The Blogger is: Out

Namaste from Kathmandu.

I arrived late last night and; after less than thirty-six hours in this city of crazy cacophony, rolling blackouts, maze-like streets, little temples, large temples, and Sanskrit written everywhere; I'm already moving out. I've decided to get out of Dodge and get right down to my main reason for being in Nepal: trekking.

Tomorrow morning, I'm on the 6:30am flight to Lukla. From there, I'm spending seventeen days trekking from Lukla to Kala Patthar and Everest Base Camp; returning to Lukla via Goyko-Ri and the Goyko Valley. This will be the longest I've spent above 2,800 metres in my life. Barring any severe run-ins with soroche (acute mountain sickness) I'm hoping to scale the 5,545m peak at Kala Patthar, and the 5,357m at Gokyo-Ri.   If all goes well, that goal of summiting a 6,000m peak will have to wait, but I'll be able to check Everest Base Camp off the list. Assuming no extra days needed for rest and/or additional acclimatisation, I'll be back in Kathmandu on April 13th.

I'll still have a week to see the sights in Kathmandu, the Kathmandu Valley, and (maybe) Pohkara and Chitwan National Park.

Obviously, there will be a dearth of updates to the blog while I'm off in the Himalayas. Heck, there will likely be a dearth of updates even when I get back to Kathmandu. I wasn't kidding before. Seriously, there are scheduled rolling blackouts in this city.

Mountains, here I come!

Related Posts:
1. My Travel Wishlist (Part II)