Competing with Yaks and Donkeys

Hello all! I want to start out by saying thank you, thank you, and thank you for all of your love and support you have given my dad so far! I will, without a doubt, make sure he sees each and every one of your heartfelt comments, emails, and messages to him. All of your support, as well as the donations we have received so far, have been nothing short of amazing and we, as a family, appreciate every one of you! I will continue to post these blog posts based off of journal entries my dad has already sent me and continues to send to me. Enjoy! –Kendall

Journal Entry 4/4/21

At this point in time, I have completely lost track of days. This is our second day trekking up to Everest Base Camp (EBC). On the first day, we flew from Phaplu to LUKLA on the helicopter. We then trekked 4.5 miles to Phadking and the Sunrise Guest House. The trek was not too difficult, but rising altitude between 7000-8000 feet made it more of a challenge. 

There are beautiful views of the mountains as well as the valleys as we trek towards EBC. Often we are competing with yaks and donkeys for the trekking path. So far the weather has been pretty good most of the time with only a few periods of rain. Everyone here has been getting along pretty well. Each night (on our trek to EBC) we stay in tea houses; typically, a new one each evening. The tea houses include very basic facilities with virtually no heat anywhere in the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, or really any place else for that matter. Most of the time, the bathrooms have to be shared by everyone on the floor along with showers; sometimes they have hot showers and sometimes they don’t. The Wi-Fi in every one of these facilities has been terrible… virtually nonfunctional, which has been pretty frustrating. The rooms only have very basic beds and that’s about it; some barely have enough room to put your bags.

After day two, we end up in Namche Bazar. This is basically the largest town in the Everest National Park at the foothills of the Himalayas. There are beautiful mountain views anywhere you look from the city that sits on the side of a mountain itself. Dogs, cows, and yaks roam around everywhere along with little kids and people from countries all over the world. 

On day three we trekked over a small mountain ridge and had tea at the highest hotel in the world, Hotel Everest View. We then went to one of the Sherpas homes in a nearby village where we had lunch and then hiked back to Namche. Tomorrow we check out and head up to our next destination, EBC. 

My biggest challenge so far has been being able to walk and climb efficiently. I find myself often out of rhythm and breathing too fast, which makes it difficult for long endurance treks as well as climbing. It is also critical (in these cold temperatures, typically between 40° and 50°) to avoid sweating since it will basically freeze on your body and make the trek even more difficult. Therefore, wearing the right clothing and layering is important at all times…figuring this out has also been quite a challenge for me. 

Thank you all for continuing to follow along!

Talk soon, 

Kris
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get. – Michael Phelps