Here’s great news from Pema. He’s planning to make another visit to the United States this summer, and a part of his tour will include a stop here in the west. Calling it a tour is not really exaggerating since he has so many friends and contacts across the United States, so I will feel honored if he can find time to stop in Utah. For now he’s spending the winter in his rooftop apartment in Kathmandu. He tells me the weather is warm every day, and he had a good laugh when I told him it’s cold here like Kala Patthar. In the spring he’ll be back in the Khumbu, minding his lodge in Phortse, and he even offered me a job to be a cook boy to learn how to cook Sherpa meals. I think it would be easy to learn since they only eat one or two things anyway, just daal baht and potato pancakes. It sounds like a good job, except for the part where my daily pay would be about enough to buy a candy bar and some noodles.