Tag Archives: relief work

Nov 07 2015
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Nepal: From desert to crest

Day 1: Lukla to Tok Tok

11/7/2015
Lukla: 2860m/9350 ft.
TokTok: 2600m/8700 ft
9.7km, 6.2 miles, 5hours hike time

Terrain: The trail rolls up and down on a gentle overall decline. A good first day to stretch your legs and work out the kinks. Lots of stairs. Quite crowded with people and animals.

After a quick day and night back in Kathmandu to organize and purchase any last minute items (Thanks to my inability to bargain I now own a pair of outrageously priced trekking poles) we took the 40-minute flight from Kathmandu to Lukla this morning to start our adventure!

The street and shops near our hotel in Kathmandu

The street and shops near our hotel in Kathmandu

Back in Kathmandu we also switched into “expedition mode” with a planning session from our American guide Ryan Waters. Ryan is a record-setting explorer who’s climbed a zillion mountains and been up Everest four times, summiting three. He was the first American to complete the Adventurers Grand Slam, reaching both poles and all seven summits. He owns Mountain Professionals guide company based in Boulder, and is an all around world-class guy. He’s probably also exhausted, since he came straight here from guiding a team up Carstenez Pyramid in Indonesia, but he’s so laid back you’d never be able to tell. Continue reading →

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Nov 05 2015
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Nepal: From desert to crest Gallery

Kumari: No internet, no issues

When I’m done I’m going to compile one list of the most anxiety-inducing moments for me surrounding this trip; both those I feared in advance and those (the few) I dealt with in-country and address how those went. For now I’m going to focus on the tremendous experience that was well worth any discomfort.

People choose Trekking for Kids trips because they want to experience exotic outdoor travel, but also because they like to participate in relief work. At least that’s my excuse, and while I suspect there are more people drawn to the trekking side and the relatively low-cost compared to commercial outfits, I’m sure nobody has regretted the opportunity to help out residents of a host country.

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Oct 31 2015
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Nepal: From desert to crest

Greeting Kathmandu

We arrived near midnight after something like 30 hours of travel through Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Its hard to track time’s passage across 13 time zones from behind the drawn shades of a jetliner. I’d planned on sleeping during the flight since last-minute packing had left only a couple of hours for sleep, but alas, there were free movies. And I’m contractually obligated as a film-fam to watch free movies.

Nonetheless, it was  refreshing to get off the plane and breathe outside air as we walked into Kathmandu’s small airport, where customs and Visa processing was the most casual I’ve experienced. We drank our bottled water as we stood in line, I nervously chatted with the girls behind us, aid workers who’d been part of the earthquake relief and were returning now to teach.

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