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Alpine Ascents International's
Khumbu Trek Fall '99
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»Home »Dispatches »Photos »Trekking Map »Trek Itinerary »Bios |
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Hear the Team's Call from Nepal LISTEN: [RealPlayer] [Windows Media]
Download a FREE media player to listen.[Windows Media] [RealPlayer]
Hi Mountain Zone. This is Pete Athans calling from Dingboche, about 14,200ft in the Khumbu. Hope you're getting this message and unfortunately I tried to send about a dozen images to you all, I'll continue throughout the night and see if I can get some to you.
However, today was an interesting day, definitely some kind of curious contrasts both in the topographical landscape and the cultural landscape as well. In looking at the monasteries of Thyangboche and Pangboche some very, very big differences and of course similarities. Thyangboche, of course, being probably really the center of religious [Unintelligible] in the Khumbu. It is by comparison to Pangboche a very new monastery. It was built really in the late 1920s early 1930s. Unfortunately destroyed by earthquake in the late 1930s, rebuilt around 1940, then destroyed once again by fire in 1989. It's been rebuilt with a lot of assistance from, of course, the Sherpa communities, artists from Bhutan and Rongbuk monastery on the north side over on the Everest side that people have been climbing since the 1920s. But that monastery is really a brand-spanking-new monastery as all the artwork inside is completely new and it has a very, very different feel from the Pangboche monastery several miles up the valley, which is approximately 350 years old. It's an amazing place.
Today we were very fortunate to have stumbled upon a puja ceremony, a blessing ceremony, which included a very systematic reading of the lineage of the Tharu, which is different from the Sherpa lineage but it's still revered. There were a number of people inside today both Sherpa and Westerners showing their respect and it was really quite a wonderful sight.
As far as the landscape that we are looking at, I've tried to send some digital images, I hope you'll get them of the different aspects of Ama Dablam. Every time you turn a corner on one of the ridges or faces it almost seems like an entirely different mountain. So, as we came up underneath the west face and around the west ridge, the mountain took on a decidedly different character as we continued around to the north, up the Imja Valley, toward Island Peak and the south face of Lhotse.
But that's where we are tonight. Everyone's definitely feeling the altitude here a little bit at just over 14,000ft. Our plan is to have a rest day here tomorrow and walk up towards Chukkung and Island Peak Base Camp and have a look around up there. And I hope to be able to give you another dispatch tomorrow and let you know how everybody's doing. But until then, rest well, as we will here, and I look forward to talking with you all soon. Bye, now.
—Pete Athans, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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