There are 20 in our Any Mountain group of ovarian cancer survivors, doctors, family members, and supporters. We flew into Nepal earlier this week from Alaska, Texas, New York, and New Brunswick, Canada. As we worked to get over jet lag, we also started to get to know each other and what has brought us together on this trek to launch two ovarian cancer survivors — Jess and Mary Beth — on a quest to summit Mt. Everest. This morning we took the bus from our hotel to the airport. Some of us got on a helicopter and others a fixed wing airplane which flew into a tiny airstrip hanging on the side of a mountain. It was a nail biting, sweaty palm introduction to Lukla where our trek began. We had lunch and then started our first hike of this 40 mile journey to Base Camp. We saw zopkey — a cross between a yak and a cow, on the trail. We also saw mules and dogs and trekkers coming in the other direction, back from their trek.
The scenery is spectacular as we walk from one small village to the next in this river valley. We crossed a couple of bridges suspended across the river and will see more the further we go. The longer bridge today, the second, gave us a view of huge river boulders washed smooth by the force of the water. As the day turned to evening, we could see the colorful lights of a building high above us on the mountainside. We put our headlamps on for the last half mile of our trek before our arrival at our first teahouse. After a delicious meal of mint tea, hot cocoa, and fried vegetables and noodles and egg we headed to bed.
Thanks to Pam Cravez for writing this post!
Thank you pam! What a fabulous description of your journey. I feel like I’m there with you! Well done.
Love the sharing of authorship – takes me back to the Denali blog updates! Enjoy the adventure!
It’s fun having others participate in the blog writing. Once the full team leaves, Jess and I will have to do all of the writing. We are having a great time!