Date: 2018-10-14
From: Namche Bazaar

To: Thame
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Scout: In the dark of a Nepal night I make my way to the bathroom three or four times. Peeing. No it¢s not just because I¢m 66-year old guy. Staying hydrated out here is the difference between keeping on trekking or being forced off. So I pee. How do I make sure I don¢t bang a knee or bark a shin? Every night my grandson lights the way. In the dim light of the screen saver a photo of my eight-month-old grandson lights the way. (Now I don¢t have to turn in my grandparent¢s license. I have a legitimate reason to show you his photo.)It was another sunny day. We know not to take this for granted. We could be climbing, sweating just as much and all this movie set, shangri-la could be hidden, covered by a veil of clouds.  Back home you¢ve driven through small towns where it felt like there was a church on every corner. Here the Buddhist Monasteries are few and far between, but every one hundred, every fifty, every twenty feet on the trail there are sacred Mani stones. Ming-ma makes sure that we always pass these on the left side, moving clockwise, the one way. Tibetan prayers are carved in to the living stone. Pemba, our lead Sherpa, just told us as I type this that there are no more Mani stone carvers. The art has been lost.Pemba says there is no movement at present to preserve or relearn the skill, though they do try to preserve the stones.From Thame, todays¢s destination, we went on a field trip this afternoon. We climbed to 13,000 feet to the Thame Monastery. The building felt almost carved into a sheer rock wall. Inside, a lead monk with a basso profundo voice chanted prayers with a dozen other monks. We entered with shoes off and sat cross-legged. It could have been centuries ago. We sleep at 12,500 feet. In two more nights I will sleep higher than I have slept before.   Frodo: True confessions: I was the only one of our crew of seven who did not hike up to the monastery. Even though it sounded like a cool field trip, Lisa East said the hike up felt like a death march, so I have no regrets. It¢s not easy for me to admit, but I am the weak link here. Not a position I am used to being in. Even Lisa East, who I think is a bit older than I and almost as short, hiked somewhat faster today than I did. Barney stayed back with me some of the time and Lisa was with me some of the time, but some of the time it was only very-patient Pemba and me. Ouch. In trying to figure out why I get so fatigued going uphill, I think a big part of it is the size of the steps. For someone as short as I am, anything taller than a standard step is tough. And the difficulty seems to increase exponentially with the height.Anyway, I¢m hanging in there and I am very much enjoying other aspects of the trek - particularly the extraordinary views and the great company. No one has made me feel at all resented or anything less than respected.Okay, that¢¢s enough blubbering.This evening a Sherpa spent some time with our group; he lost the tips of his fingers and toes while working on Everest. Now he paints and he sells his paintings and cards that feature his paintings. We all gave him some business; Scout and I now have a card with a picture of the Tengboche Monastery and lots of native animals (including a cute Yeti). When you reflect on how the mountaineering industry has affected the Sherpas,it seems that much of it has been negative. Most of the people who have died on Everest and other Himalayas peaks, most have been Sherpas, working to help Westerners and others to attain their goal of reaching the summit. I wonder what their feelings are on the subject.