buildings) of Lobuche. And we got here before the snows; it’s now coming down pretty good. We’re all looking forward to a great dinner in the nicest hotel in town, out of the four that are here.

It’s actually been very good working with these people. They’re all learning how to positive pressure breathe and we’re working through the challenges of altitude and they’re all moving up at a great pace, so we’re really happy about that.

Once again, Eric’s been playing the guitar; it’s been very fun and some of the ladies have been dancing. So we’re having a great time heading up to Base Camp.

And tomorrow we’re going to head into Gorak Shep where we’re going to climb Kala Pattar. So stay tuned for the big climb of Kala Pattar coming up. So ta ta for
now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, Vern Tejas reporting in for The Laughing Trekkers.

We had a great day today acclimatizing, walked all the way up about a thousand feet higher than we were camped at here in Pheriche. Everybody got some great views of the mountains, it was really crystal clear for all the morning. Then we got back down here, had a great lunch, and then the clouds came in, it started snowing. Believe it or now, we’re here in, got a couple inches of snow and everybody’s enjoying the white mountains all around us.

Stars are starting to come out now and it looks like we’ve got about/almost a full moon. So snow on the ground, moon in the sky, everybody had just a great dinner. And Eric turns out to be quite the musician. He was able to knock out some blues on the guitar and I accompanied him with the harmonica and it seems to have put everybody in great spirits. So we’re tucking in for tonight.

And hopefully you’ll join us tomorrow when we head up the valley to Lobuche. Ta ta for now!

Hello there friends, family, and loved ones, Vern Tejas reporting in for The Lounging Trekkers.

Yes, we had a nice day today moving up the valley. We were able to actually break out and go to Tengboche where we got blessed by the very famous Lama there, Lama Geshe, who was able to not only bless us but give us prayer strings and pray for our safe return from the mountains. That was one of the highlights of the day.

And then from there we pushed up to Shomare, had a great lunch, and then further up valley in beautiful, clear weather, little windy, but beautiful clear. People are really enjoying taking pictures. And we were able to push up over the hill and into a new valley, where we came across the small town of Pheriche and this is where we’re going to spend the night tonight. We’re having a good dinner and looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.
So The Lounging Trekkers tomorrow, so stay tuned for a rest day! Ta ta for now!

Hey there friends, family, and loved ones, this is Team Laughing Trekkers checking in from beautiful downtown Khumjung.

Yes, today we were able to drop down from Thame along the river, and up and down, and through the woods. Everybody’s starting to feel the altitude, but guess what, we made it anyway. It was beautiful sunny in the morning and we saw the mountains probably for the first time on this trip, real well; they were great. And then the clouds came in. That was fortunate because we were climbing a steep hill and the sun would’ve been a little bit too much for us.

Anyway, everybody just had a great meal and we’re getting ready to check in, little bit exhausted. So stay tuned tomorrow when we head to the Tengboche
Monastery. Ciao for now!