Richard and Pema have something amazing in common. They are both fathers to great families. Richard and Gaye have five boys, the oldest 14. Pema has two boys and two daughters, the oldest about 20. Pema’s daughters are of course out of the house and off to college, while his boys are also out of the house. They spend most of the year in a boarding school in Kathmandu. Rich’s two oldest boys and Pema’s boys are getting special time off from school to come along on our trek and even the full hike up Kalla Pathar. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ll be backing off of even a conservative pace at gaining elevation for our trek. The standard is between 1,000 and 1,500 feet per day of elevation gain, but our plan is to keep that down to 700 feet daily. Now that I think about it, gosh, that’s almost nothing. Of course we won’t just scuffle up a few steps and plant a new camp, but that’s really going to drag on.

Over the summer as the days passed I watched for the first signs of a change in season to fall here in Utah. Just a few weeks ago I noticed the slightest change in the colors at the top of one of the peaks nearby, and now it has cascaded half way down to the valley. The change was gradual, and I start to imagine how different the landscape will look when I get back from Nepal at the very end of October. Typically the mountains all have a light blanket of snow and you have to start dressing pretty warm. (I dread this because I’ve lived around palm trees for the past 14 years.) The 30 days I’ll be gone to Nepal is not a short stretch of time, so I need to mentally and practically prepare for being gone that long.