Author Archives: The Year I Touched My Toes

About The Year I Touched My Toes

In my 50s, my husband and I trekked to Everest Base Camp in 2015. The blog shares our treks, training and tips. WARNING: This amazing part of the world can be addictive. https://theyearitouchedmytoes.com/

Stupa at Khumjung

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Two photos of a Stupa in Khumjung taken from different directions and two years apart. Photos taken in December 2013 taken end of September 2015, two earthquakes later.

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There is a beautiful mani wall along the walk in from Namche Bazaar.

Stupa at Khumjung in the Khumbu region of Nepal

I assume the cracks are from the second earthquake on May 12 2015. The small boy in the photo has his back pack on and had just come out from the Edmund Hillary School, the biggest school in the Khumjung.

April 25 earthquake magnitude 7.8

May 12 earthquake magnitude 7.3

Two Earthquakes and Two Films – another of my posts

Worth a look earthquake 2015 – Great Himalyas Trail website

Drying Hair and Potatoes in the Khumbu: Behind the Scenes EBC Trek

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Drying potatoes in the sun in Pangboche Nepal

Pangboche, Everest Base Camp Trail, December 2013

Wordless Wednesday

Earth, Dingboche Ridge-top, Nepal

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A Favourite Day on the Everest Base Camp Trek

Dingboche Ridge-top Everest Base Camp Trek

To celebrate Earth Day April 22

Read about our Acclimatisation Walk to Dingboche Ridge-top probably one of my favourite days on our trek.

Or the walk into Dingboche or the walk out to Lobuche.

Daily Post: Earth Photo Challenge

Things I Liked List

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Things I liked on the Everest Base Camp Trek

Boxes of ancient papers Khumjung Manastery Nepal

  1. momos
  2. the first day walking to Phakding
  3. walking everyday
  4. talking with Dawa in Lukla
  5. hearing the rush of the river
  6. hearing the yak bells
  7. the vista in Dingboche
  8. the feeling having climbed to the top of Kala Patthar
  9. seeing eagles soaring high above
  10. the boxes of papers in the monastery at Khumjung
  11. the hot shower in Dingboche
  12. hearing the stone masons and the noise of the town above Namche
  13. the donkey trains
  14. sitting at our meals at the end of the day with a sense of achievement
  15. water
  16. black tea
  17. everything yak

with inspiration from this lovely blog  https://listsofthingswelike.com/

via Daily Prompt: Minimal

Dawa Phuti Sherpa Community Leader

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Dawa Phuti Sherpa in the Paradise Lodge Lukla

For some time I have planned to write a post about this amazing woman who I met on both our Everest Base Camp treks. Both our treks started out from her  Paradise Lodge in Lukla after breakfast, after our early flight to Lukla. We stayed our last night in Lukla before our morning flights back to Kathmandu at the end of our treks.

This photo was taken after our evening meal in her lodge in October 2015. Due to the two earthquakes that year, it was a quiet night guest wise in the lodge and so she had some time to sit down and talk to me about her work in the Khumbu. The reason I knew to ask about her work in the community was  because on our 2013 trek we found a hotel directory with some information about Dawa and her husband Ang Pasang.

I have taken the information from the directory.

Dawa Phuti Sherpa

  • Born in Khunde
  • First Sherpa woman from the Khumbu region to attend school
  • Served as a nurse in the Khunde Hospital
  • Served as a teacher in the Khumjung School (The Edmund Hilary School)
  • Has been working in the hospitality industry for thirty years
  • Chairperson of the women’s group
  • Board member of the Himalayan Trust Nepal
  • Board member of Pasang Lhamu Nique Hospital Lukla
  •  Recipient of the Friends of Khumbu
  • Recipient of the Peace Ambassador
  • Recipient of the Nava Durga award

Needles to say she is very busy with running the lodge and all the community work she continues to do. What better day than International Women’s Day, to acknowledge Dawa Phuti Sherpa’s wonderful work in the Khumbu both past and present.

Paradise Lodge Dining Room

Inside dining room at Paradise Lodge talking with Dawa

Nava Durga Award in Nepal

Celebrates Womanhood started in 2002 as an annual event to celebrate the vision, inner beauty and power of women. The objective is to honour women in various fields of arts, education, sports, community service, health and industry and to applaud their dedication to their respective fields. Shrijana Singh Yonjan, the mind behind the event says that each award has been named after a goddess and the attribute she signifies. The awards recognise nine different fields of achievement (Nava Durga).

Nav Dugra Maa

Nava Durga Maa

Leaving Lukla Memorial to Pasang Lhamu the first Nepalese woman to summit Everest.

Pasang Lhamu Memorial Gate outside of Lukla

 

The Everest Base Camp Marathon

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Everest Base Camp.org Marathon winner 2013

There are two in fact. The official Everest Base Camp Marathon is the Tenzing – Hillary Everest Marathon held annually on 29 May the date of their Everest summit. The biannual one held in November is run by a UK charity organisation and raises money from the event for community projects in Nepal. Both marathons finish in Namche Bazaar. Continue reading →

Pop-Up Restaurant at Everest Base Camp Aims for Peak of Fine Dining

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Talk about an “extreme foodies wish Luist”. Would love to know what they all ate. If you could do this where would it be ?

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chefs are trekking thousands of feet to prepare fancy food in the cold

Trekkers pass through a glacier at the Mount Everest base camp, Nepal.

The peaks of fine dining just keep getting higher and higher.

A caravan of roving chefs and their 15 guests is currently making its way up the Himalayas toward the base camp at Mount Everest, where, 17,500 feet above sea level and amid the lashing winds and bone-penetrating chill of the Nepalese winter, food will be served.

The One Star House Party, as the project has been dubbed, is preparing 16 more such destination dining experiences, one a month, through 2018, though not all of the destinations are so extreme. Among the chefs involved is James Sharman, a onetime chef de partie at Noma, the influential, soon-to-close restaurant that put Copenhagen on the global culinary map.

The Nepal journey is costing…

View original post 234 more words

Todd Samson and How Not to Trek in the Himalayas

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Todd Samson’s Salute to Sherpas and Climbing Lobuche

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What Todd Samson has been getting up to lately is far from tame. Todd Samson is an Australian Canadian television celebrity is currently in a show called Body Hack.

Each episode looks at a different group of people who are involved in extreme activity and how the body copes with it. Taking it one step further Todd Samson walks in their shoes for some time. The Nepalese episode looked at the life of the Sherpa people who work as porters along the Everest Base Camp Trail. Continue reading →

Fashion on the Track

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Striding Through Pheriche in the Khumbu

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Here I am walking through Pheriche looking like the Michelin Man. There are lots of terrible shots of me on the trek with hat hair, up way too close etc. Showers are a rare thing on the track, so is clean hair and there are no mirrors. Complete with the hat and given today is the first Tuesday in November, the day of the nation stopping Melbourne Cup (horse race) I decided on a twist the Fashion on the Track theme. Tongue in cheek of course. However my ensemble does show off some accessories that you shouldn’t leave home for Everest Base Camp without. Continue reading →

A Snapshot of the Bridges to EBC

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Bridges the Traffic Lights of the Everest Base Camp Trek

via Daily Prompt: Bridge

Small bridge before Gorak Shep going to EBC

The last bridge before Gorak Shep, the last place with lodges before Everest Base Camp. That’s me and our porter guide just ahead. Continue reading →

Weather Forecast at EBC

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Believe It or Not

It’s true there is weather station on the Everest Base Camp Trek Trail

Everest Base Camp Trail Weather Pyramid

Italian Weather Pyramid out of Lobuche in the direction of Gorak Shep

The Weather Pyramid at Everest Base Camp or thereabouts. The Trainer walked there by himself. I decided to stay in the lodge and rest up for the next to big days. Built by the Italians he joked he was in search of a short black coffee …

Sadly since we visited in 2015 the Weather Pyramid was defunded by the Italian Government and I have read the structure has been turned into a lodge of sorts,

Climbing to Namche Bazaar

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Day Two Phakding to Monjo 2013  and Phakding to Namche Bazaar 2015

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Above is the suspension bridge at Upper Phakding. We stayed at the lodge just above the end of the bridge in the photo on the way back down from our 2013 trek. The bridge on the Everest Base Camp Trek Blog and  my donkey video.

PLANNING THE TREK BY THE SEASONS

When planning our trek for late September we expected some rain. Continue reading →

Donkey Central at Phakding – Chuk Chuk – Video

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Donkeys on the trail to EBC

Keeping the slow donkeys moving from the safety of the sidelines. CHUK!

Rule Number Two: Give Way to the donkeys too.

I posted this video on Facebook on our first trek in November December 2013. It was taken on my iphone and shows the number of donkeys on the trail and why you don’t want to be on the bridge at the same time as donkey herd. Continue reading →

Heading Out for Everest Base Camp – Day One Lukla to Phakding

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Walking out of Lukla

trek n.1. a long difficult journey, esp. on foot  2. a journey or stage, esp by ox wagon            3. make a trek  – trekker 

Saying Goodbye in Melbourne

In September 2015 my husband and I flew to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp. At the departure hall at Melbourne Airport saying goodbyes to our adult daughters,  the eldest hugged her father and said

                          “Dad, go easy on Mum remember it’s her holiday too.”  She turned                                      to me and said “Mum, ….man up.”

And with that sage advice… Continue reading →