At this elevation everyone was feeling pretty good. Most of the group was taking Diamox to help prevent AMS (acute mountain sickness) but when we got to our next stop, Dingboche at 14,300ft., some were starting to get headaches. When we got up to 16,000 ft. some were feeling pretty crappy and above that about 1/3 of the group got some form of AMS, a few had pretty bad symptoms. 1 person didn’t make it to EBC which is 17,600, they stayed at Gorek Shep which is 17,000. A few didn’t hike Kala Patthar the day after EBC. Kala Patthar is a trekking peak at 18,500 which gives great views of Everest and Nuptse.

I was fine and didn’t use Diamox. I’m lucky in that I don’t get AMS, at least not up to 19,500 (which is the height of Kilimanjaro, the highest I have been). There is really no rhyme or reason for AMS, some get it some don’t. It has nothing to do with fitness. Taking time to acclimatize as you ascend helps prevent it, but people still get it.

David

Any ill effects from the elevation? Headaches, nausea? Nothing worse, I presume?

thanks again.
-d-

Glad you are enjoying my articles, sorry I haven’t posted more, but I should get started again after the holidays and will try to finish this series then. I have many more planned, just need to find the time to do them. I guess that is the realities of being a starving (figuratively) photographer that needs to keep a full-time job to pay the bills. Maybe one of these days my photography will take off and I can commit myself to it full time.

David

I’m not sure I agree with you. First my stay was limited to the old town area of Kathmandu, so that is what I showed, but I don’t understand how you can only see negativity. In the first article, there are images of the sun rising over the city, a flower shop with colorful flowers, street vendors selling food and vegetables for sale at a street market along with the trash and traffic that also populated the streets. In this article I show colorful chrysanthemums and food along with the beggars and trash that also is a part of the old town area. In otherwords, I try to show all aspects of where I vist, the bad along with the good.

I am sorry if you only see bad in my images, for I get a different view of Kathmandu from them, as I hope most of my readers also get. I see a vibrant busy city that is struggling with its growth; a city that has a lot to offer while, at the same time, having a darker side of poverty and a lack of adequate infrastructure to handle its burgeoning population.

Thanks.
Bhuwan

Again, excellent quality images. Looking at Namhee Bazaar I’m again reminded at almost all of the building materials (Cement, re-bar, windows, etc.) were carried up on the backs of individual porters. Whew! Made this trekker stop drinking beer during my time on the trail, as someone would have humped it uphill to elevation, and taken the empties down again.

On another subject: I came across this in my vo-cab site in-box and thought of you:

Boswell
PRONUNCIATION:
(BOZ-wel)

MEANING:
noun: A biographer, especially one who records in detail the life of another and who obtains information through close observation of the subject.

ETYMOLOGY:
After James Boswell (1740-1795), Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author, who was a companion and biographer of the lexicographer Samuel Johnson. He wrote the biography “Life of Samuel Johnson”. Earliest documented use: 1858.

USAGE:
“There has been a cooling of relations between Mr. Buffett and Ms. Schroeder, his Boswell, who spent five years researching and writing his biography.”
Leslie Wayne; Buffett Cancels Event With Biographer; The New York Times; Feb 3, 2009.

“Thierry Guetta is both their Boswell and their stalker, filming, filming, filming, always.”
Michael Phillips; Movie Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop; Chicago Tribune; Apr 29, 2010.

David