2011 - #1

On our way out--leaving to catch our flight off the mountain. 14 days, 0 showers, 1st helicopter ride, best trip of my life!
We started the trek down the mountain, it took us about 3 days. But, this is what happened to my shoes. They were killing my feet and my ankle bones felt like they were getting sheared little by little so Nick cut the sides out. Not fun.

Highest altitude we reached.
Here is Everest, the one in the back/middle. It is the black mountain!
Here is Nick and Lakpah, our sherpa at the top of Kala Patthar.
Another view of the Khumbu Glacier Fall where the summiters have to cross.
One of my FAVORITE pictures!!! This is Ama Dablam. Nick took this when he climbed Kala Patthar, where you can see the best view of Everest and the surrounding mountains. This simply makes my heart glad and I rejoice.
I felt like I was literally in a wind storm all day. I was amazed at how hard it blows up there; almost like a world of its own.

We are oh so small in the magnitude of this greatness!
This is the Khumbu Glacier fall. This is all the glaciers that sumitters cross with ladders, etc. to get to Camp 1 on their assent to the top of Everest.
We heard that somebody stole the sign and sharpied this on the rock, but we made sure that we were at 'base camp' haha! I didn't care at this point, b/c I made it!

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!! barely for me, haha! I was sucking wind like nobody's business! amazing. As I look back on this picture I cannot believe that we did this. It was incredible.

You can see above the rocks...this is what you walk on to get to base camp for the most part.
Everything is glaciers. A bit creepy I must say.
THe terrain changes SOO much! The trails, the ones that exist, are all rocks. It's like jumping rock to rock verses a trail it felt. This is on our way to base camp. We dropped our bags at the lodge and then kept going for a few hours to base camp. At this point the weather had drastically changed and it was snowing and we could hardly see ahead.
At this point we are above tree line. It gets super frigid and very desolate. It's kind of a lonely feeling. It was just me, nick, our sherpa, and the yaks as you can see above.


This is a traditional memorial for a Sherpa. It is doused in Bhuddist prayer flags.







Right behind our lodge!
See the stars???? This is one of the lodges that we stayed at.
My favorite night.

Hello friends,

It has been a fantastic start of a year here in India!! No lie. We have been able to do some trainings with partners, I (Emily) have been able to work more in the city where we live because we have been planted at home since we came back from Mt. Everest. Which, I still need to post the pictures of!! I have some updates coming that I want to talk to you about and the work that is going on here. First, I will start off by actually completing our trip to Mt. Everest!