It's Snowing!

May 24

Last night during dinner, it began to rain. I did a little reading and then went to bed at about 9:00 pm. The rain drops pattered on the tent and put me to sleep.

I woke up at 1:00 am for a nature call (a side effect of being at altitude) and the rain appeared to have stopped. I poked my head outside of the tent and big snow flakes were falling. It snowed through the night and by morning, there were a couple of inches of wet snow on the ground.



Damche, our fearless leader, decided not to move up to Lobuche today because of slippery trails and danger to the porters and yaks. It was probably a wise move.

After breakfast, the race organizers were staging a photo op for some of the Nepal press that are along for the race. Gerry and I donned out very large race tshirts over our jackets and fleeces and enacted the Dingboche water stop with a couple of the top Nepali runners. I looked like the Michelin Man running. One of the reporters from a Katmandu newspaper (I didn’t get the name) interviewed us.

A couple of the boys, Toby the Brit, Gerry the Irishman, Tony the Kiwi, and I decided to get in a little more acclimatization training and decided to hike up to Tukla, a little over 3 miles and to 15,165 ft.

As we got up higher, the snow fell a bit heavier and it was cold. We moved along very quickly and were passing other trekking groups going up. They were moving very slowly. We felt good and strong on the climb.



Just before Tukla, we had to cross a rickety bridge over a raging stream. I was covered with snow and quite precarious. We tottered across trying not to look down.

Nervous Mark


At Tukla, we turned around and retraced our steps. At the bridge, a yak train was approaching. Sure enough, with a little encouragement from the yak driver, they crossed the bridge. I didn’t think that thye would make it.

Nervous Yaks


We were able to run a bit on the smoother sections of the trail on the way back. From the ridge above Dingboche, we had a nice long downhill run into town. It felt pretty good even though I was in hiking boots and carried a backpack.

As we were strolling back to the camp site, Tony stopped to get a Coke at a store. Rich the Aussie walked up to join us and a snowball fight broke out involving some of the locals. It was the Nepalis versus the Westerners. It was a massacre -- three Nepali girls soundly defeated a Kiwi, an Aussie, an Irishman, an American and Frenchman (Christian) who joined in. The fight ended when Tony fell into a stone wall and took out about 10 feet of it. Although we offered to rebuild it, the shopkeeper kept shooing us away. He wanted to rebuild it properly.

By midday, most of the snow had melted in Dingboche (although it was quite a bit deeper further up). Everyone is itching to get going to higher altitude -- we’re still over 3,000 ft below EBC, the start of the race.

After lunch, the rain began again. Thankfully, it’s not snow (yet). I spent a lazy afternoon reading in the tent, writing this post and organizing some pictures for the blog. About 3:00, I’ll go up to the local internet café and upload this and try to call Therese on Skype. It’s expensive --- 50 rupees per minute ($.75) -- but still cheaper than an international call.

Hopefully, the weather will improve tomorrow.