And up to Namche

So clearly Kim has taken to blogging like a fish to water so to provide a teaser of blogging style post week two here goes.

Today was a short hike up 600 meters to Namche which at 3480m is the first test of acclimatisation which I think we both passed as feeling great and enjoying the stunning scenery. Along the path we had our first view of Everest in the distance along the valley. The summit has its characteristic long comets tail of snow being swept off by the jet stream doing its work. Clearly today would not be a good summit day. In May ahead of the monsoon arriving the winds push up the jet stream for a few days of less wind allowing for summit bids.

We arrived in Namche and were greeted by rows of quaint stone houses arranged in a horseshoe looking down the valley. Namche sits at the cross-roads for trekkers who either head up the Khumbu or towards the Gokyo Lakes and potentially further up to Cho-Oyo base camp. It is also the transition point where loads get swapped from speedy donkeys to the slow and sturdy yaks. The town hosts the worlds highest Illy cafe where we enjoyed a cappuccino with a brownie and met a New Zealand couple who had just completed a month of trekking. Exchanged views on Ranulph Fiennes' aborted quest to cross Antartica in the winter as he spent a year(!!) in Antartica extending the New Zealand research station.

On the streets I bumped into Vern Tejas who guided my trip to Vinson four years ago and is again leading the Alpine Ascents team up Everest this year. His speciality is 'solo-first-winter-ascents' and had taught us on how to build a snow cave complete with cooking corner within 20 minutes. Hope that won't be necessary this time. He holds the record of completing the Seven Summits within 134 days and has done the round an incredible 9 times! I will be very happy if I can complete one round within 9 years... Vern is on his way down again to pick up the second team: "Arabs With Altitude" who are filming an Everest documentary. Sure we will see more of them when they reach EBC.

Tomorrow it's a 730 start to head up to see the Hillary School and on to the rebuilt Tengboche monastery.