In November we returned to Nepal after a very long time of being away.  The concept of Mountain Spirits was born in Nepal and for many years, we went year if not twice a year (spring and fall). This time it had been around 8 years which was way too long to be away! So many things have changed and it seems mostly for the better. The positives are that Nepal has a rising middle class and a higher quality of living (ummm…squat toilets were hard to find if that tells you anything!)  The downside is that they have built roads pretty much on all of our old trails (sans the Everest region) … the Annapurna Circuit has a road around it, Mustang has a road, and there is a road almost to Lukla now.  The other issue is that yaks are out and helicopters are in.  So if you go to the Everest area in the spring, you will likely have helicopter noise all day long transporting climbers and their equipment to basecamp.  We chose to go late fall – after running trips in Nepal for almost 30 (!!!) years, we know that the weather is more stable and the tourists have largely abandoned the area.  Yes, it’s a tiny bit colder but we still spent the majority of our days hiking in t-shirts under clear blue skies.  The main thing that has changed in  the trekking world is that Nepal is now really a teahouse trekking experience (versus camping).  The teahouses have are sporting hot showers (well, some!) and flush toilets.   

This particular trip we coined the “Heart of the Khumbu” because the trail we followed was loosely heart shaped.  We flew into Lukla and trekked to Namche, Tengboche, Pangboche, Ama Dablam basecamp, Phortse, Machhermo, Gokyo, Gokyo Ri (17, 500′), over Renjo La Pass (17, 800′), back to Namche and eventually back to Lukla.  What an incredible journey with an incredible group!  Enjoy the photos 🙂