The morning began with breakfast and a spiritual blessing ritual for climbers. The owner of the tea house and his wife prepared a special rice wine in a silver,goldish ornate cup. One by one we placed our right ring finger in the wine, flicked our finger to the sky 3 times. We repeated this for a second time then tasted the wine off our finger. After that the man placed a special silk scarf around our necks, tied them and blessed us for a safe journey. Very cool. We then braided the scarfs and ties them to our backpacks to keep us safe. Very cool ritual. Made me feel like I was part of something very special even though I am not summiting.

Then it was off from the comforts of Namche to a more rural route and stay in Thame. Thame is a very very little village, but we went there because our head Sherpa, Lakpa, is from there. He is a Sherpa legend. He has summited Everest 18 times which is only 3 off the record. We stayed at his sisters tea house which was simple, but nice. We could definitely tell we were getting more rustic – spartan I would say.

The trail to thame was nice as it was the road less traveled. Much less people and yaks. Basically we had the trail to ourself. We hiked about 5 hours along the river going up and down all day. It was my favorite hike because it was so peaceful. The weather was sunny during the am which made it warm. The sun here is very strong so it heats you up. You have to wear buffs, bandanas over your head and face all day. This serves 2 purposes. It keeps the sun off of you and it protects your lungs from the dust and yak poop that is all over the trail. They call it the khimbhu caugh which you get from the trail. It’s not good so you try to avoid it by covering you face all day. Upper respiratory infections and high altitude don’t mix.

We climbed to about 12,500 feet to thame and then we went another 500 ft 13,000. ft) up to the monastery above thame. As the day and hike moved on the clouds and fog moved in. The temperature drops but it actually feels good as long as you are layered up. The clouds, fog made it hard to really see where we were at. When the morning came the sky was clear and it took my breathe away to see our surroundings. Beautiful, snow covered mountains. I posted a pic as part of this blog so you can see. All I could say was wow.

At night everyone meets for dinner in the main room. Each tea house has 1 large room that everyone eats in and hangs out. It has heat! Sometimes wood and sometimes they burn yak poop. There will probably not be any wood burning places as we get higher and above the tree line. Yak poop will be it, but it will keep me warm. In the tea house at night we sit around and talk and fight over the very weak internet signal that you pay for. When everyone gets on it gets real slow. Most folks start heading to bed between about 8:30-9:00. Once you go to your room you jump into you sleeping bag to get warm. Nothing else really to do in your little box room. The schedule is pretty much the same each day. Packing begins at 6 am, breakfast 7, hike at 8.