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Alpine Ascents International's
Khumbu Trek Fall '99
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»Home »Dispatches »Photos »Trekking Map »Trek Itinerary »Bios |
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Hear the Team's Call from Nepal LISTEN: [RealPlayer] [Windows Media]
Download a FREE media player to listen.[Windows Media] [RealPlayer]
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What you see are some shots of us going up towards the Thame valley and where we spent the one night and visited the monastery the next morning, and you have a photo of a monk making some lung ta or prayer flags, and I think that'll be interesting because it's really done in a very old type of traditional manner in which the individual wood blocks are inked and then, from that point, drawn on to the five different cardinal element colors in the Tibetan universe, which of course, are red, white, yellow, green and blue; red signifying fire, white signifying air, green signifying vegetation or trees, blue being water, of course, and yellow being iron, or earth.
But we came down the following day and then moved over into a place called Khunde where there is a clinic that was established by Sir Edmund Hillary back in the 1960s. The place is very close to my heart because I was married there. And it's a fabulous village, Khunde, and its kind of sister city, Khumjung, really are the agricultural center of the Khumbu. Just fabulous places, very big and open, very unlike Namche.
What you can really see there, looking out to the north and the east, there's an incredible view of Ama Dablam, which dominates the valley, and then of course Everest, and Lhotse, and Nuptse directly to the north. Sort of to the east and south, you'll be able to see Kusum Kangru, and Thamserku or Kantega, otherwise known as the horse's saddle.
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But today we hiked up to Thyangboche, where the newly-established monastery is standing and still undergoing quite a bit of construction. We went in this afternoon and listened to some of the monks undergoing their studies for a little while this afternoon. But basically we've just been kind of taking it easy and getting out and taking some pictures, having a good time, and playing some hearts and enjoying some cognac from Geoffrey, who is one of our member on our trek.
I hope the digital images got to you, we'll be sending more dispatches to you shortly. Having a great time underneath fabulous, clear skies tonight; Ama Dablam kind of winking beautifully in a very clear sky. And we'll be reporting to you soon. Take care Mountain Zone, bye now.
—Pete Athans, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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