I think we first noticed how short our breath was and how much effort each step was becoming as we pulled out of Thokla. We were on our way to our campsite at Lobuche, and this was to be our base camp for making an ascent on Kala Patthar within a few days. We could see that we were advancing upward to the snowline with every inch, and we could certainly feel the chill in the air. Foremost on our mind was that we continue to manage our body’s reaction to the high elevation, and we were watching each other for the first signs of altitude sickness. Most of us were on Diamox at this point, and we were drinking lots of water to keep ourselves hydrated. Remember that one side effect of Diamox is that the water flushes from your system, and whatever you take in is soon pressing you urgently to get out. If you get cynical or impatient you might go on strike, but nothing will stop you from having to heed the call. Richard and Gaye were becoming especially concerned, despite their own discomforts, for the well-being of the you teenagers in our group. They were doing just great, and being just as boisterous as ever.

Now is a good time to have a look at our main page again since we’ve finally been adding some of those articles I wrote when we returned from Nepal. I spent most of November writing up short pieces on any subject we could come up with on our experience in the Hindu Kingdom. There is a long list of content articles to add to the site, and we just added about 30 of them to the menu. Not counting the blog, the photo gallery, and the Nepali news, there are 65 content pages on our site. There are still another 46 pages to add to the menu, but you can already see the list is getting to be a bit overwhelming, as far as layout and the sitemap are concerned. In between other projects we’re thinking of how to organize the menu layout so that it will be well organized and will convey exactly how extensive our coverage is. Having over 120 menu items will be pretty overwhelming. I’m very excited to get this added to the site so that I can share the wonderful ideas, history, and the unexpected surprises of Nepal.

Thokla is like any dusty frontier outpost you would see in an old cowboy movie, with one rocky path winding between the one drafty outhouse and the heaps of wood and tin making up the structures. Being so far from the administrative control center of the country, even from anyone carrying any sort of official title, we felt like we were free to make our own destiny, but exposed to the dangers of lawlessness lurking in the shadows. Who would do such a thing as cause trouble in this community though? From what I saw the Sherpa people really didn’t get into much trouble, and the hikers were all amiable and considerate for others’ well-being. The yaks sure didn’t get out of hand, as long as there was some dried out grass stubble within reach of their sweeping tongues. The only time our yaks got a little bit stimulated was when our junior member Tashi hopped onto one of them and started kicking and yammering like a wildcat.