Nepal

Nepal 2011

March 6 - Arrive in Kathmandu Airport - Its Ryans Birthday and we spent the entire day plus flying Happy Birthday buddy you are in Nepal!

March 7 - 8 - Sightseeing and Shopping in Kathmandu. There is plenty to see and experience. We meet Padam our guide and he helps us get our trip to Luklua and the Khumbu Valley set up. There are permits to purchase, flights to arrange and last minute items to pick up. 

March 9 - We leave our hotel, The Kathmandu Guest House early for and adventuresome day of flying in Nepal.  Leave terminal twice, board plane once, fly, turblence, boomarang and try again on the 10th

March 10 - KTM to Lukla to Monjo 

Trek from Lukla to Monjo - 5hrs with great lunch -460 rupies

Great weather great views: 

Smells: Urine, Yak dung, pine needles, wood smoke and fresh air $3600

Plane ticket and treking permits $465 USD

Taxi 350 r

Airport tax 500 r

Lunch 500r, Dinner 680, room 500, Tea 80

March 11 - Friday Monjo to Namche Bazaar

Treking 3 hrs

Walk around Namche; visit musem

Stayed at Hotel Namche 

March 12 - Namche Bazzar

Acclimatization day in Namche

Hike to Khumjung and Everest View Hotel

Two day total 8500r

March 13 - Namche to Tengboche 3850m/12,438 ft

Treking 4hrs

Stayed Himalayan View Hotel

Visited Gompa and sat in on Monks evening prayers

Total 3630r'

Fresh Ground Plunger Coffee - a hard find while traveling

Ryan's short trial as a Sherpa.

March 14 - Tengboche - Dingbouche (4360m/1433 ft)

Treking 5 hrs

Stayed at Khumbu Lodge

Dinner: Mac and Cheese with Tuna

Solar Powered Cooker - Tea house use these to cook potatoes and rice. This is a great alternative to wood-fired stoves with such limited wood supplies in the area.

March 15 - Acclimatization Day - Dingboche 4360m
Hike to Chhukung 4730m
Hike to Chhukung Ri 5546m
8 hours hiking a long day with lunch
Windy in Dingboche but we had nice weather at Chhkung with amazing views of Ama Dablam

March 15 - Dingboche - Lobuche 4930m/15269 ft
Trek 4 hrs
Incredible weather, best weather day with lots of photo ops.
From Lobuche Afternoon we hiked to the Italian Pyrmid. We got to take the tour and see how the building runs year round on only solar power.
Lunch: Dal Baht
Dinner Mac and Cheese with Tuna

March 17 - Lobuche - Gorak Shep and Kala Pattar
Great weather - Stunning views.
Round trip hike: 0700 - 1700 Long day
Breakfast: Tibetin Bread and Fried Eggs
Snack at Kala Patar - Top Roman with views of the Top of the world
Lunch after our summit: Coke and French Fries
Dinner: Mixed Chowmein (spagetatti with spam, egg and veggies)
Sleep: EcoLodge

March 19 - Lobouche to Dzonglha 4860
Trek time: 2.5 hrs - short day of hiking in the clouds
Joined by Amit - an israli rocket scientist

March 19 - Dzonglha (4860m) to Gokyo (4760m)  via Cho La Pass (5368m) and Thangnak (4678m)
Trek Time 5 hrs
Lunch - Fried Potatos - :(
Dinner: Thai Fried Rice

March 20: Gokyo to Dole (4110m)
Morning hike to Gokyo Ri (5357 m) Cold, cloudy and windy - not good views :(

March 21: Dole to Namche Bazaar
Short day - Good weather
Beer and Pizza for lunch.

March 22
Namche to Luklua
Lunch: Momos

Elevations:
Kathmandu - 1337 m / 44712 ft
Luklua  - 2642 m / 8718 ft
Monjo - 2840 m / 9500 ft
Namche Bazaar 3440 m / 11154 ft
Tengboche 3860 m / 12438 ft
Dingboche 4360 m / 14388 ft
Chhukung 4730 m / 15609 ft
Chhung Ri 5546 m / 18496 ft
Lobuche 4930 m / 16269 ft
Gorak Shep 5160 m / 17028 ft
Kala Pattar 5545 m / 18493 ft
Dzonglha 4830 m / 15939 ft
Cho La Pass 5368 m / 17714 ft
Thangnak 4678 m / 15708 ft
Gokyo 4760 m / 15708 ft
Gokyo Ri 5357 m / 17678 ft
Dole 4110 m / 13563 ft

The Adventures Continue!

New Zealand 2010

Ryan and I spent two weeks in New Zealand this past year. We enjoyed beautiful hikes, torrential downpours and endless ocean. Landscapes.

The first adventure began with the Travers-Sabine Track.

The 80 km Travers–Sabine Circuit reaches deep into the heart of the mountains of Nelson Lakes National Park. Tranquil beech forests, fields of waving tussocks, 2000 metre-high mountains and clear rushing streams are highlights of the journey.

We spent four days hiking from the valley bottom up and over the steep Travers pass then back down to the confluence of the East Sabine and Main Sabine River. Back up to Blue lake then down to the Lake Rotoroa.








The start of the Travers Sabine on the valley floor.






Ryan points out where we are headed.












Ryan amongst the mossy Beach Trees.























Upper Travers Hut - Our accommodations on night two.







Ryan and I capturing the moment at the Traves Summit.




The bluest water of the West Sabine River.




After a successful trek on the Travers - Sabine we headed up to a quaint town of Takaka. We stayed at the perfect hostel , Shambala . We set up our tents that overlooked the ocean. We walked to the famous Mussel Inn and devoured a delicious plate of New Zealand Green lipped mussels then chased them with their delicious microbrew.



The following day we began a trek along the Able Tasman and enjoyed camping on the Mutton Cove beach. I spent some time swimming laps in the ocean.



Overlooking the ocean on the way to Mutton Cove.





Found a penguin on the beach, this one was not doing so well.






 

Wicked!!!

"THE WONDERFUL WIZARDS GREEN EXLIXIR MORNING CURE-ALL ONE SIP NEVER -FAIL"

A night in Sydney alone lead me to something so WICKEDly delightful. In celebration of the most special ladies day, we  went to the Broadway musical WICKED.

The favorite Baskin Robins flavor, Gold Medal Ribbon, was enjoyed prior to the show.

I have to thank the mother and daugher I met at the ticket raffle for reminding me why I needed to buy my ticket!

If you have the opportunity to see the show, don tmiss the chance!

Happy Holidays!

It is was a Merry Christmas and will be a Happy Holidays!
It seams that everyone is very difficult to reach this time of year, so my apologies for the lack of phone calls. I hope everyone has had a fabulous holiday season and is ready for what 2010 will bring. I have been quite busy this season since the last update.

Nov 5 – Took a flight to Cape Royds to set up one of the outhouse I built during winfly. Cape Royds has a large penguin rookery a lot of research is done here. It was fitting that we placed the outhouse with the penguin shaped window at Royds.

Cape Royds may sound familiar to the Scotch drinkers of the world.  Yes this is the location that the Scotch was found under the floor board of the Nimrod hut from Shackletons visit in 1909. We had the opportunity to take a peek inside, but we did not check under the floorboards for the aged liquor. It is shocking that over 15 people lived inside this small hut. It is in great condition thanks to the help of the New Zealand Antarctic Trust.   You can see the shelves are still stacked with 100 year old food.

 
November 18 - 21 South Pole Station
Shortly after my trip to Cape Royds I took off to South Pole Station (9,000')  to acclimatize for the set up of a deep field camp, AGAP, that is located at 11,000 feet. I am really excited I got the chance to visit South Pole Station. I experienced a warm welcome from the Polies that worked in McMurdo during winfly this season.  The Station is quite reminiscent of a Space Station I worked on when I was at Space Camp.

While I was there I also got the opportunity to see the old South Pole Station Dome before it was dismantled.

It is one thing to say you have been to South Pole but it is not official until you have taken your picture by the Ceremonial Pole.  I could not resist the cartwheel.




This is the Ceremonial Pole but the actual Geographic Pole is located just off the the Ceremonial pole. The geographic pole move aprox 10 meters per year.

November 21 - December 2 AGAP
The GAP – AGAP (Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province). The mission for those of us who chose to accept it was to dig out the camp that was left up over winter. This doesn’t sound half bad but when there is no machine support there was a lot of  D-1, hand shoveling. Shoveling at 11,000’ + requires many rest between scoops as we shoveled snow out away from the buildings and over 6’ walls of snow.

Life at camp was enjoyable with lots of good people. Thanksgiving dinner was created by our fabulous camp chef who created the entire feast on white gas Colman stoves. A new friend, Kara and I; were on Truffle duty. I believe everyone one at camp loved the decadent treat.

December 5 Pressure Ridge Tour
When I returned to  McMurdo I took a tour through the Pressure Ridges. They are caused by the constantly moving ice that collides with the shore causing ice to shoot upward, creating beautiful structures on the sea ice.


Seals often can be seen in the pressure ridge areas as they come up to the surface through the cracks.  We ran across a baby seal squacking for it's mother while we were on the walk.

 

December 15 - 19 Endurance Camp Take-Out
I had the chance to lead the take out of the Endurance camp on Lake Bonney. I helped set this camp up in October, it was great to be a part of both set up and take down. There were over 15 helocopter sling loads on the project so we had the help of a Helo Tec each day. Ryan got to come out on the first day to evaluate the rigging of the loads. When we were done for the day Ry and I took a little walk to the Taylor Glacier and Blood Fall.

 The Rhone Glacier is behind us.

Blood Falls in the background.

Got him to smile ;)

 

The Endurance hard-working Crew!

Once all the sling loads were gone, we had a celebratory dance!
 

That takes me up to December - Soon, I will fill you on with Christmas, MAAG, IceStock and more...
Enjoy start of the new Year!

Work, work, work, and a bit of fun

Thank you for all of the Birthday wishes. I had a great day including work, wine with friends, and a nice massage.

I received a nice stack of Salmon River Brewery stickers from the folks back at home and have been distributing them. I tagged the stop sign here in town as well. Now if only we could get SRB to send some beer down :)

I have been here for 2+ months now and feel like I am in full swing. Mainbody has arrived and with it have come half of the town of McCall. It is great to have so many familiar faces from back at home here. Ryan, Robby, Joe, Dave, Ildi, Emily, Trudy, Meg, Monika (it has been awhile since she lived in McCall but she still counts)are all here. And of the list four of us women are in the Carp shop.

Lake Bonney -

I recently got back from setting up a field camp for the Endurance Robot. Yes a Robot. This robot not only operates on its own, but it takes samples and maps the the lake from under the 11+ feet of Ice that is on the surface.

The Bot

Camp build in the process.

We slept in tents on the lake ice. 

When we were done with long days of work we found a little time to explore the Lake, Taylor Glacier and surrounding area.

Blood Falls

The ice on Lake Bonney is one of the most beautiful pieces of active art in nature I have seen. The more I walked around the surface the more intrigued I became. Literally, I was down on hands and knees admiring the various cracks, bubbles, smooth surface with a wonderfuly vibrant aqua color.

Bubbles

Cracks and Lines

Well I am off for now. I hope you are all enjoying your fall back at home.
Thaona

This blog is not complete but people have been asking for photos: so here you are!

Nightscape

 When I first arrived in McMurdo August 23rd the sun was rising and dawn was breaking, mind you, it was at 1 p.m. in the afternoon.The sun was not up for long, it quickly set around 4 p.m.  It is quite an experience to feel the night down here the quite stillness is beautiful.  the, as the summer approaches we will soon have 24 hours of sunlight. Just in the month that i have been here it is drastically different.The days continue to get longer each day. We will soon have 24 hours of sunlight so I am trying to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunsets and stars while they are still around. Two weeks ago the full moon filled the night and morning sky.

Necreous Clouds

These are beautiful oil slick looking clouds but they are not go good thing. According to Wikipedia " Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) also known as nacreous clouds, are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 50,000 - 80,000 ft. They are implicated in the formation of ozone holes; their effects on ozone depletios arises because they support chemical reactions that produce active chlorine whice catalyzes ozone destruction, and also becasue they remove gaseous nitric acid, perturbing nitrogen and chlorine cycles in a way which increases ozone destruction."

McMurdo at Sunset

Sea Ice School

SAFETY FIRST! Safety is a big deal down here, we have had training after training since arriving in Denver. I am now trained in Scaffolding, Fall Protection, OSHA standards, GPS, Dry Valleys, and last week was Sea Ice School. We learned what causes instability in the sea ice and how to safely cross cracks in the sea ice when driving.

Royal Society Mtns ( the view from the shop)