Life of Wry

You know how Facebook does that thing where they generate for you a memory, something posted to your timeline one or two or five years ago (or whatever) and encourage you to share it?

Well, maybe you do and maybe you don’t, but today, I logged onto Facebook and there was a photo taken five years ago when Karen, Leslie, Laura, Rick and I, under the expert guidance of Homnath and Pradip, trekked about 100 miles–give or take–to and from the base of Mt. Everest. It really took me back!

Here it is (Rick, Homnath, Karen, Me, Laura; and below, Leslie and Pradip):

How cool are we?

Five years ago. Five years and many injuries later (not to mention just general bone and body degeneration)–a reality that makes me wonder if I’ll EVER hike again.

Don’t want to go to that scary place. Everything will be fine.

In the meantime, how about I share a few from that trip, just for old time’s sake…

First stop Abu Dhabi. We visited the United Arab Emirates’ largest mosque (coverage required). Karen, Laura, me and Leslie…

This is also the 8th largest mosque in the world (it accommodates up to 40,000 worshippers) and contains the world’s largest single slab of carpet which, alone, can hold 9,000 people.

Some favorite shots of Nepal…

Spectacular trails with precipitous drops among immense mountains… (and locals traveling from one remote village to the next to shop or whatever, carrying their stuff on their back because that’s the only way):

With culture and Buddhist monuments along the way…

And amazing views…

The above was taken from the top of Gokyo Ri (down by that frozen lake, in the lower left, you can see where our little tea house was, and behind that the enormous receding glacier we crossed the next day).

Here’s me at the top of Gokyo Ri (17k+):

(That easy smile belies how pooped I was at the top.)

And below, a nice shot of Everest (left) and probably Nuptse (right), taken by Rick from the top of Kala Patthar the day after we reached basecamp:

It was a life changing trip spent with these wonderful humans:

Having just crossed a pass into the Gokyo River valley, having climbed out of Machermo. This is adjacent to the first (of 6) lakes in the region. Leslie, Karen, Laura, me and Rick.

[wow.. that came with its own caption.. no idea how that happened, but will leave it be.]

We returned to the warm deserts of the UAE, explored Dubai and spent a little time in the dunes with these guys:

Anyway, that was a very random set; there are hundreds more if you want to peruse, back in April 2011… I just grabbed a few since I was feeling nostalgic. Blame Facebook.