Nepal Trek 2009 - May 9, Namche Bazar to Tengboche

After two nights at Namche Bazar, it was time to move up to higher elevations. Breaking camp always involves a flurry of activities, mostly in reorganizing all the gear that gets scattered in and around the tent.

It's amazing how much stuff can get spread about in a small, enclosed space as things are taken out of the duffel bag for use, or as part of desperate searches for that one essential item that is needed right now (e.g., TP!).


Our photo assignment for the day was to use one focal length. That's a hard decision to make because there is so much to see and photograph.

Chris Marquardt was using a lens baby. I don't recall if he used that for the entire day, but he was using it around camp. I chose 24 mm for my Canon Rebel XTi. I used my Panasonic Lumix for my macro plant shots and for my Woodcentral sightings pics.



The scenery really started to become interesting on this day of the trek. We were still in the pine forest/rhododendron biome, but I could see where the alpine zone was on the slope of the mountains.








Most of the religious shrines along the path were Bhuddist, but this one was Hindu, I think.










As you look back toward Lukla, the slopes are bedecked in evergreen forest.










Looking up trail one sees Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) flanked by Nuptse (front left) and Lhotse (just to the right of Everest). Everest is that triangle shaped peak just to the left of center.









The largest stupa on the trail was situated at the most scenic overlook of the trip.









This view of Everest through the prayer flags was one of my favorite photos. You can also see the trail layout pretty well here.










A nice Woodcentral sighting.













Pretty awesome view, eh? The jagged mountain on the right is Ama Dablang.









Another nice Woodcentral photo op.















Sonam and Karma having a fun time. The rock is shaped like Everest.














Ama Dablang, center stage. You can also see how this trail is a major track through the Solukhumbu region.







Another of my favorite pictures. The trail is about 10 feet wide here. This section of trail was the best maintained of all. It's only about a 5 mile length. There's a donation collection station at each end of the section - well worth the rupees put into the can.

L to R: Kyle, Megan, Sonam




I really enjoyed the scenery along this track. If you'll note the ridge that is in the center of this picture - the top of that is the destination for the day.

If you click on the image, you might be able to barely see some of the buildings at Tengboche. You can also see the trail snaking up the slope. Each day we gained 1000-3000 ft of elevation, but what you don't know ahead of time is that you're going to be going down 1000 ft, and then back up 2000 ft, etc. Every time you cross the river you're doing a down, then up trajectory.



This was the first day of the trek where I really wanted to spend a lot of time botanizing. Walking through a rhododendron forest is magical and there were a lot of understory plants in bloom, too.








Rhododendrons of various shades of red, pink, magenta and white were in bloom. I'm afraid I dawdled a bit too long for our sherpas' comfort, but I needed to take as many pictures as possible for my own comfort.









I was totally blown away by the diversity of primrose species. I think I had mentioned in a previous post that there are about 48 species of primrose in the area. I've no idea how many I saw, but it's probably close to a dozen.










I don't know this plant, so if anyone out there can give me a hint, it would be very much appreciated. Just leave a comment - thanks!

(Note added later: this is a species of barberry)











Wild strawberry














Oh good, I've not yet lost my way from being so far behind the rest of the group.

(I'll note here that there are many variations on English spellings of place names. The maps say "Tengboche." Namche Bazar is also listed as Namche Bazaar.)




Actually, it would have been impossible to get lost. This is Pasang Sherpa - he's the one who hangs back with the slowest person of our group - that was me on this day (and several others).

I really enjoyed walking with Pasang, too. You can probably tell from his smile that he is a gentle soul and he seemed eager to learn about the plants and birds I was photographing.






Rhododendron forest












Rhododendron/pine forest. Wow - that's incredible scenery.










Yep, that's amazing scenery. I want to go back!












Tengboche monastery. I arrived at the village at dusk, about an hour before sunset.








It's a beautiful monastery. I have some pictures of the inside to post for my May 11th entry to the blog. I saw the young monks running up and down these stairs - not something I could do at this point.

I also heard some interesting music wafting from the windows of the monastery. The place was empty when we toured it, but I can imagine where the monks were sitting while playing their unusual musical instruments.





Here's the stupa in the fading light of sunset.















You can probably tell from the faces of my trekking friends, that we're tired. L to R: Thilo, Steve, and Chris.

We're starting to feel the elevation at this point. I think we're somewhere around 12,500-13,000 feet here, but I'll have to look that up. All I know is that the outhouse was up this small slope, and it seemed like a chore.




We didn't have a tea house for our meals at Tengboche, so our staff set up a dining tent. It was COLD!!!!! Time for down jackets and lots of layers.

Day three of AAW symposium

The last day of the symposium always feels a bit rushed. You want to get it all in and make sure you don't forget anything. I had the first rotation at 8 am, which is normally not a problem for me. However, I had stayed up way too late the previous evening - socializing with some of the other demonstrators and professional turners. I was so buzzed from the discussions that when I got back to my room I couldn't sleep. I think I fell asleep at 4 am and then awoke at 5 am with two really cool ideas to try to move my work in a slightly different direction. That's what these symposia are for - to percolate some ideas and to get excited about trying new directions. I managed to get through the day without too much trouble, despite the lack of sleep. My demonstration on surface enhancement techniques went very well and I had a good crowd to keep me company. After it finished, I packed everything and got it moved over to my hotel room. Then I had time to go to the instant gallery critique. I have to applaud Kevin Wallace, Merryll Saylan and Garry Knox Bennett on the critique. This is the first one I've attended since I started going in 2001 that was actually and truly a critique. The three of them didn't always agree on the merits of a piece and there was quite a bit of discussion regarding particular design elements for each one that was selected for the critique. They started with the purchase awards and then the excellence awards. I was really interested to hear what they would say about my sphere "When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be" - Lao Tzu, No. 5. Kevin and Merryll both spoke about the organic feel of the piece; how they wouldn't be surprised to find it on a forest floor somewhere. They liked the form and the effect of the wings swirling around the sphere. Garry didn't have any comments to add. It was nice that they picked up on what I was trying to express in the piece without me having talked to them about it. There was a flurry of activities for the noon hour - the auction from the PoP exhibit, picking up stuff from the instant gallery, trying to get a look at the trade show. I didn't do any of those things because my friend was at the paramedic station and I dropped everything to help him get things sorted for the transport to the hospital. He'll be alright, but he gave us a bit of a scare there for while. I popped into a couple of different things in the early afternoon, including a final walk through of the trade show. I did get to see the last half hour of John Wessel's demonstration on metal inlay. He's a fun demonstrator - cheeky as they come. I hope I have a chance to sit through his rotations sometime when I'm not a demonstrator myself. It will be well worth watching. Dinner with friends, packing, saying goodbye to the Wessels, and then a wee bit of sleep finished off the symposium. I'm waiting for my flight right now, and having a bite to eat before I get on the plane for home. It was a fantastic weekend and the AAW, together with the local club (thanks John Ellis!), did a great job on keeping things on track and organized. I'm looking forward to next year's symposium in Hartford, CT.

Second day of AAW symposium

My demonstration today was the last rotation, so that gave me plenty of time to walkabout the trade show and instant gallery plus to take in a panel discussion. I attended the one moderated by Michael Mocho (Betty Scarpino, Joe Seltzer and Jack Slentz on the panel) titled "Whose turn is it anyway?" It was about the breadth of woodturning from "conventional" brown and round to sculptural forms. I thought the presentation and discussion were interesting, but I was disheartened to note that the audience consisted of collectors, gallery directors, and artists who do the surface enhancement, texturing, carving, coloring and sculpting that is so controversial to the brown and rounders. This panel discussion is the kind of thing that needs to be heard by turners who feel that we've gone too far in the artsy/fartsy direction. I got a kick out of Michael Mocho when he said that "artsy" is ok, but we definitely want to discourage "fartsy."

I enjoyed walking through the trade show. There are a lot of cool toys to oggle. I wish I had an unlimited budget so that I could sample the wares. I'll walk through tomorrow and see if there is anything I can't live without.

The instant gallery had a pretty steady flow of people. There are a lot of interesting pieces on display and I'll post pictures sometime in the near future. I've taken way too many photos - enough that I keep thinking about the rest of my Nepal trek photos that are waiting for processing.

The banquet and auction were tonight. The food was pretty decent - surprise, surprise! Some highlights at the banquet: Phil Brennion gave a short speech to thank the members of AAW for supporting him this past year in his physical therapy and rehabilitation from his spinal injury; Merryl Saylon received the AAW merit award; chapter collaboration awards - the Dallas Area Woodturners are to be congratulated; and Giles Gilson was acknowledged as this year's lifetime achievement award. He wasn't able to be with us at the symposium, but I'm really glad he's received this recognition for his career of innovation.

The auction yielded a good return on the amazing pieces donated by the luminaries of woodturning. I thought the bidding was very low, though. Again, I wish my bank account had a healthier balance because this would have been a fantastic opportunity to get some beautiful artwork. Alas!

I stayed up way too late tonight, but it was great to visit with everyone after the auction ended. I'll be paying for it tomorrow because I have the first rotation beginning at 8 am.

A totally awesome day

I love days like this - everything seems to work the way it's supposed to and you get some good news to top it off.  My two demonstrations went very well this morning (after a bit of work to get the LCD projector to use the correct color spectrum) and I had some good feedback from the sessions.  I also had a good time talking to people I've not seen since last year's symposium.  The icing on the cake was that my sphere sculpture on display in the instant gallery was selected for an Award for Excellence.  That really made my day.  After lunch, Paul and Judy Fennel and I went to Rio Grande Jewelry.  I picked up a couple of catalogs and purchased a few bits and pieces for making earrings.  I'm looking forward to playing with some ideas that have been percolating on the back burner.  The folks there are very nice and are so knowledgeable about making jewelry.  It was a fun side trip. After dinner (Thai food), I went to the Collectors of Wood Art session.  There were some good ideas presented about promoting woodturning as art and it will be interesting to see what develops from this evening.  I'll be a bit more connected after receiving a complementary membership for the coming year. I've not yet had a chance to walk through the trade show, but I'm hoping to remedy that tomorrow morning.  I did have the time to look through the exhibit space.  There are four concurrent AAW exhibits going on - the work of Merryl Saylan, the work of Garry Knox Bennett, the Professional Outreach Program show on spindles (very loosely interpreted), and the AAW juried show on the theme of "Southwest."  I particularly enjoyed seeing the work of Merryl Saylan and Garry Knox Bennett.  The other two exhibits were also great, but one rarely has a chance to see Garry's work, and Merryl's work is always a pleasure to see in person. I have a rotation to do tomorrow afternoon, but the rest of the day is open for walking through the trade show and taking a closer look at the instant gallery.  I've been taking a lot of pictures, but I don't have my card reader for my SLR camera so it will be a while before I post any images.

Arrived in Albuquerque for the AAW symposium

This year's theme for the symposium is the southwest - fitting for the setting here at the heart of Albuquerque. I had a pretty easy travel sched this morning, but I managed to leave my small digital camera on the plane. Fortunately, I had just taken all my photos (from Nepal) off the chip and loaded them onto my laptop. I'm really bummed about losing the camera, though. It's a Lumix and it takes wonderful pictures.

I spent an hour on the phone calling Northwest Airlines, the Albuquerque Airport lost and found and everyone else I could reach. No one cares about lost items on planes and I have to say that NWA was less than helpful. Bummer.

On a happier note, I've enjoyed seeing my woodturning friends and colleagues. I put my stuff into the instant gallery, dropped off some of my gear in my demonstration room, had some liquid refreshments with friends, attended the demonstrators dinner and then went to a hilarious presentation by Terry Martin and Jacques Vesery. The title was "embarrassing moments" and it featured funny photos of well-known turners. Terry and Jacques made up "interesting" stories and scenarios to go along with the photos. Mostly, these were of some of the French symposia and Emma Lake collaborations, featuring Jean Francois Escoulen, Allain Mailland, Bonnie Klein, Jacques Vesery, Michael Hosaluk, David Ellsworth and Mark Sfirri.

Everything gets rolling tomorrow morning. I have the first two rotations and then one on Saturday afternoon and the last one on Sunday morning. I'll try to post updates each night, but that will depend on how tired I am when I get back to my hotel room.

Just in time for the AAW symposium

The American Association of Woodturners symposium starts this Friday. I just finished the three new pieces I'll have in the instant gallery, so I'm posting them here.

This first one is called "Parturition No. 2." It's 6.5 X 5 inches, made from Afzelia burl. This was a huge challenge to carve because the wood is so hard and dense. Parturition is a term in biology that means "the process of giving birth." This form reminds me of gymnosperm cones combined with shelf fungi. Both motifs focus on reproduction, so the title seems very appropriate to me.







My second new piece is the fifth in my sphere series. This one is "When I let go of what I am, I can become what I might be - Lao Tzu. No. 5."

It's redwood burl, has eight delicate wings, and is 5 inches in diameter. I also sandblasted the surface. This was another huge challenge for me.













This is an alternate view.
















Here's a detail pic to show the sandblasting.










My third new piece is called, "Bowl anatomy 101." It's cherry, 2.75 X 1.75 inches.

A fun little piece that, again, was a big challenge.

Should be fun to see if these pieces get any reaction in the instant gallery this year.

Nepal Trek 2009 - May 8, Namche Bazar

On the morning after our intense day of climbing Namche hill we were greeted by such a beautiful scene. We really didn't have a good idea of what we were to expect from our challenges in getting up the hill the previous night, simply because the concentration was on Steve and not the surroundings. Plus, it was dark when we walked the rest of the way into camp.

Steve was feeling so much better by morning, that this sight of blue skies and mountain scenery was doubly welcomed.

Namche Bazar is built onto the side of the mountain and we camped above the village; thus, our scenery was absolutely stunning. For the first time during our trek, it really seemed as if we were in the Himalayas.

Later during the trek the mornings were cold enough that everyone took tea inside their tents. But this morning, although on the cool side, the scenery drew everyone out to take it all in.



After breakfast we walked a bit farther up the hill to a conservation area that yielded our first look at Mount Everest (the peak coming up in the back on the left). In front of Everest is Nuptse and to the right is Lhotse. These three peaks became our constant companions for the rest of the trek until we went below Namche Bazar on our way back to Lukla.









Jon Miller (left) getting some video footage of Chris Marquardt for his podcast (The Rest of Everest).

We all spent quite a bit of time taking photos and videos at this site.










I'm not sure what mountain this is on the right, but it was beautiful. All of the high peaks are beautiful and it was a privilege to see them.






We spent two nights at Namche Bazar for acclimatization. The elevation is just under 12,000 feet here.

The extra time gave us a good opportunity for a photography workshop with Chris. He covered the zone system, which means that you set your camera to capture the optimal amount of information for the lighting. I had never used my digital SLR on manual mode before, but, after learning the zone system I switched entirely to manual mode for the rest of the trek.

This photo is an example of optimizing using the zone system. I didn't want to blow out the highlights of the chicken in the sunlight nor lose the information in the shade, so I set my camera to be just slightly below the optimal setting for exposing the lightest area in the frame.





Next door to our campsite was a hotel/museum/stupa. There was also an internet cafe there, so I spent a bit of time exploring.

This particular stupa was photogenic with the fresh coat of white wash and the mountain as a back drop.














Prayer wheels lined the path on either side of the entry way.









After lunch we did an acclimatization hike above Namche Bazar to visit a small stupa. I liked how the clouds framed the stupa and the rock it was on.






I also liked the khata on the ground that was next to the stupa. This view gives you the layout of Namche Bazar, which is the largest village in the Solukhumbu region. It follows the contour of the mountain and that drop off is the beginning of the 3000 ft drop down to the river - definitely a challenge going up, but a knee buster going down.







This is one of my favorite photos. I set the shutter speed to be a bit on the slow side so that I could capture the motion of the prayer flags in the wind.






My last photo of the day was a night exposure of Namche Bazar from a rock next to my tent. Steve took a stunning photo of the mountain across the valley. I'll have to link to that after he posts it on Flickr.

To see the rest of my photos from this day, click on this link for my Namche Bazar album.

Everest Trek 2009 Teaser Podcast

Jon Miller just posted a "teaser" podcast of our trek to Nepal. It's about 35 minutes long and shows highlights of the 3 weeks we were there. It's great and it makes me want to go back to Nepal right now.

Check it out!

The Rest of Everest - Trek teaser episode

Nepal Trek 2009 - May 7, Phakding to Namche Bazar

The second day of our trek dawned with clear skies. Our routine for each morning was a wake-up call in the form of tea being brought to our tent at 6 a.m, followed 20 minutes later with two bowls of hot water for washing, and then breakfast at 7 a.m. We were supposed to get on the trail at 8 a.m., but that never seemed to work out the way it was supposed to. We were lucky to be moving by 8:30 a.m. I'm not sure why it took us so long to get organized each morning other than it was comfortable to be inside a tea house.

This is one of the yaks that we had as part of our support staff. We had nine yaks and a herder to take care of the heavy gear. Porters carried our duffels and the kitchen staff moved all the pots and pans and gear for cooking up the trail.





Aside from the yak dung bombs left all over the trail and the yards where we camped, I thoroughly enjoyed having the yaks along. The sound of their bells will always characterize Nepal for me.

Yak herders are constantly vocalizing or whistling at their charges. Occasionally a stubborn yak has to be moved through the encouragement of a pebble or two, but I didn't see that happen very often. Sometimes the yaks run away from the herder when it's time for loading and it was always entertaining to watch the struggle of wills between human and yak.

The other good thing about yaks on the trail is that when you were stuck behind a yak train, your pace was much more relaxed. To pass yaks on the trail you have to run ahead where there is space. At high elevation, this is a real chore!

Oh yeah, just to set the record straight, there is no such thing as yak butter tea. The Sherpas told us that yaks are male and you can't milk a yak. Naks are the females of the breed, so you eat nak cheese and drink nak butter tea. That seems a bit literal to me and perhaps they were having fun with us, but I'll stick with nak cheese. . .




All through the lower elevations we encountered groups of uniformed kids on their way to school in the mornings. Sir Edmund Hillary built a system of schools throughout the Sherpa settlements, and it was so heartwarming to see his legacy in action.







The biome of the lower elevation - 9,000 to 11,000 feet or so - is dominated by pine forest. The earthy smell of the trail combined with the scent of pines was so utterly refreshing that I'll always be drawn back to this landscape whenever I get a whiff of pine.

The shade of these trees was very welcome on the trail as well. The sun was hot even though the air temperatures were refreshingly cool.









A special treat for me was spotting this jack-in-the pulpit plant along the trail. I was the only one of our group to have seen this, but I do have a different search engine than most of my fellow trekkers. Botanists are always looking around for interesting plants and this one was certainly a highlight for me.













As we climbed higher in elevation, the scenery became much more interesting. We followed a branch of the Khumbu river, Dudh Koshi, during this part of the trek. Eventually we would be on the main branch and then at the source, the Khumbu glacier over the next couple of weeks.

This view shows Thamserku, a mountain we were in sight of most of the day until we headed up the Namche Bazar hill.











The trail crosses the river numerous times and we had the fun of traversing some interesting suspension bridges. Some of them were pretty high over the river. The wind is usually pretty strong and the bridges are in constant motion from other trekkers and yaks. Walking down toward the middle is pretty easy, but going uphill on the other side can be a bit challenging with all the motion going on.











The villages in this region are built along the trail. They're very picturesque and I enjoyed watching the people going about their daily routines. The women were usually gathered around the water supply - mostly doing laundry in the mornings. Kids were playing nearby and stray dogs were scattered around, just laying in the middle of the path or off on a step somewhere. Yaks and ponies were often wandering about as well, as were chickens.







This is the entry point to Sagarmatha National Park. Mount Everest is called Sagarmatha in Nepal, so this is the entrance to the Everest region.

You have to have a permit to enter this area. Our trekking permits were handled by Mountain Tribes, so our rest break here was while Karma, our sidhar was taking care of details.








I posed my Woodcentral hat on Jon Miller's camera. It's going to be fun to watch The Rest of Everest podcast when our trek is featured.













Our lunch stop was about another hour's walk past the park entrance. This is part of our kitchen staff packing up all the gear after lunch. Chirri Sherpa is at the front, Mingmar Sherpa at the left. These guys were up first in the morning, up last in the evening, and they had to hurry ahead of our group after breakfast clean-up to be able to set up for lunch, and then after lunch to get to our evening stop in time for tea. They kept us supplied in boiled water and took care of all of our comfort needs in terms of hot drinks, food, and washing the miscellaneous bottle that was dropped on the trail (or, in my case, in a toilet- that's another story altogether). Thanks, guys! You're the best!








Old and new technologies for trekking.















This lady was observing all of our doings after lunch while she was using her prayer beads. Aside from the down jacket, she's wearing traditional Sherpa clothing.














The last bridge before tackling Namche Bazar hill - a 3,000 foot climb. It's about 100 ft over the river and the wind is pretty strong coming through that gorge.











The khatas and prayer flags give you an idea of the wind on the bridge.

This was my last photo on the trail for the day because Steve became very ill on the climb up Namche hill. He had a bad case of diarrhea, a bit of altitude sickness and then he got too cold. He could take about 10 steps and then had to rest. It was pretty slow going, obviously, and it was after dark when we finally arrived at the base of Namche Bazar.












We had to stop at the first tea house to get Steve warm again before continuing the trek. We probably should have spent the night here, but Steve and I both wanted to make it to our campsite.

While Steve was resting and warming up, I had a chance to get a good look at the tea house.










The family who runs it was very kind. I had some hot tea and some very spicy noodle soup. The place filled up with people who camped out on the benches lining the wall.










After a long rest for Steve in a down sleeping bag, and the delivery of his down coat (one of the Sherpas ran ahead to camp to get it out of his duffel bag), we were able to slowly walk the rest of the way up the hill to our campsite.

Fortunately, we had a two night stay there for acclimatization. Steve felt much better the next day and recovered sufficiently that he was able to do the acclimatization hike we did in the afternoon.

As usual, the rest of the pictures are here: FB album for May 7th