At Base Camp

 Everest Base Camp (EBC): 17,600 ft and surrounded by crumbling glaciers. If you were ever sceptical about global climate change spend time at EBC.  About every 6 or 12 hrs. there's at least a moderate ice fall/avalanche/rock fall. And every few days there's a huge fall. And thats above you( keep your helmet on). Below you, the glacier you are sleeping on  is groaning, creeping and melting and can keep you awake at night.
The Pujo Temple: Before a team enters the ice fall to climb up Everest or Lhotse they, and their equipment, are blessed by Buddhist Monks in a ceremony at base camp.

Lhotse, black rock, no snow on the summit

Is my tent safe?

Into the Khumbu

Getting higherAt Loboche, with solar water heaters. 

BBA with Ama Dablam in the backround

Up There

My favorite mountain, Ama Dablam, with its hanging ( not for long) glacier. Click to enlarge.

Lukla

The Lukla airport is on about a 10-15 degree slope.  Landing is uphill, taking off downhill. Thats a cliff at the end of the runway. So going downhill gives you that extra bit of speed, just in case. From Lukla it is all on foot.  No roads. No cars. 
  Try the video.  I told you it was downhill.

Kathmandu

Kathmandu:  Has lost its exotic , mystique since I was here last. Could have something to do with bad cars, China and India next door and Maoist government.  750,000 people and the worst air pollution I have seen to date. Even worse than Shanghai!  This was a good day, but still no blue sky.

Thats Barbara walking away...is that guy in the gutter asleep or......

Khumbu

(L. to R.) Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse from Pumori (19,000 + ft) Those little yellow dots on lower left corner are tents at Everest Base Camp. (Click on the pic to blow it up)

 Base Camp is a holy place...  you want all the help you can get.

In the Solu Khumbu. Like no place on the planet, this place defines extreme ...as in extremely short of breath, extremely high, extremely far......well you get it.

WOW

Today, April 10, 2009, I got my first view of Mount Everest. WOW! Unbelievably magnificent! Yesterday it rained, then hailed, then snowed. This morning the sky was clear and blue. We hiked up from here in Namche about another 1,000 ft to a scenic vista. We hiked through a pine forest to the view point and with the new snow everything was just beautiful. We rounded a corner and there was AmaDablem one of the most beautiful mountains in the world, blanketed with new snow. A little further we saw Everest, with its signature white cloud plume coming off the peak. I never thought I'd ever see these mountains in person. And I cannot believe how beautiful they are.