Firat Eren

From a series of dispatches from the Alpine Ascents 2007 Everest Expedition team.

We’ve just arrived here in Lobuche and decided we would send along the old dispatches that didn’t make it while our communications were down. So here they are. Tomorrow early we’re off to Base Camp and we’ll be in touch from there.
Dave

April 7 – Khumjung

A big hello and Namaste from the village of Khumjung.

The gang arrived here this afternoon in the midst of a little snow squall. So we all looked a bit like drowned rats as we rolled into the Khumjung Hotel. Hard to call anything up here a Hotel but we’ll go with that. It sort of makes it feel a little bit more upscale. Anyway, the group is doing very well and everyone’s health is excellent so far. Tomorrow I’m guessing we’ll wake up to blue skies and fresh snow up high. The views of Ama Dablam are excellent from Khumjung and tomorrow morning they should be even more so.

During our hike into Khumjung we came from Thame via Lama Zhangbu’s gompa high above the trail and the Bhote Khosi. The place is called Gendukpa and consists of the prayer room cave built by Lama Zhangbu’s grandfather and the home for the family. We had another blessing from this Lama. I think we’re on pace for a record number of blessings. We will gladly accept them all! Pete and a couple of the trekkers came with us to Gendukpa and during tea Pete did a great job describing some of the iconography and thanka paintings inside.

We’ll just spend one night here in Khumjung then head to Deboche tomorrow for one night via Tengboche. In the morning some of us will go to visit the Khunde hospital and Hillary school before starting the walk to Deboche. I’m certainly looking forward to Deboche as it is one of my favorite spots in the Khumbu: large rhododendrons, grassy fields, running streams, beautiful views up valley.

It looks like the we are slowly getting through the shower line up and soup is almost served.

We’ll be in touch.

All my best,
Dave

April 8 – Deboche

Khumjung to Deboche today. This morning Lakpa Rita gave us a tour of the Khumjung school where he was a high school student. He walked three hours each way from Thame for three years and was the fourth person to graduate high school from Thame. Bruce, Bill and Dave went took a tour of the Khunde hospital with Dr. Kami.

We dropped down to the river at Phunki Thanga, otherwise known as Funky Town and sometimes Fungi Thanga. We had a picnic lunch there and spent time airing our bare feet in the sun. Phunki Thanga has many prayer wheels that spin by the energy of the river’s water flowing through underneath them. Like prayer flags blowing in the wind, this is another way of saying prayers without having to do anything The Tengboche hill was the business section of the day and went by slowly and easily in just a couple of hours. In Tengboche we went to the bakery, visitors center and monastery. At the Monastary the trekkers and climbers were treated to a meeting with the Tengboche Lama before dropping a couple of hundred feet down to Deboche.

Enjoying the oxygen at 12.000 feet tonight!

Subbayatri!
Amy

April 9 – Pheriche

Today we trekked from Deboche which is situated in the Birch and Rhododendron forest to above tree line and a few Juniper shrubs in Pheriche. Pheriche is also the base for a high altitude medical clinic. Today was perhaps one of the most important days of our expedition because we got blessed in Pangoche by Lama Geshe, the most revered teacher of Buddhism in the Khumbu Valley. He met with the trekkers for a full hour and then blessed the climbers and gave us each a postcard of the Chomolungma deity to bring to the summit of Everest. He has given fifty hand written postcards out and every one that has gone to the summit has made it home. It was a beautiful and meaningful experience and has helped us to cultivate our minds for being ready to climb on the mountain we are heading for. After our blessing we had a delicious lunch in Shomare and then walked up to Ang Nuru’s Himalayan lodge in Pheriche. Everyone is feeling well in Pheriche and most of us are enjoying another hot shower here. Looking forward to a day of rest…

Tashi Delek!
Amy

April 10 – Pheriche

Hello friends, family and loved ones,

Vern Tejas reporting on our progress toward base camp. We have been heading to Everest ever since we left Thame three days ago and we been gaining elevation along the way. Our acclimatization schedule is conservative as we are climbing no more that 400m.on the average per day. This is the prescribed climbing rate according to the latest medical studies. But every several days we like to rest to allow our bodies even more time to adapt. And such was today. Pheriche at 4200m. is located where the Imja Khola river forks, the East branch drains the South face of Lhotse and we hike up the West fork comes from the Khumbu glacier where our base camp is being erected. To get a good lay of the land and acclimatize we climbed the ridge directly to North of this Sherpa village. We were treated to some great views of sister town of Dingboche and incredible rugged peaks of the high Himal.

Of course we returned to our usual delicious lunch. It should be noted lunch was prepared by Deepak who is filling in for Gopal our usual cook. Sadly, Gopal’s father has passed away and Gopal will be spending with his family for the next few weeks. Most of the team attended a great lecture about altitude illness that was sponsored by the Himalayan Rescue Association, which maintains a clinic in Pheriche. They always put on a good class and we learned about the many different altitude cases these volunteer doctors have treated this season….the take home lesson was Oxygen is good and more is better. Go fast and you won’t last but when you go slow you climb like a pro.

The highlight of our day was enjoying the amazing Mr Lee on guitar and vocals. Mr. Lee is a member of a Korean trekking group that was also staying at our lodge. He is talented troubadour with a diverse repetoire of songs. We sang our hearts out for hours in eight languages and our very own trekker Ricardo got into the action with harmonica and Italian serenades. What a night!

See you again soon,
Vern