Hi from Lukla. A beautiful spring day for our 7 hour trek from Namche Bazaar. In the two weeks since we left Lukla the fields have turned green and the temperature has risen. We descended to 9200 ft before climbing up to the town (9800 ft) to spend our last night before flying to Kathmandu tomorrow. Tonight we'll say goodbye to our sirdar (head Sherpa) and his three assistants as well as our water boy and yak driver. We felt like we returned to civilization last night when we enjoyed a hot shower and flush toilets for the first time in too many days to count. Everyone feels a great sense of accomplishment and looks forward to the city tomorrow. It's nice to feel superhuman at this altitude with all the "extra" oxygen in the air; when we hit Kathmandu we may be unstoppable! All the physiological measurements show the wonderful effects of the decreased altitude - we can do our two minute step test without even breathing hard, dropping our oxygen saturation, or raising our pulse more than 20 points. It's my last note - hope you've been amused at our craziness! I leave Nepal at 3 pm Sat my time (2 am CST), fly thru New Dehli and Chicago, and hope to arrive Springfield at 10:30 Sunday morning. Ought to be quite chipper at work on Monday (hint-take care of me, team!) Tom
Monday, June 8, 2009
Trek Tales with Dr. Tom Prater: Part 6
History of Trek Tales.
Hi from Lukla. A beautiful spring day for our 7 hour trek from Namche Bazaar. In the two weeks since we left Lukla the fields have turned green and the temperature has risen. We descended to 9200 ft before climbing up to the town (9800 ft) to spend our last night before flying to Kathmandu tomorrow. Tonight we'll say goodbye to our sirdar (head Sherpa) and his three assistants as well as our water boy and yak driver. We felt like we returned to civilization last night when we enjoyed a hot shower and flush toilets for the first time in too many days to count. Everyone feels a great sense of accomplishment and looks forward to the city tomorrow. It's nice to feel superhuman at this altitude with all the "extra" oxygen in the air; when we hit Kathmandu we may be unstoppable! All the physiological measurements show the wonderful effects of the decreased altitude - we can do our two minute step test without even breathing hard, dropping our oxygen saturation, or raising our pulse more than 20 points. It's my last note - hope you've been amused at our craziness! I leave Nepal at 3 pm Sat my time (2 am CST), fly thru New Dehli and Chicago, and hope to arrive Springfield at 10:30 Sunday morning. Ought to be quite chipper at work on Monday (hint-take care of me, team!) Tom
Hi from Lukla. A beautiful spring day for our 7 hour trek from Namche Bazaar. In the two weeks since we left Lukla the fields have turned green and the temperature has risen. We descended to 9200 ft before climbing up to the town (9800 ft) to spend our last night before flying to Kathmandu tomorrow. Tonight we'll say goodbye to our sirdar (head Sherpa) and his three assistants as well as our water boy and yak driver. We felt like we returned to civilization last night when we enjoyed a hot shower and flush toilets for the first time in too many days to count. Everyone feels a great sense of accomplishment and looks forward to the city tomorrow. It's nice to feel superhuman at this altitude with all the "extra" oxygen in the air; when we hit Kathmandu we may be unstoppable! All the physiological measurements show the wonderful effects of the decreased altitude - we can do our two minute step test without even breathing hard, dropping our oxygen saturation, or raising our pulse more than 20 points. It's my last note - hope you've been amused at our craziness! I leave Nepal at 3 pm Sat my time (2 am CST), fly thru New Dehli and Chicago, and hope to arrive Springfield at 10:30 Sunday morning. Ought to be quite chipper at work on Monday (hint-take care of me, team!) Tom
