post turkey day turns.... skiing at Rainier- Paradise & Cowlitz moraines

Link to photo album 

 

Andy, Dani, Ross, Becky, and I met up for some Sunday turns at the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  Plenty of other forks skinning out towards Cowlitz Rocks looking for some powder amidst the crusty conditions all over the place.   The Cowlitz moraine delivered the goods....a nice shady north-facing run with just enough wind transported snow to get on top of the crust.   Great first day of the season!

Three weeks in Nepal & the Dhaulagiri circuit trek - daily trip journal entries & links to all the pics

Links to all our journal entries from the trip...three weeks in Nepal including two weeks trekking the Dhaulagiri circuit.

link to all the photos

Nepal 2012 - pre-trip planning and logistics
October 8th, Our first day in Kathmandu
October 9th, A tourist day in Kathmandu
October 10th, Driving to Beni and the start of our trek
October 11th, The trek begins! Babichaur to Phedi
October 12th, Phedi to Sibang
October 13th, Sibang to Naura
October 14th, Naura to Boghara
October 15th, Boghara to Dobang (8000ft)
October 16th, Dobang to Salagiri
October 17th, Salagiri to Italian Basecamp (11,500ft)
October 18th, Italian Basecamp to Japanese Basecamp (13,500ft) Finally in the alpine!
October 19th, Japanese Basecamp to Dhaulagiri Basecamp (15,200ft)
October 20th, Dhaulagiri Basecamp to Hidden Valley (16,000ft)
October 21st, Hidden Valley to Alubari (12,500ft)
October 22nd, Alubari to Jomsom (9000ft)
October 23rd, Pokhara or bust....
October 24th, unwinding in Pokhara
October 25th, leaving Pokhara, returning to Kathmandu
October 26th, Sightseeing in Kathmandu
October 27th, Mt.Everest and Boudhanath Temple
October 28th, Incheon, South Korea.

Sun, Oct 28th headin' home!

We were back to the airport at 11:30am to begin the marathon journey home.

The first three hours got us to Bangkok where we had a surprisingly good Thai dinner at the airport. I had joked that the Dairy Queen we saw in the airport probably had some interesting flavors, like a green tea blizzard and sure enough, they did have a green tea blizzard of which Becky happily partook.

A midnight departure from Bangkok got us to Korea early the next morning. There were no flights to Seattle that day, so we had planned on doing a couple bus tours of Seoul and staying at a hotel for our 35 hour layover, but we checked at the ticketing counter after landing and they got us onto an afternoon departure for Vancouver, BC. We did a short two hour bus tour out to a nearby Buddhist Temple in the city of Incheon. Despite the sleep deprivation, it was pretty cool to see the difference between a Nepali Buddhist temple and a Korean Buddhist temple. Had we actually stuck with the 35 hour layover, I'm not sure how we would've been able to rally for a full day bus tour of Seoul....maybe next time!

Around 6:30pm we took off for Vancouver, and got to watch the sun rise for the second time on Monday as we landed the next day (that same day?) in BC. A short layover, and a puddle-jumper to SeaTac and we were finally home!

link to all the photos

The Buddhist Temple we visited on our brief stop in Incheon...Grand Bridge in the background

Sat, Oct 27th, Mt.Everest & Boudhanath temple

Up at 5 and off to the airport soon after. There were lots of people lined up for flight-seeing trips! It seemed like every puddle jumper plane in Kathmandu was loaded with tourists, heading out for a mountain flight.  Over the course of the hour-long flight we saw so much amazing terrain; Shishapangma, Cho Oyu, Lohtse, and Everest. They even opened up the cockpit door mid-flight and let the tourists go up one by one to peep out the front windows.

Back in Kathmandu, we caught a cab ride out to Boudhanath temple. There was more gawking at amazing old architecture and a lazy brunch. We then ventured back into the zoo of Thamel that afternoon to buy gifts for family and eat our last dinner in town.

...the next day

link to all the photos

Mt.Everest!

and Cho Oyu too!

Fri, Oct 26th. Sightseeing in Kathmandu

We were out the door by 7:30, had breakfast at the Weisen Bakery, then took a cab ride out to Patan to see the ancient city out there. Very cool architecture, lovely gardens, and we had a leisurely cup of coffee at one of the museums. We also visited the Garden of Dreams, a beautiful collection of turn of the century western architecture and formal European style gardens. Then back in to Thamel for another dal bhat lunch and then a lazy afternoon at the hotel. After cocktails and cards in the hotel lounge, we hit a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner and on our way back to the hotel picked up canned coffee and pastries for our early morning Everest flight the next day.

...the next day

link to all the photos

Thurs, Oct 25th, back to Kathmandu

Ongchhu left the hotel early. He was on the morning bus to Kathmandu and we were flying out later. We toodled around town that morning, found a good cup of coffee and some pastries, and walked out to a big park to take in the view of Fishtail Peak and Annapurna in the distance.

We also got our lodging sorted out for our return to Kathmandu. Since we didn’t know when exactly we’d be returning, we didn’t have reservations, and an email from the Hotel Nepalaya made it sound like they didn’t have room for us the day we’d get back so it was on to Expedia to see what we could find. I was pretty set on the Hyatt after seeing it on the map the day we arrived at the start of our trip, but Becky had a good point that it wasn’t particularly close to downtown, so we compromised and opted for the Yak & Yeti, which was still walking distance to the Thamel district, but it was supposedly Kathmandu’s oldest five-star hotel and should certainly be much cushier than the Nepalaya.

The flight to Kathmandu was ridiculously fast compared to the seven hour rollercoaster we would’ve otherwise endured to get back via the roads. While at the domestic airport in Kathmandu, Becky got us two seats on the Everest flight-seeing trip on Saturday. The afternoon rapidly burned away with a trip to the Nepalaya to retrieve our duffle of clean clothes we’d left behind, getting lunch, and vegetating in front of the tv in our posh digs at the Yak & Yeti.

That night Ongchhu met us as the hotel and we all walked over to Thamel to have a “farewell” dinner with Furwa. We found out along the way that we’d be joined by four other trekkers who were embarking on a Kanchenjunga trek the next morning with Furwa and Ongchhu. We all met at a very nice Thai restaurant and had a really fun evening getting to know the two French, one German and one Ecuadorian trekker. One of the French guys had been trekking in Nepal NINE times! We took great delight in the fact that despite being at a Thai restaurant the French guy ordered chicken Cordon Bleu and the two Nepalis ordered dal bhat.

...the next day

link to all the photos

Wed. Oct 24th. unwinding in Pokhara

After a long night of sleep and a late breakfast, we tried to put that epic drive behind us and we spent the day touring the sights of Pokhara. We visited a Hindu temple that was in a massive natural cave that had a river running through it, we took a boat ride out to a nearby lake, went to the national mountaineering museum, and had some of the best dal bhat of the trip at a place our cab driver recommended.

That afternoon Ongchhu surprised us with the news that we’d be flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu. The itinerary stated we were supposed to drive, but I think since Furwa knew we had paid for an itinerary with a flight that we didn’t get, providing us with a forty minute flight to Kathmandu instead of a seven hour bus ride would make us happy. And it did.

...the next day

link to all the photos