Thame to Khumjung—April 7

Lakpa Rita, who has worked for AAI for 20 years now, grew up in Thame and is now a legend there. Not only is he one of the few Sherpas who has climbed the Seven Summits, but he has summited Everest 15 times. One of 8 children (his only brother, Kami, has summited Everest 16 times), he speaks excellent English and is quite soft spoken and modest. Listening to him answer questions about Everest is fascinating. This morning, we visited his family home on our way out of Thame. His parents performed a brief khata ceremony for us and draped an ivory scarf on each person's neck. We were told to keep the scarf clean and not let it touch the ground.

wall of family photos, Lakpa Rita is top center

with Lakpa Rita and his parents

Today's hike from Khumjung to Thame is the route Lakpa took to school 6 days a week for 10 months of the year for 4 years. He left his house at 6 AM every morning to get to school by 10 and left school at 4 PM for the walk home. It's no wonder he ended up becoming such a phenomenal mountain climber and guide. What strength of character he has.

The day was sunny and warm when we started, and then cloudier and breezy later, a common pattern. When the skies cleared, the peaks emerged. Hard to take your eyes off them, and we haven't even seen the 8,000-meter mountains yet. After leaving Thame, we descended to check out the local hydro power plant.

we were strictly warned to not touch anything

thought Tom would like this

Khumjung sits at about the same altitude as Thame (about 12,400'), but we certainly covered plenty of up and down today. Sometimes the tall stone steps just seem insurmountable, my legs heavy and my breaths deep. Slow and steady.

Doug's prosthetic leg at ease

always the women in the fields

can you tell I have a yak fetish?

a porter propped his load up while he rested

I'm probably consuming twice as much food as any of the other women on the trek. After arriving in Khumjung, Daniel and I quickly escaped to the bakery, fleeing some of the idle chatter of our fellow trekkers. Ordered a huge piece of apple pie and demolished every morsel. Delicious.

Nice lodge here. People are still rabid about showering and washing their clothes. Clearly they've never spent extended periods of time in the wilderness. I'm fine with Wet Wipes and donning my filthy softshell pants each morning. Ben calls our group the Dirty Dozen; Daniel and I are the Dirty Duo.

Daniel's hair getting dirtier and more stylish