Namche, rest day

Today I woke up very early to try to get some pictures of the mountains.  I was rewarded by amazing views of the face of the Kongde (6187m, 20,298ft) towering more than 2800 meters above the town of Namche.  I later learned that this is considered a very hard peak and that it's seldom climbed.  Different than most peaks in the area is more of a climb than a scramble and therefore requires not only mountaineering, but also rock climbing skills.

Today is market day.  The Namche market is the biggest market in the area and Sherpa people come from faraway places to trade there.  The market is quite compact, but an incredible variety of goods are offered.  Everything from produce to hiking boots is sold here.

 

 

 

Trading was fast and we could already see some heavily loaded porters carrying the goods that they bought in the market to higher towns.  By looking at them, one can understand why prices go up as you go up the mountains.  A bottle of water in Kathmandu is only 15 Rupees, in Lukla and Phakding goes to 50.  In Namche is already 100 Rupees.  Farther up, I'm sure it will be a lot more expensive.

After coming back from the market, we had breakfast and we went from an acclimatization hike to the Namche airstrip.  Our first stop was the Everest view point. 

This picture is not a very good picture, but it's the first time that we are seeing Everest.  Everest is the round bump at the left that is half covered with clouds.  The prominent peak to the right is Lhotse.  I'll have more opportunities of photographing Everest, so hopefully, I'll get a better picture than this later.

Next to the view point is the museum.  The museum itself is worth a visit with authentic Sherpa paintings (mostly religious in nature), some description of the local flora and fauna, and quite a bit of history of mountaineering.

In a corner of the museum, there is authentic clothing used by Tenzing Norgay in one of his Everest climbs.  The museum guide turned to be a climber, resting for his next climb.  He has been all the way to Camp IV and he hopes to summit Everest one day.

 

 

 

From the museum, we took the steep uphill towards the Namche airstrip.  This airstrip is used only for helicopter landings, although in the past it was used by airplanes.  Plans to extend the airtrip to allow Twin Otter planes (line the ones going to Lukla) encountered strong opposition from Lukla and Phakding and were abandoned after a strike that closed the Anapurna and Gokyo circuits.  While we were resting at the airtrip, a rescue helicopter, headed to Everest Basecamp, stopped for refueling.  A sign of how hazardous Everest is.

While at the tea house next to the strip, we also saw Yaks for the first time.  This huge animals are very important as higher elevation, not only for transportation, but also for food (meat, cheese, and butter), and fuel (Yak droppings are burnt).  They don't seem to be very happy animals, and our guides kept a very healthy distance from them.   We were warned about given them a lot of space, never touching them, and always standing on the mountain side of the trail when they are passing.

The rest of the day, we just relaxed in the lodge, went shopping, check the Internet , and played cards.  Tomorrow is a walking day.  We are heading to Dole (4040m, 13,245ft).  Although, not far, it's a lot of ups and downs, we will be hard at this elevation.