Namche Bazaar, Nepal; Thursday, 20 Oct.

Today was a rest day, a chance to acclimatize to the higher altitudes we have now reached. We spent it doing a day hike of about 2000' up the steep ridge above Namche, stopping for tea on the balcony of the Everest View Hotel (no view today, though, due to early clouds), then on to the pretty village of Kumjung, 3780m/12,250', where in the 1960's Ed Hillary established one of his first schools in the Himalaya, and which is still operating today, the pride of the Khumbu region.

Then, on to the less pretty village of Shyangboche at 3720m/12,200' where the old gravel airstrip is once again operating, (receiving a single fixed-wing flight each day, the pride of Tara Air), and to the non-existant village of Jaro, which the map says is at 3925m/12,875' but which we found no sign of other than a dilapidated gompa at roughly that elevation.

We closed the loop with a bone-crunching descent of about 1000' back down to our lodge in Namche, where we spent the balance of our rest day cruising the stalls of the local merchants, looking for bargains on locally made textiles and black-market counterfeit climbing gear.

Tomorrow we will reach the famous Buddhist monastery of Tyengboche, where we will make offerings to the monks there and seek their blessing of our venture on Imja Tse.

Namaste,
Jim Ronning