Acclimatization day in Namche
– Day 4Oct 25 - Nov 15, 1998
Namche is the central trading post for the upper Khumbu Valley. Every Saturday people
from villages as far as 4 days away by foot come to buy/trade/sell goods. Namche is the
biggest village we stayed in during our whole trek. it is quite beautiful and sits in a
bowl offering views of peaks surrounded by clouds. We stayed at the Thamserker View Lodge
in Namche for Two nights. The elevation here is about 3440 meters(about the same as
Telluride Colorado)
it was in Namche where we befriended two French Canadians from British Columbia, who
would turn out to be our trekking companions for the next 10 days. Manuel Pizzaro or Manny
is a Canadian Mountie who was born in Chile, who enjoys trekking, mountain climbing,
life-saving and crime fighting. Emanuelle Achard or Emmy works for Air Canada and can be
frequently found riding her ninja motorcycle high above the streets of B.C. often times
with Manny. And like us they have been friends their whole lives. We all hit it off very
well, That evening we ate dinner and taught them the card game spades and laughed and
played into the night.
During the day we got up early and hiked up the hill to see our first view of the big
mountain - EVEREST. We sat in the sun for several hours and meditated. When we got back to
the lodge Manny and Emmy were debating to stay another night in Namche, head out on the
five hour walk to Tengboche, or the 2.5 hour walk to Kumjung. We were planning on going to
Sangboche the next day but we felt fine and suggested we all travel to Kumjung together
which is lower than Sangoche but *300 meters higher then Namche.
* According to most trekking guidelines, 300-400 meters is the maximum suggested
increase in elevation per day to avoid altitude sickness.
