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Trek Dispatches
Satellite phone updates from Todd Burleson's Alpine Ascents Khumbu Trek
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Janow
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Mani Stones
Monday, April 13, 1998 — Thyangboche (12,680')
 | Hear Gordon Janow's call from Thyangboche
Click for [RealAudio] or [NetShow]
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Satellite phones for Everest cybercasts provided by MVS/USA
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Greetings from a lovely, sunny afternoon in downtown, Thyangboche. We got here about one o'clock this afternoon after hiking up the big hill. Everybody is in good shape, the winds have died down a little, and we're again feeling better from that lower altitude. It was a pretty nice walk today, again leaving most of the mountains behind. Everest and Lhotse in the background and Ama Dablam taking a different shape as we get to view it from the south side. So it was pretty neat overall.
The walk itself is pretty moderate, passed a lot of mani stones which are stones with Tibetan carvings on them. Mostly they are prayers, and you walk to the left of the mani stone every time you pass it, so that adds a couple of miles onto the trip as well.
They're pretty cool and sometime there are thousands and thousands of stones that are each hand carved with prayers pilled up, so that is a pretty neat part of going through there and a constant reminder of the Buddhism that's prevailing in this area.
The trails themselves were pretty busy, and again, loads and loads of Sherpas carrying unbelievable loads, mostly on their heads, with huge smiles on their faces. They show us up on the trail every day in small sneakers as we have our high-tech Mountain Hardwear gear and whatnot. It's just an amazing experience to be humbled by these people who happily walk up and down these mountainsides as we gasp for air.
We'll probably take it easy the rest of the afternoon. We'll get a blessing from the Rinpoche of Thyangboche in the morning before he heads off on a world tour starting with Japan. He'll be helicoptering out well before us. We'll probably visit the small museum in Thyangboche. We are looking forward to a sunny afternoon. Tomorrow we walk back down to Dudh Kosi river and back up again to Namche where we'll have a couple of days to shop and probably explore some more of the area which is, as you know, Namche's main bazaar area, and a pretty fascinating center of this Khumbu or Solo Khumbu, as it is known. Hope all is well with everybody checking in on the Mountain Zone, and we will keep you posted. Take care. Bye.
— Gordon Janow, Alpine Ascents International Program Director
