Sunday, April 2, 2017

On the ground in Kathmandu!

Anders and I both slept very well last night and awoke feely remarkably refreshed, especially given the long travel of yesterday.  We met Brent for a delightful breakfast at the Yak and Yeti (YNY) this morning and then repaired to our room for the standard gear check.  We passed (no surprise there) and then organized into 4 groups of stuff:  1. bags that will get shipped off to Everest Base Camp (EBC) today at 4pm local; 2. a bag that the Yaks will carry along with us on our 10 day trek to EBC; 3. stuff we will carry on our backs when we start the trek on the 4th; and finally, 4. stuff we will wear and then leave here in Kathmandu.  It was the usual organized chaos in our room as we sorted through stuff:




Here's Anders rocking his new Madison Mountaineering Everest 2017 puffy that Brent gave him:


We then headed out and did a mini-exploration of the local environs.  Here the chaos is decidedly not organized.  We grabbed some Pizza and H2O at a place called the "Fire and Ice" and then loaded up our Nepalese Sim cards and did a few other odds and ends around town.  It really is a remarkable place--in addition to being chaotic, its very, very crowded, dusty, and down right crazy!  It was also quite warm and we walked around in t-shirts and shorts:



Brent wanted us to buy some local "Everest Hard Wear" wind shirts, which we each did for $15.  Here we are walking down this unmarked alley way to the "factory outlet" where they make them:


We're back at the YNY now and getting ready to send most of our stuff up the mountain.

We're off to a good start!

This really is a remarkable experience so far.....

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