Trek Day 10: Everybody to Everest Team at Base Camp & Live NBC Interview!

Paul & Denise returned to Base Camp from 5 days up at Camp 2 at 21,500 feet to meet the Everybody to Everest Team who all arrived at BC around noon today! All are doing well, the entire E2E team made it to Kala Pattar at 18,500 feet yesterday and enjoyed the great views of Everest BC and the Khumbu Icefall.

Other exciting news, tune in to KNBC News for a LIVE interview via satellite phone TONIGHT (Wednesday 5:00 pm news local Southern California). Segment will likely air between 5:30 - 5:45 pm.

Trek Day 6 & 7: Higher and Higher

Today was a landmark day for a majority of the group. We hiked from Dingboche (14,100ft) to Chhukhung (15,200ft) where we enjoyed lunch before returning down the hill. This point is higher than Mt. Whitney which is the highest point on the continental US. It began to snow as we all gathered together in the lodges restaurant to enjoy Nepalese pizza.

One more day to acclimate in Dingboche with a quick morning hike. While we enjoyed the Nepalese pizza Nancy and Tina told our lead Sherpa we wanted to eat more traditional food lie the Sherpas. So after our hike today we feasted on french fries and Sherpa stew. The stew was great, but let's hope we don't eat our words.

Trek Day 5: Temperatures Dropping & Elevation Climbing

We traveled through the Rhododendrum forests on our way to Dingboche (14,100ft). Along the way we spotted a wild goat on the hillside. We arrived at the Snow Lion Lodge where we will be for three nights. It dropped below freezing for the first night, but we enjoyed hot showers for 350 ruppees ($5 US).

Trek Day 4: Tengboche Monastery

We left Namche and headed for Tengboche (12,700ft). The monastery is the center of town with only a small trekking lodge and a bakery in the town. The monastery was a beautifully ornate building the boasted a 15ft high Buddha statue. The bakery served warm sourdough bread and had a sign that read, "next stop for fresh bread France". Today was Camille's birthday and we celebrated with a traditional Nepalese curry know as Dalibut  and delicious chocolate cake from the local bakery. The Sherpas gifted Camille with scarfs that represented long life and good luck on our trek.

Trek Day 3: Layover in Namche Bazarre

We spent the morning hiking up to the Mt. Everest view lodge where we enjoyed majestic views and a spot of tea. The hike passed the local airport which was little more than a dirt air strip. We climbed an extra thousand feet to help us sea level people acclimate to the higher elevations. On the trek back to the Moonlight Lodge we stopped at the Sherpa cultural center that included an exhibit of all the Sherpas who have summited Everest. Dozens of men have summited, but only a handful of women with the the first woman summiting in 1993.

Trek Day 2: First Look

We left the Mt. Resort (8,600ft) and started our climb towards Namache (11,461ft). This hiking day took us across seven bridges. Tina triumphantly conquered here fear of bridges with the help from her team; Jeff and the Sarah Bear. After lunch we had our first look at Mt. Everest. Although a little obscured by clouds it seemed like the realization of a long dream. When we reached Namache we check in to the Moonlight Lodge where we enjoyed Yak steak for dinner. Our steak was accompanied by green beans (which were actually purple) and pom frites. Yak steak tastes a lot like Salibury steak, but chewier.

Trek Day 1

Our team of 23 adds 6 Sherpas and 12 porters. The Sherpas are our guides while the porters carry over gear. They carry two or three bags that each weight 25-35 pounds. Often they hike in flip-flops and use a strap that wraps around their head to carry the heavy load. At the end of day one we hiked about five miles and ended up at the beautiful Mt. Resort. A couple of the team members finished the day with a short yet steep hike up to a monastery.

Sarah Bear

The Sarah Bear is not your average teddy bear. The Sarah bear is named after Sarah Reinertsen who is a CAF beneficiary. The bear is also an above knee amputee complete with its own prosthetic leg. The bear helps raise money for CAF in the states and here in Nepal it continues to inspire the team. Tina brought the bear to pass from one team member to another in recognition of that team members contribution to the team. Each morning at breakfast the bear is passed to the next deserving member.

Landing in Lukla

The 30 minute flight to Lukla was on a small plain that Fritz just barely fit on. We were in small jump seats and the stewardess passed out candy and cotton. The candy to help clear your ears and the cotton to stick in your ears to dampen the noise of the engines. We flew only a couple hundred feet above some of the hills, but the landing was by far the most intense. The short runway ended in front of the tea house where we gathered for our pre-hike debriefing.

Touring Kathmandu

With the addition of Julie and our friendly neighbors to the North our group of 23 is finally complete. We jumped on a bus that took us on a tour of the city. The tour included a stop at a sacred temple of Shiva. This temple is where people bring the dead to be cremated. The ceremony happens right on the river and is preformed by the oldest son. Next stop on the tour was the Bouddhanath Stupa. This huge white structure is solid and is a sacred place of prayer. The prayer flags that adorn the stupa are said to represent the five elements, or the five different postures of Buddha: space (blue), water (white), fire (red), air (green) and earth (yellow).

Yak and Yeti

We arrived in Kathmandu where we checked into the Hotel Yak and Yeti. This is considered a five star hotel and it stands out from the rest of the city. Kathmandu is a fast paced city with with traffic that makes LA look tame. The streets are adorned with vendors and colorful shops along the cobble paved roads. There are a lot of dogs running around that seem to find the most peculiar places to sleep, like in the middle of an intersection!

Somewhere over Calcutta

For the last leg of our journey we took air aboard Flying Dragon airlines. We first endured a layover in Bangladesh before crossing paths with a nasty storm over Kathmandu. A preview of the coming monsoon season, warm rains accompanied by large thunder storms in
addition the pilot informed us the the airport was closed! As we circled over Kathmandu we wondered if we were going to have to turn back to Bangladesh. After two hours of circling above the city we finally landed n Kathmandu. 38 hours of traveling, a whirlwind tour of Hong Kong and we made it!

Hong Kong Express

We arrived safely in Hong Kong where we met up with our northern California friends. Our crew of 17 jumped on board a tour bus to pick up Lou and Branden who arrived in town a few days earlier. On our way to their hotel we crossed the Tsing Ma bridge which is the 6th largest span suspension bridge in the world. After our additional two team mates decided to come down from their lofty luxury perch we were off and running. We headed up to "The Peak" which provided us with spectacular views of the city and then headed down to the historic Stanley Market. For lunch we enjoyed an authentic dim sum meal and discovered that apparently proper dim sum etiquette dictates that you only use the bowl and not your plate...Opps! Silly Americans.

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

The majority of the team departs tonight from Los Angeles. We're headed for Hong Kong where we'll rendezvous with the rest of the team. Many thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far! If not for the amazing support of all our friends and families, none of this would have been possible. The flight to Hong Kong is a whopping 13 hours and crosses fourteen time zones! From there, after a bit of sightseeing, we meet up with everyone else and head for Kathmandu.

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