Today the trekking team headed up to the village of Namche Bazaar at an altitude of 11,300 feet. It’s a long uphill from the Bhote Khosi River bridge up to the village, but the views into the Himalaya just get bigger every step of the way. Namche is the “capitol” of the Khumbu region and an important trading and commercial hub for the people who live there. There are no roads to Namche, so everything is carried by porters, yaks (or Zopkyo, a yak/cow hybrid), or even flown by helicopter. Namche is a fun little village to explore with coffee and doughnut shops catering to the hungry trekkers. They’ll spend two nights at the cozy Moonlight Lodge to recover and acclimatize for the increasingly higher altitudes they’ll be heading into.

Here’s Ann Marie with the evening expedition dispatch from Namche Bazaar!