Downtown Dogtown

Kathmandu. Now it's the time of the Tihar, the Hindu festival of light. Lots of colours, people, dogs barking (you don't need a wake-up call here, the dogs wake you up, and by the way there's 50 000 street dogs in the Kathmandu valley), Lights, people dancing, traffic, "taxi, taxi", police, food, coffee, smells, music, more food, more colours, reading newspapers and feeling intellectual, reading books - feeling intellectual. Right now I'm fighting my way through "The Moor's last Sigh" by Salman Rushdie. Great book, great author. Reading the book is like eating a big cake; tastes greate and fills your stomach but you can't eat that much at once...Like a dessert.

Check out the band "Frantic Sunday" from Uppsala in Sweden: www.myspace.com/franticsunday

By the way...

I'll post large copies of the photos once I get back home. Will let you all know!

Ciao!

Pictures!

Thanks to my little Ricoh Camera that actually captures a little copy together with the RAW photo I normally shoot in, I finally got some shots from the mountains to show you all!

Enjoy!

Here's Filip, enjoying the view thats out of view, Lobuche East. Photo is taken just outside the village of Lobuche facing in the direction of Pheriche.

Here's me, standing half an hour above the Pyramid that you come across on the way to Gorak Shep. Behind me is Nuptse, our trusty companion along the upper regions of the trek.

Lobuche Base Camp, right before I had one of those awful Spaghetti Bolgnaise that I brought. Those boots have been worn in for a full 4 weeks, but I wasn't sure if it was the boots or Filip and me that smelled the worse.

Having a good day of hiking and exploring over the town of Dingboche. We found a little boulder with this nice view that we just had to try a few moves on.

Today we took a wild taxi ride out to a local climbing wall. We had a good time and met a Nepali Mountain guide that's been working in Norway! No need for a belay device here, having a 10 mm rope gone 15mm through the anchor does the job!

Enjoying the good life...

So, back in Namche now after the climb. Enjoying the good life; eating lots of food, even more espressos och meeting lots of great people. Life is good. Our plans now is to be here for another 3-4 days and then head back to Kathmandu.

Ciao.

Update!

Where do I start... haha. First things first. While we stayed in Kathmandu I managed to pick up a nasty little thing from some bad food thats been eating me ever since. The thing's name is Giardia!

After spending a week above Dingboche and a day in Lobuche Base Camp we decided to go to the Clinic in Pheriche since I felt real sick and threw all sorts of things up. Once there I got the drugs necessary to treat Giardia and some other things. 4 Days later I felt ok and we made for Lobuche East High Camp. What I didnt think of was the fact that 2500 meters in three days perhaps could be a little too much for someone whose lost 10 kilos in three weeks because of Giardia and not eating. So once we made a little trip up to 5550 meters on the rock ramp on Lobuche East I decided back in Camp that Id rather skip the climbing and enjoy my time back down the valley.

I stayed in the tent while Filip got up early and then followed him with my camera as he drew closer and closer to the summit. I was fighting birds in High camp and getting some good shots by the time he finally stood on the summit!!! A perfect day! As anyone would, I felt a little sorry for not beeing up there but health comes first and I wanna be able to do two more weeks of trekking here.

So for all of you planning to loose a little weight, try Giardia, works like clock work and its way cheap, no food expenses at all! ;)

Enjoy Filips story about his awesome day and hold on for a few photos!

Ciao, Johan.

Lobuche East solo

Whoao! Vilken dag det var igar!

Dagen borjade kl. 0215 efter ytterligare en nastintill somnlos natt (Da johan fortfarande inte blivit bra fick detta bli ett soloprojekt). Pa med klader och trycka i sig en energikaka sa var det sen dags. kl 0300 var jag pa vag fran hoglagret pa 5170m mot toppen. Fullmanen lyste, vindstilla och kallt nog for fast och fin sno. Det verkade perfekt. Forsta 3 timmarna skulle klattras i morker sa vi hade dagen innan rekat de forsta 400 hojdmetrarna. Det starka manljuset lyste upp sapass mycket att pannlampan kunde vara avstangd storre delen av tiden. Klattra endast i manljuset i himalaya med silhuetter av flera 8000m berg runt om var helt magiskt. Soluppgangen kom sedan sakta smygande och hela varlden andrade farg. Forhallandena var idealiska. Snon var helt perfekt och dar det blev brantare var det bara att slanga pa stegjarnen och kotta pa. Helt otroligt!

kl. 0715 stod jag antligen pa fortoppen av Lobuche East, endast ett 10-tal meter nedanfor huvudtoppen pa 6118m. Dock aterstod en smal och utsatt kamvandring bort och jag beslutade mig for att stanna pa fortoppen. Med Johan hade det gatt fint men ensam nu var det alltfor utsatt. Stannade 45min pa toppen och njot av utsikten som bland inkluderade Everest, Makalu, Pumori och mangder med andra imponerande berg.

Att fa klattra ensam i natten i manljuset var en upplevelse jag inte kunnat forestalla mig. Nu ar jag bergtagen pa riktigt!

Lev val!

Last day in Dingboche

Tomorrow we leave for Lobuche, hopefully with a sherpa to help us with the load. Its been amazing here and we are feeling jumpy and are ready to move on. It will be a long day up to Lobuche and then another day to Everest Base Camp.

Photos!