Namche

We arrived in Namche the day before yesterday. Namche is pretty nice but very touristy. Yesterday Brian and I took a long hike up onto a ridge above the village. We started the hike by following the main path up to the Everest View but we quickly tired of the crowds and headed off in a different direction. One of our porters went with us but when Brian and I started hiking off the trail to head straight for the ridge we wanted to be up on he absolutely refused to follow us. We thought it was pretty funny. We climbed up onto the ridge which was at about 4200 meters and got great views of Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam. We are both doing ver well with the altitude and the extra day that we've taken here should help us even more as we go higher. We are both ready to be moving further up the trail.

The hike to Namche was very nice but the trail is incredibly touristy. We've started joking that we're on the GC (Geriatric Circuit) because nearly all of the tourists are older men. Brian and I are hoping to do a trek to a much more remote area with far less tourists when we are finished climbing. I'm really looking forward to that. From Namche we are headed up to Island Peak and then to Lobuche Peak. We dropped Pokalde from our plans because it would have been very expensive to get that permit. We are hoping to scramble a few smaller peaks in the Gokyo Valley or towards Thame. We should be back in Namche in less than three weeks and I will try to post again then. I hope everyone is doing well and I'm looking forward to seeing you all when I get back.