Introduction

April 1:
Kathmandu
April 2:
Kathmandu
April 3:
Kathmandu
April 4:
Lukla and Phakding
April 5:
Namche
April 6:
Between Namche and Thyangboche
April 7:
Thyangboche
April 8:
Thyangboche
April 9:
Dingboche
April 10:
Dingboche
April 12:
Lobuche

and
Beyond

Trek photos by Peter Potterfield, © 1997 The Zone Network. All rights Reserved.

There's a place on the high route between Dingboche and Lobuche when you can see three of the six highest mountains in the world in one glance: Lhotse, Makalu (Big Mac, the prettiest of them all) and Cho Oyu. It's a walk out of a fairy tale book with classic Himalayan peaks rising above the dry, brown hills. We're far above the trees and rhodedendrons, and the landscape is open and bare, like tundra.

We follow the ridge above the Khumbu Khola, which flows in the valley below, as it drains the Khumbu Glacier that tumbles down off Everest. The topography begins to make sense now that we're above the forests and getting closer to the big mountains. The route follows the ridge until it dips down to cross the Khumbu Khola on a wooden bridge at the desolate little village of Duglha. Then it's a steep grind up the actual terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier. At the crest, there's a number of large cairns spread out along the foot of the moraine: memorials to Sherpas and others who have lost their lives in the mountains near here. The perfect shape of Pumori is revealed at this point, a strikingly beautiful mountain, which points the way to weird, crowded, dirty Lobuche at 16,200'.

From here we're just a day out of Base Camp. Our group won't even stop to climb Kala Pattar, the low hill which affords the most famous views of Everest, because that would upset the careful acclimatization routine. For me, there's the realization that the trek is almost over. I've got to start thinking about going back to work, about walking out to Lukla, covering in a couple of days what has taken ten to get here. If the weather's bad in Lukla, I could be delayed getting back to Kathmandu for the flight to the States. You just have to take your chances there.

The trek back will be pure pleasure, just me and Mohan, a Rai guide and porter. I'll leave the sat phones and the laptops and the cybercast responsibilities with the other guys, and for a few days I'll be a man alone, a man on the loose in the Himalayas. I'm looking forward to it.