17,078 steps, 5.8km, 8,586 ft to 11,286 ft altitude incline. Along the Dudh Kosi river. Glimpses of Thamaserku (for us - thumb shaku) mountain. Enter Sagarmatha national park.
Wonderful hike post lunch. Hiked mostly solo. It's 6.30am in the morning in Namche. Had decent sleep. Once everyone gets up, there's a lot of noise. Y'day's hike was interesting. People are interesting. First the hike. I think I hit home somewhere after lunch - along the steep upward hike to Namche. It has a near 20-30 degree incline through and through. It went down all the way to Dudh Kosi river and then went up again. Wonderful. I think endorphins keep kicking in on hikes and that keeps you going because you want more of it. My knees did great. The knee brace helped. I took my first dump outside - there was no water in the bathrooms. We are staying at Sona Lodge.
I experienced during the hike that broadly - yes, you need a place that you need to get to - it sets some direction. But beyond that it's always about the next step. It's the most important thing. And then the next step. And another step. However difficult the journey, all you have to care about is the very next step. You can rest, eat nuts and chocolate, chat, hydrate but you have to keep moving forward and put all focus on the next step. That's all there is to a hike - this one or any other.
The sunrise, the glow on top of the Himalayas - it was beautiful. I was thinking about how all this came about. 200+ million years ago, convection currents from beneath brought sediments of Eurasian and Indian landmasses together - constantly pushing, pushing. As the Indian landmass kept pushing towards Eurasia, the sedimentary rocks started moving up and up (this was about 50million years ago) creating the Indus Valley. Over the last 15million years, the landmass has been pushing more and more creating the Himalayas. It continues to grow by 1mm/ year. A slow, steady process. Milan kept talking about how Everest was originally called Peak 15. After the 1950s, the Nepalese called Everest the Sagarmatha - what a beautiful name.
The Alpine trees kept getting shorter as we approached Namche - or that was the indication to me that we had arrived. Milan says it'll totally dry up as we go higher up. Over lunch, people talked about Into Thin Air, Back from the Dead and other mountaineering books that they were reading. db was in a weirded out mood yday over some bridge episode (what amusement! :), in addition to physical discomfort. Last night, everyone had a passionate discussion on marriage, relationships and the sort. The boys got a whole lotta unneeded advice! Surprisingly (or not), it's a repeat topic from the Chadar hike.
Wonderful hike post lunch. Hiked mostly solo. It's 6.30am in the morning in Namche. Had decent sleep. Once everyone gets up, there's a lot of noise. Y'day's hike was interesting. People are interesting. First the hike. I think I hit home somewhere after lunch - along the steep upward hike to Namche. It has a near 20-30 degree incline through and through. It went down all the way to Dudh Kosi river and then went up again. Wonderful. I think endorphins keep kicking in on hikes and that keeps you going because you want more of it. My knees did great. The knee brace helped. I took my first dump outside - there was no water in the bathrooms. We are staying at Sona Lodge.
I experienced during the hike that broadly - yes, you need a place that you need to get to - it sets some direction. But beyond that it's always about the next step. It's the most important thing. And then the next step. And another step. However difficult the journey, all you have to care about is the very next step. You can rest, eat nuts and chocolate, chat, hydrate but you have to keep moving forward and put all focus on the next step. That's all there is to a hike - this one or any other.
The sunrise, the glow on top of the Himalayas - it was beautiful. I was thinking about how all this came about. 200+ million years ago, convection currents from beneath brought sediments of Eurasian and Indian landmasses together - constantly pushing, pushing. As the Indian landmass kept pushing towards Eurasia, the sedimentary rocks started moving up and up (this was about 50million years ago) creating the Indus Valley. Over the last 15million years, the landmass has been pushing more and more creating the Himalayas. It continues to grow by 1mm/ year. A slow, steady process. Milan kept talking about how Everest was originally called Peak 15. After the 1950s, the Nepalese called Everest the Sagarmatha - what a beautiful name.
The Alpine trees kept getting shorter as we approached Namche - or that was the indication to me that we had arrived. Milan says it'll totally dry up as we go higher up. Over lunch, people talked about Into Thin Air, Back from the Dead and other mountaineering books that they were reading. db was in a weirded out mood yday over some bridge episode (what amusement! :), in addition to physical discomfort. Last night, everyone had a passionate discussion on marriage, relationships and the sort. The boys got a whole lotta unneeded advice! Surprisingly (or not), it's a repeat topic from the Chadar hike.
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