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I went on this trip together with my parents and my oldest
brother Torulf.
I met my parents on the train to Schiphol, while we met Torulf at the airport in
Kathmandu.
Everything went well, except my parents had bought an invalid trainticket and
mom had to throw away all her make-up
at London airport due to strict safetyregulations
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The next day in Kathmandu we started to arrange the trek to
mount Everest and its first basecamp:
The main goal of our holiday! A friendly guy named Tejendra from the company Zen
adventures arranged a guide for us.
The next day a small propellered plane took us to Lukla, start of the trek!
Through the windows we got a glimps of what we could expect for the next couple of weeks!
Our guide to the right! We also had a porter (sherpa) to carry most of our stuff.
This first part is wellhabited and it gives you a nice glimps into traditional Nepali life.
... and Nepali religion
We stayed in lodges or guesthouses: Friendly places with cheap accomodation and
really good food
(although at times a limited menu). Very cold at night, though!
Entering Maoist territory! Friendly guys!
The first glimpses of the really high mountains... exciting!!
This path is quite well-walked! This was an extremely crowded part.
These places really awaken the philosopher inside you!
On the second day we reached the only big village in the area: Namche Bazaar.
A beautifully located place with clean prosperous houses and narrow streets.
My father avoiding a cow. With good reason as they can sometimes react unpredictable and a ravine is never far away.
As our parents felt a littlebit ill, my brother and I went on to basecamp
together with our guide.
We wouldn't see our parents for something like 2 weeks.
My parents stayed in Namche for a while and then set out to neighbouring towns and to the monastary of Tengboche.
Sleeping is really a special phenomenon at these altitudes: It is so damn cold!
Tengboche Monastary
Then my brother came back.... without me! What had happened, you'll read further on.
Our first view of mount Everest:
And of Ama Dablam: a very famous peak because of its recognizable shape.
These sherpa's are crazy!
We reached Tengboche earlier than our parents as we set out days before them.
Internet is still available at 3867m height, though expensive!
Good for in the fire!
An albino Yak!
This is a picture of Tengboche, looking back at it! What a location!
Torulf decided to do the washing...
The higher you come, the less vegetation and the mure tundralike it becomes.
In the afternoon, clouds always set in...
And the higher up you come, the more bloody cold it gets. Look at those icefrozen windows!
Nutse, a very beautiful mountain!
Nutse turned into gold at sunset!
And shimmery at night, with a clear milkyway above it!
This is on the way to Kala Pathar: the classic viewpoint of mount Everest and surroundings.
Look at that glaciershaft: totally melted because of global warming.
We finally reached Kala Pathar at 5550m height.
Because of the altitude, walking becomes really tiresome: I had to rest every 20
steps or so.
At the bottom of that glacier coming down from Everest, is basecamp 1: our ultimate goal!
This was the time Torulf went berserk!
These pictures need no words!
Thanks bro! Blame it on altitude sickness!
The picture underneath is really cool aswell:
Where could this entrance into the glacier lead?
Then it suddenly happened: I fell and dislocated my knee!
It happened on a normal stretch of the path, nothing spectaculair about it
except it being on an altitude of 5000m.
However with very annoying consequences.
Sherpas had to carry me for a while to a place the helicopter could land that
would bring me to Kathmandu.
Painfull business! I could do nothing except lying there, so i decided to make a
photo.
There is quite some time in between these photos, but this was my hospital room for 10 days or so.
