Everest Base Camp, and the amazing high country around it, are high on the bucket list of hikers everywhere. Embark led a fantastic trip there in 2011, and here trip leader Jim Ronning narrates a series of amazing photographs from the trip.
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In 2011 Embark led a climb of Island Peak, or Imja Tse, in Nepal. Here, trip leader Jim Ronning narrates a spectacular photo display from the climb. This is what being in the Himalayas is all about.
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Sometimes you hear expressions like “I could do that with one arm behind my back,” but nobody ever really means it. So when we saw this headline — Texas Woman Climbs Mount Everest With One Leg — we stopped everything to read the story.
Well, the more you read, the more impressed you’ll be. Turns out Rhonda Graham is 61 years old, and her leg was amputated due to a staph infection in 1980. She got a prosthetic with pictures of mountains on it, to keep the dream alive in her mind. And by the time she finished the climb, the altitude had taken out most functionality of the leg itself. She pretty much literally did this on one leg.
We think just trekking to Everest Base Camp is amazing, and walking the Khumbu Region a rare adventure for most people. To do any of that, at 61, and/or with one leg, would be a cause for wonder. But to climb Everest? Rhonda says she did it to inspire people, and it sure worked for us at Embark. We love her message: “A leg doesn’t define who you are.”
Next up for Rhonda? She plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in July. Go, Rhonda!
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Embark is in the news again, but not for the adventures of recent lore.
This time, the Portland Tribune profiled our founder Donovan Pacholl. Interview highlights include Donovan’s infamously overpriced haircut–”I had a guy in Nepal shave my head like a monk and do something with fire; he was using some kind of a lighter, throwing fireballs at my ears to burn my ear hair”–and his proposal story in Tanzania. Check it out!
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In January 2010, artists and adventurers Renan Ozturk and Corey Richards packed up their bags and headed to the Khumbu region of Nepal to tackle Tawoche, a 21,463 foot peak that stands in the shadow of Ama Dablam.
But they decided to send their own dispatches, with their own footage, writing, edits, and production, literally as their journey happened, instead of relying on experts back home to take all their footage and compile it into a third-person narrative months after the action.
The result is stunning and intimate, not to mention all the more thrilling knowing that even they do not know what will happen next. Check out the compiled mini dispatches below. It’s well worth the 16 minutes.
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Of the 120,000 or so trekkers who visit Nepal every year, only 5 percent go beyond the Annapurna, Langtang, and Everest regions. That’s just 6,000 trekkers actually trekking off the beaten path.
Since we at Embark are always seeking out the path less traveled (i.e. we climb the least-traveled Lemosho Route up Mt. Kilimanjaro), we are thrilled to announce that Nepal is about to open both the world’s longest and highest alpine trekking route as part of their Nepal Tourism Year 2011 initiative.
Called the Great Himalayan Trail, this route–officially opening in January 2011–will spread out across 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers), allowing adventurers to explore the far reaches of the Himalayan region. Eventually, this trail will connect several countries:
“The long-term aim is to connect the six Asian countries of Pakistan, China (Tibet Autonomous Region), India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar via a route covering more than 4,500 km of the Great Himalaya range,” said Lisa Choegyal, consultant to the project and Honorary Consul designate for New Zealand in Nepal.
Highlights of the route include views of the world’s 14 highest peaks, winding along the sacred headwaters of the Ganges in India, traversing the entire length of Nepal in the shadows of Annapurna, Everest, and Kanchenjunga, and dabbling in Myanmar and Tibet as well.
Technically the GHT, as it is being called, already exists in the form of several old and new routes. This recent unveiling and naming is the result of better connecting and mapping these routes for the world’s most ambitious trekkers.
See pics and stories from various portions of the trail here, and learn more about the Nepal section through trekker Robin Boustead’s stunning documentation of his journey in 2008, when he covered an upper section of 1,000 miles, a high-altitude portion that mixes high passes with alpine valleys. His guidebook is set for a 15 November 2010 release.
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One of our favorite adventure writers, Kraig Becker of The Adventure Blog, has published his latest Himalayan High musings on Gadling today, and this time it’s about trekking to Namche Bazaar.
One of the most popular pockets of civilization on any trek through the Himalayas, Embark spends days 3 and 4 on our trek to Everest Base Camp in and around Namche as we acclimatize at just over 11,000 feet, resting and explore the hamlet. We also spend a night at Namche on our way back to Kathmandu on day 11.
Perched high on the steep slopes of the Khumbu Valley, Namche Bazaar has some of the best tea houses in the region, although as Becker points out, making your way around Namche does require stair climbing. But we don’t think of it as a hassle; getting around Namche Bazaar is a fun way to keep your legs moving in one of the most beautiful and quaint settings anywhere in the world.
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