The Dogs of Kathmandu

I think it was the same dog I heard the last time I was in Kathmandu. His bark was strong, store clear, distinctive and continuous. And amazingly enough he was outside my window just like the last 7 times I was here! OK, maybe it was not the same dog but I am positive it was the same one who answered him and the same one who starting to howl at 3:00AM!

As the sun rose, my friends continued to act like roosters plus an accompanying chorus from a few thousand birds and some overly zealous drivers who felt the need to let the world know they were turning the corner with an endless series of short horn honks. As the saying goes, the car horn is the national bird of Nepal!

Breakfast at the Hotel Tibet was excellent. An omelet, some sausage and instant coffee did the trick. We are about 10 minutes outside of Thamel, the tourist section of Kathmandu, so it is bit quieter (however same dogs!), a tad newer and the showers are hot. The biggest difference from my last visit is the availability of wireless Internet however there are still rolling blackouts with no power up to 18 hours a day.

The walk to the stores, shops and restaurants are an exercise in focus. One crosses the streets only at intersections, jaywalking is punishable by getting run over. The scooter is the dominate method of travel, closely followed by the tuk-tuk (a three wheel vehicle type thing) that easily exceed their capacity by a factor of 10. Then you have the random car, van and sometimes the white Land Rover which is usually a diplomat feeling superior as they also honk their horn to let the world know they are very important. Needless to say the only reaction is a long honk back and so it goes.

Word has it the flights to Lukla are running again as the weather has improved. More of our team arrived today and we have a group dinner tonight. Sometimes I feel like I am in the first 10 minutes of a Love Boat episode with all the meeting and greeting. We are just missing the cruse director!

My roommate is Larry and together we ran though our gear with IMG Guide Justin. We pulled everything out of the carefully packed duffles to check and double check we had the right gear for both the trek in and the climb itself. After all the nearest REI is a bit far away from base camp.

I am using the same gear I have used for years and most recently on Vinson and Aconcagua so I am good to go. But I did forget a towel and soap so a trip to the local market was on my agenda.

As I walked the busy streets of Kathmandu, I am struck by how little has changed since my first vista in the mid 1990’s. Buildings are still built using bamboo scaffolding tied together with twine. Gravel is created by chiseling rocks. Those rocks are moved in woven cane baskets on the back of mostly men. Beggars line the tourists areas in astounding states of impairment. The roads have huge potholes when there is pavement. The air has a reddish tint as the sun tries to poke through the pollution, haze and dust.

And kids still ride bikes like kids do. Mothers carry their babies on their backs. Every form of commerce seems to take place in a roadside store that is the width of a sofa. If you ask for directions, it is readily available with a smile. Even the traffic will pause for the unsuspecting foreigner that looks right for traffic that is coming from his left.

Nepal continues to be a country in various forms of transitions or chaos. The political environment is ever-changing with factions on all sides debating leadership. The rural areas are slowly migrating to the larger cities in search of jobs, and sometimes safety. The Kathmandu area is now about 1.5 million people.

Thus as I fly to the northern part of the county and into the Khumbu area around Everest, I feel like I am in a totally different world. The people are more relaxed, the traffic along the dirt trails consist of yaks and kids late for school. The air is clean and the sun shines brightly. Life seems simpler. But they also have their issues.

The climbing and trekking community brings much needed commerce to these areas. Yes, there are the issues that come with more people visiting a fragile ecosystem but the ability for these people to benefit from the commerce bringing a better life to their children seems to outweigh the issues.

On my first visit, we bought bottled water and saw wood used for heating water. Both contributed to pollution and deforestation. Today, we use boiled or iodine ed water and food is cooked using kerosene or dung fires. Smoke is ventilated outside the teahouses versus the old systems that lead to health issues with smoke inside the homes.

Thanks to foundations like the Hillary foundation, schools have been built throughout the Khumbu and most children receive at least a 6th grade education. Many go on to higher education in Kathmandu.

Yet health care struggles. A couple of years ago, I received an email from a young man in Nepal telling me his mother had Alzheimer’s but there was no help available in Nepal. To state the obvious, Alzheimer’s know no borders, politics or economic status. And the world struggles to meet the human need for a cure.

Moving on; as I made the rounds today, I saw a few noteworthy people in the guiding community, Eric Simonson, co-owner of International Mountain Guides was chatting with Russell Brice, owner of Himalayan Experience (Himex) in our hotel lobby. I asked them about moving their base camps out of the “main town” at the foot of the Icefall. More on that later.

And I had lunch with Phil Crampton and his wife, Trish. Phil owns Altitude Junkies, a small and unique operator based here in Kathmandu.

It seems that the overall climbing numbers are down a bit this year, my guess (not theirs) is maybe as much as 25% from last year. So we can expect to see well under the 537 summits seen in 2009.

Our current plan is to fly to Lukla to begin our trek to base camp on Thursday, March 31st. I hope that dog is not on the plane!

Climb On!

Alan

Memories are Everything