dryad

I only climbed in them once and decided they fit funny. Size 36.5 corresponds roughly to a women's 6 or 6.5 or 7, depending on how tight you want them. These shoes retail for $100. I'll sell them for $50 or best offer, or trade for same size Mythos.

"An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan" by Jason Elliot was a fascinating study of the history and culture of Afghanistan as well as some pretty damn hardcore travelling.

Sorry, didn't mean to make you read my mind. I thought my feelings on the subject were pretty clear from my post on the original thread, and I didn't want to engage in a long-winded monologue on this subject that is pretty dear to my heart. So here's more. The Khumbu has not been a wilderness area for millennia. It is widely inhabited. The trekking routes are centuries-old trade routes, not hiking trails put in there for the amusement of hikers. The landscape is shaped by farming and yak herding as much as it is shaped by wind and water. If you are looking for some kind of pure wilderness experience, you are simply going to the wrong place. The Sherpas are people just like everyone else who want the best lives for themselves. If you ask them, they will tell you that they consider tourism a big net positive. They feel like their lives are infinitely better with it than without it. I think it is pretty damn self-centered for us westerners to begrudge them some basic development like education and electricity in order to preserve some romanticized vision of their traditional culture. Is it all positive? Of course not. Deforestation is a big problem. Pollution is a big problem. The area did get developed too quickly and without enough controls. But the damage that was done is slowly getting remedied. Wood burning has been banned completely, and the forests are coming back. The availability of electricity at the lower elevations has also helped reduce the need for wood burning. I think that better facilities to deal with garbage are on their way. There is a lot more that needs to be done, though. A lot of the blame has to rest on the shoulders of the trekkers themselves. For example, the use of bottled water is heavily discouraged in every guidebook and every publication, but people do it anyway. Nepal has no facilities to recycle the bottles, so they just accumulate, and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to use them. You can get boiled water anywhere, or you can filter it or treat it with iodine. Very easy things. People who refuse to live without certain luxuries that they are accustomed to have no business trekking in the first place as far as I'm concerned. This is just one example. I was really disgusted with how obnoxious and demanding some of the other trekkers I encountered were. And they were not Americans, by the way. Americans are expected to be obnoxious, but I observed that the Euros, Aussies, and Kiwis are not any better. A country to look to as a model is Bhutan. They opened themselves to tourism recently, and limit it to only something like 5000 visas a year. Their goal is to avoid the problems with overdevelopment that Nepal has had, and I would like to see how they manage.

This topic came up in the "worlds best mountains to trek though" thread and I thought it deserves its own. Here are the relevant posts: Beck said: Lambone said: dryad said:

I did not have the balls to go over the Cho La pass unguided. I was there a bit early in the season (mid-March) so the fog was still rolling in every afternoon eliminating all visibility. I was told that the route is not obvious, and several parties had to bivy under rocks because they couldn't find the village on the other side of the pass in the fog. So I just hiked from Gokyo down to Phortse, then up the other valley. It only added 1 day to the trek. 'Treking in the Everest Region' by Jamie McGuiness was the book I was using too. It has lots of great information on side hikes and trips off the beaten path.

Get off your high yak, Beck. Hillary is just pissed that other people are tresspassing on what he likes to think of as his own personal little mountain fiefdom. The Sherpas have to support themselves somehow after trade with Tibet (their main source of income for centuries) pretty much completely dried up after China took over Tibet and did their best to close the border. It's true that there has been a lot of irresponsible development, but it is getting a lot better. For example, wood burning is completely banned. I wish they would also ban plastic bottles, or that the stupid tourists would quit buying them. Everyone I saw with one got a talking to from me. I feel especially sorry for the lodge proprietors living between Jiri and Lukla who are really hurting. Trekking in that area was always a small percentage of the total, and now it's almost non-existant thanks to the Maoist presence in the region. There is a sad running joke that the the only 2 sources of income that Nepal has are tourism and foreign aid. Sadly it's true. And no McDonalds in KTM yet, thank goodness.

In an ordinary shoe store in Prague I saw some street shoes styled to look like rock shoes. I don't want to be mainstream, dammit!!!! I always thought that the great thing about being a climber is that everyone else thinks you're a maladjusted freak.

The Khumbu is not wilderness by any stretch of the imagination. But the Sherpas are the nicest people in the world that I've ever met, and experiencing their hospitality is part of what makes trekking there so great. Plus the trekking lodge infrastucture makes it a lot cheaper and easier logistically. No need for camping or an entourage of servants. Patagonia is definitely on my list, though. But it's a very long list. It's a big, big world out there.

Hell yeah! That's where I got the Everest and Nuptse money shots. I scrambled to the tippy top and it was so windy I had to nestle in the prayer flags and hold on for deal life to not get blown off! Yes, but I saw others that I though were even more drool-worthy. Did you head up the Gokyo valley too when you were up there? I gave myself an extra acclimatization day in Machermo and wandered up that side valley. So worth it. Got to drool over Kyajori, and about a dozen huge waterfalls like the one in the picture. That little valley alone can easily keep any climber entertained for a week. I can't wait to get back to Nepal. I adored the place.

Finally got a decent computer to post these pics with... Kyajori, my favorite mountain in the Khumbu Big frozen waterfall Sunrise over Nuptse Everest money shot

Sign seen outside of Namche, Khumbu, Nepal

Anyone from Seattle doing a MEC run anytime soon want to pick up a size small Khamsin 38 for me? Seriously. I'll pay you back. I'm good for it. Ask anyone who knows me.

I knew I should have added a "serious offers only" disclaimer, but I wanted to give you guys the benefit of the doubt. Oh well. That's OK.

I'll be returning to the Seattle area on June 20 and need a place to stay for at most a couple of weeks until I find a new apartment and get my life re-organized. I am looking for a room somewhere in the Seattle metro area, hopefully minimally furnished. It will be just me and a few duffel bags of random stuff. I can pay some rent or cook you dinner or whatever. All terms negotiable. PM if interested. Man, travelling was fun but I can't wait to get back home and back to some good ol' WA granite!

Hey folks, sorry to resuscitate a recently deceased thread, but I just got back to the USA and cc.com after a long absence. Here are my $0.02. For the person going to France: The Cobras I got in France I got at a Decathlon sporting goods store out in the burbs outside Brive. I was visiting a guy I had met in Nepal who lives in the boonies in the Dordogne region, and he took me there on the way to the train station. They were on sale with only a couple pairs left and the original price was something like 65 euros (still cheaper than in USA but not by half). Decathlon stores are all over France. Their outdoor gear house brand is "Quechua". Also there are little outdoor shops in a lot of towns. One was having a half-off sale and I could have scored some nice shoes for 35 euros, but they fit funny. Elsewhere in Europe: If you find yourself in the Czech republic, Slovakia, or thereabouts, you will have a wide variety of Czech-made shoes to choose from with prices starting around $40 US. The most familiar brand is Rock Empire, but there are others too. All looked like good stuff, but sizes ran large, selection was limited, and I could not find any that fit my puny feet. Plus I wanted to actually see some of Bratislava and Prague and not spend all my time in climbing shops on an extended shoe quest. For all the Mythos fans: I'm one too. They were my first shoes (and until just now, my only shoes) and I love them dearly, but you must know that they stretch A LOT! I bought them 2.5 sizes below my hiking boot size, which was just short of excruciatingly painful. AFter 2 times out, they were snug but comfortable. After 1 full season, they were bunny-slipper soft for all day trad comfort. I am now tempted to blame my suckiness on harder routes on shoe sloppiness, but honestly, it's just that I suck. Once in a while one of the local rock gyms would have a big shoe expo where you can try on lots and lots and lots of shoes and actually test them out on the wall. That is a great opportunity to pick out the ones you like best and that fit the best, then look for them on sale elsewhere. Happy shopping!

The Rum Doodle is the place for KTH Pub Club! I thought of another piece of advice: Don't let anybody tell you that Everest Base Camp is not worth the effort to visit. They're full of crap. Sure, it's just a bunch of tents, sure you can't see Everest, but who cares?! You get to wander through this weird insane otherworldly glacial landscape and poke around the ice falls, little ice lakes, and giant icicles. It's really cool. BTW, posting pix is a going to be hard for a while. I can't seem to find a place that has both a card reader and an internet connection on the same computer.

The one piece of advice I have is go independently. Go solo, or take a friend or a guide or a porter if you want, but whatever you decide to do, DO NOT GO WITH A BIG TOUR GROUP. Not only will you save a lot of money, but more importantly, everybody has a different walking pace, everybody adjusts to altitude differently, and illness of one kind or another is the rule rather than the exception. I met a number of people who got sick and had to abandon their whole trip because they could not keep up with their group. Statistically, 80% of the trekkers who die from AMS are with tour groups (only 40% of total trekkers are with tour groups). Going independently, I was able to wait out my cold, walk at my own pace, and ascend as slowly as I wanted. Happy trails!

Hey everyone! I just got back from a nice slow mosey all over the Khumbu. Summary: 23 days, more or less solo, no problems other than a bad cold at the beginning, no AMS, no porter, no guide, no horse or yak rental (tempting though it was at times). Saw Everest from a number of different angles, plus many other more interesting mountains. Damn, the place is spectacular!

Yup, all sport climbs here, which is weird because there are tons of pockets for gear and stalactites to hitch to. It looks like almost everything can in theory be done trad, but it's all bolted. Blame the French for this. BTW, if anybody knows anybody who happens to be here now, have them come find me in #B-8 at the Banyan Tree Bungalows on Ton Sai.

I'm running a few errands in town before heading to Railay / Tonsai beach to hang out with the climbers and spend the next 2 weeks showing off how pathetically suck and out of shape I am since I haven't climbed in about 6 months and were pretty suck to begin with. Well, I can always use the excuse that I'm an alpine / trad girl.

The food The beer is cheap And it's about 90 degrees and sunny!

I'm flying this weekend. Greetings from Tokyo Narita airport where it's already tomorrow afternoon!

What's needed here...

My modest goal: to survive the next few months without losing anything important, getting robbed, or contracting any strange tropical diseases.

Only about 2" in Redmond, but enough to ski across town to the library. Anyone interested in a ski-in Pub Club at the Workshop Tavern tonight?