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In the Footsteps of Buddha
Deboche - Monday, April 10, 2000
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Good Morning Mountain Zone, this is Vernon Tejas with Alpine Ascents' Everest 2000. Oh my goodness, we got snowed on last night. So beautiful, it's a veritable winter wonderland. All the mountains and the trees are frosted and it's dawned clear and cold and we can see all the way to Everest. Fantastic and I wish you were here to enjoy it with us.

Today we're planning on hiking up to Dingboche, where we'll camp for a couple days and let our bodies acclimatize. Then we'll proceed on up to the hill to Lobuche. Now the "che" ending, if you do not know, means "in the footsteps of Buddha" and he was reported to have traveled these very same trails and routes that we are traveling today.

Temperature last night was 25 degrees Fahrenheit and -4 degrees Celsius. It's clear and calm, as stated, and right here in Deboche the latitude is 27º50.384 minutes and our longitude is 86º46.218 minutes. And we're going to pass on the pulse and the oxygen sat this morning because we're off to an early start, so we'll make sure we have those for you mañana.

And we have, before we leave this area, a list of the birds sighted in here for all you naturalists out there in the crowd, and that includes an impeyan pheasant, seen at 3900 meters [voice in background: that's here], excuse me, that is here. Yes, and tahrs and blood pheasant; yellow-billed choughs; jungle crow; black-faced laughing thrush; a cold tip – and boy, it is cold this morning; orange-flanked bush robin; white-winged rose peak and a white-browed rose finch.

Now, you probably also wonder about those fanged rabbits we've been hearing so much about. We haven't actually seen them yet, but we have seen the scat, the droppings of them. They're fanged rabbits, it's pretty interesting. There's not too many animals of that nature in the world and, but there also fanged deer, called the musk deer, that lives in the same area.

Oh, and you might have wondered about the tahr — Ellie just informed me, that is not a bird, that is a wild goat, so don't get too confused. And we'll check in with you mañana. Ciao for now, from Nepal.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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