Nepal Day 05 - Namche Exploration Day

5.75 miles, 3015’ climbing

Our room was fairly chilly overnight. We got up around 6am and prepared for our acclimitization hike, then we went down to breakfast in the warm, busy dining room. Some groups are headed up the valleys towards different destinations like Gokyo or Everest Base Camp. Others, like us, are taking a hike to acclimatize. There were a lot of people on the steep stone staircase that is the road out of town. Near the top of Namche where the trail forked, we had a great view back to Namche. Many people headed towards Tengboche, the direction of treks to Everest base camp. For those of us on a day hike, narrow steps continued up the steep hill.

Finally we arrived at the Syangboche plateau and the airport where we watched a helicopter drop off a large load that was dangling by a rope beneath it. A person on the ground released the load, and the helicopter flew off down valley without ever landing. These are most likely expedition supplies for mountaineering trips that are gearing up at this time of year.

We continued up hill to eventually reach a view point where we could see Mount Everest, Ama Dablam, and a few of the other big peaks. Clouds were already blowing in as we continued past the helicopters that take clients to the Everest View luxury hotel. We sat on the terrace and had a cup of tea. The Tengboche monastery was visible on a distant ridge.

After the downhill walk to upper Namche, we stopped for lunch in a guesthouse, dining with great views of village below us. Then we visited a small museum which had a section on Sherpa history that included a lot of artifacts that are becoming uncommon as life modernizes here. They had lots of photos, some dating back to the early 1900s, of the Sherpa people and culture. The pictures of Namche Bazaar went as far back as the 1960s. Sarah could see the changes since her prior visit in 2007. The other section was dedicated to Sherpa mountaineering history with lots of profiles of mountaineers and old equipment.  The Sherpa display was made more interesting as we were going through the museum with our guide Bire who worked on Everest in support of an expedition in 2015.  He had stories of the Khumbu icefall, crossing crevasses on ladders stretched over them and even falling 25 feet into one.  He spent two weeks at Basecamp 2 and was there for the big earthquake in 2015 that took many lives and destroyed buildings and infrastructure far from the mountain.

We walked around to the monastery, but it was closed, so we took the opportunity to get showers back at the hotel. There was only one shower with hot water and a prior occupant had used it all up, but at least it was not frigid.