The following is a guest blog by Jeff Rasley From the Prologue to my book, Bringing Progress to Paradise: “The avalanche struck when our team was hiking out from base camp after a failed attempt to climb 21,224-foot Mera Peak in the fall of 1999 in the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal. Fifteen climbing teams spent […]

This is a continuation of Trekking in Nepal in April 2011 – Part 7:  Baudha Himal Glacier to Nyak. Our departure from Nyak for Lakuwa meant dropping from 2340m. to the river 700m. below and then climbing back up to 2240m. on the far side.  For those who don’t speak metric system, that’s a drop […]

The following is a continuation of Part 6:  Rupina La to the Glacier. After the excitement of the Rupina La and the Baudha Himal Glacier, it was hard to imagine that our next day would be as interesting.  Quite to the contrary, as we descended the valley, the incredible natural beauty of this part of […]

The following is a continuation of Part 5:  Crossing Rupina La. With the pass behind us, the next day found us continuing downward toward the Baudha Himal Glacier, which would join our path from a valley coming from our left.  The weather warmed every hour as we descended and it was easy to feel that we […]

The following is a continuation of Part 4:  Barpak to Rupina La. Waking up at Rupina La Base Camp (4000 m., 13,123 ft.) was a uniquely Nepal experience.  The sounds of our wonderful hosts and kitchen staff offering us tea and washing water in the darkness of 4am on the side of a Himalayan mountain.  The […]

The following is a continuation of Part 3:  Baluwa to Barpak. Little did we know as we left Barpak, but we wouldn’t be passing through any more villages for the next several days, and the only people we would see would be the occasional woodcutters working from remote camps in the gradually steeper and steeper […]

The following is a continuation of Part 2, Gorkha to Baluwa. Leaving Baluwa meant leaving behind the winding riverbed of the Daraudi Khola where it branched at the Rangrung Khola  and heading up our first significant mountain to the village of Mandre.  We followed a steep and ancient trail with chortens, also called stupas (small […]

Kathmandu The second time we flew into Kathmandu was very different from the first.  For starters, we expected the slow, manual process of immigration and the resulting lines.  This time, though, we beat feet from the airplane and made sure were in the front.  Once through, we quickly met up with our guide and friend, […]

The following is a continuation of Part 1:  Kathmandu to Gorkha. We left Kathmandu and the Vajra Hotel in a large passenger van on a drive to the city of Gorkha.  Once in Gorkha, we met a surprise Maoist protest that shut down the road leading to our trail head.  This doesn’t mean we waited […]