Sept 16 - Breaking news just in from Group Leader Stephen. The Tank is now. . . BALD. He's a cue ball. Chrome dome. Daddy Warbucks. KOJAK BALD.

Now I suspect that they will say Stephen used his inherent barbering skills (this man did shave a checker board into my head once) to give the Tank his new look. But I suspect it just fell out naturally due to the stress of being on a mountain when the Yankees are facing imminent early season ending elimination for the fist time in 13 years. The Red Sox are now 0.002% behind the Rays and 9 games up on the Yanks. Added to that are the Mets going 5-5 for their last 10 and losing to the last place Nationals again in September when they needed to win. They now lead the Phillies by 0.5 games who have gone 7-3.

As I am in Chicago on business I may just have to pick up a Cubbies hat. If neither NY team is going all the way I'm going root for a team that deserves it.

Update by Steve from Kathmandu

First of all the Tank did not let me shave his head at altitude, fearing a checker board. Second of all, he looks like a badass now:

Sept 11 - The morning started with the sobering reminder of our friends, neighbors, and loved ones lost in September 11th.  May the memories be eternal, rest in peace.

We left our cold, but cozy home in Periche on route to Loboche.  Our heads were literally in the clouds.  We thankfully made good time to our lunch destination.  Along the way, we saw a 72 year young German trekker.  The Tank suggested a sing-a-long with Gautam because we had not yet mastered Gautam's German hiking song.  The trekker was from Erfurt Saxony, Germany.  Since he lived in East Germany during the Cold War, he was not allowed to travel until the Berlin Wall fell.  He has made the most of his freedom and this is the fourth time in Nepal.  His granddaughter was slightly embarrassed at his singing but Gautam and the German trekker raised everyone's spirits.

Fried rice, fried noodles and fried lipitor were the cholesterol lunch menu features.  After lunch we hiked up yet another hill.  We stopped for a group photo.  Everyone was in the photo because of Linda's wise decision to purchase a guerrilla tri-pod with a camera timer.  We played frisbee with Linda's aerobie with the Sherpas, porters and Team Big Champ.  Lots of fun for the Tank who hadn't played frisbee in years.

After the frisbee we hiked to Loboche where the LA guys had already ordered dinner at another Teahouse to beat the rush on Loboche's food supply.

RT2 was not far behind and we presented a Team Big Champ t-shirt in the best traditions of British knighthood.  Linda played the Queen, presenting RT2 a Team Big Champ t-shirt while he was on one knee.

The Eagle Lodge was the Taj Mahal of TeaHouses.  The Tank's and Linda's desires for creatures comforts were satisfied.  Hot showers and electricity with solar power.  The dinner debate was when to shave the Tank's head as part of his extreme makeover Nepal edition as well as a fundraiser for Children's Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Cancer Center in NYC.  The Tank resisted because he trusts Steve with his life but not his hair.  Steve claims to have wild root beautician experience but the Tank wasn't buying it and would not risk at that altitude and using a non sanitary razor.

Wisely the Tank wanted RT2s professional medical opinion before consenting.  Especially in the event of bleeding at high altitude with the closest hospital hours away in Katmandu.  In the meantime, the Tank puts his faith in the certified hair professionals at his hotel in Katmandu.  Watch this space closely for more hiking and hair stories.

Written by The Tank in Gorakshep, Nepal.

Mt. Everest Report (Day 11): Gautam's Blog - Next Satellite Phone Installment

Sept 10 - Woke up to sunny morning with great views of the mountains.  After breakfast, we headed over to the Pengboche monetary but it was shut, blinds drawn, nobody home.  All that was missing was a "gone fishing" sign on the door.

Since the monks were away, we headed over to the boss' house.  Lama Geshi greeted us with a big smile and asked us to come in.  Il Lama is the head Buddhist religion authority for the region, and Lama Geshi is the head of the Mount Everest Region.  If we were expecting a solemn, stern religious figure, we were in for a surprise.  Lama Geshi is a joker of the highest order who loves to laugh and it is a rather infectious one.  We went into his living room where he said a prayer on our behalf and invited each one of us forward to:

a: lightly touch our forehead with his,
b: have a cream colored scarf placed upon our neck,
c: have an orange string tied around our neck.

He gave each of us a hug and also presented us with a card with our name and a blessing.  His living room is filled with pictures of trekkers and climbers who have come by to receive his blessings.  Sherpas refuse to summit Mount Everest without his blessings, and the Lama has walked to Mt Everest in his robes and slippers to provide such blessings.     

After his ceremony, we headed back to the teahouse where we found the little girl who lives there throwing the freshly cut grass around in the court yard.  Unbeknownst to her, a plane was helping in the hay making process for the coming winter.

We've encountered a lot of children on this trip and had a great time playing with them and engaging them in conversations.  The day before, we had a friendly soccer game with a couple of kids on our way out of Bazaar.  Michael Coman our 22 year old fellow trekker from Portland Oregon, has a lot of little toys with him that he hands out to kids in every village that we encounter them.  The pure joy that the kids exude has been a highlight of this trip.

Since we had about 90 minutes before lunch, I went and found a big rock next to a raging river and basked in the sunshine for a while.  I appreciated the alone time and was rejuvenated for the walk to Pheriche after lunch.

The walk to Pheriche was only 2 1/2 hours and not that physically demanding, although we did gain altitude ending up at 14,000 feet.  The hike out to Pengpoche quickly brought us to highlands with some bushes, heathers and a lack of trees.  We were literally walking through the clouds and it was considerably cooler than the rest of the trek.  We started seeing a lot of the local bovine, the yak (male) and the nak (female).  These animals have a thick coat of black/white fur and what's most amazing to watch is how they move their weight up steep inclines.

Pheriche is a small village with a new memorial devoted to those who have died climbing Mt Everest going back to 1923.
Not much else to do here.  But we spent September 10th here as well acclimatizing and getting used to the Turkish style toilets.

Posted by Gautam via Satellite phone

Wow it's been an exciting few days in sports. PermaGuest Outlaw Jack here. I apologize for not updating the site but work has gotten more hectic than normal and I haven't yet received any updates from the FIGJAM expedition.

 

On to some sports highlights. . .

 

While watching the early NFL games on Sunday, they break in with news and replays showing the Patriots Tom Brady going down with what would become a season ending injury.  I think Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard, who put the hit on Giselle's Boy Toy (another reason to hate Brady) in the first quarter, summed it up the best by saying "He was in a lot of pain. When you hear a scream, you know that,"

 

 

The Jets' new super star QB Brett Farve had a good game. The final score of 20-14 wasn't really indicative of the entire game. Yes recently cut Jet QB Chad Pennington final 3 minute drive into the Red Zone made it a bit of a nail biter, but the Jets pretty much controlled the field from start to finish. Mr. Green’s first TD Pass as a Jet was a 56 yard wobbler to Jerricho Cotchery who reeled it in at the 10 and crossed the line two seconds later. After our kicker Mike Nugent hurt himself on the ensuing kickoff, Coach Mangini had them go for it on 4th and 13 from the 20. Farve under blitz conditions was classic Farve throwing a Hail Mary that seemed like it would only come down when it knew it would hit a jet and it did! Chansi Stuckey anyone? Who is this kid?!  Again due to Nugent's condition Coach had them go for 2, but it was incomplete. Things got interesting then when Jets Punter, Ben Graham had an ugly kick off and they had back up QB Kellen Clemens kicking off a tee into a net on the sidelines. Seems he may have had some experience back in high school a decade ago. . . . oh boy. But with Brady out, I think the Jets have a legit chance at the wild card.

 

Mets Closer, Billy Wagner is done for the season and possibly all of 2009 let alone maybe his career. It was announced on Monday that he would need to go in for Tommy John surgery. With luck and some confidence of what they've done since early August the Mets pen need to hold the line down the stretch to show that they are not the same collapsing team as last year. Though if they did, that may be good for Willie Randolph's legacy as you could say "Look! It wasn't Willie!". Time will tell.

 

 

My Yankees. . . Yeah they bounced back Tuesday night after a crushing 12-1 loss on Monday, riding Rookie Alfredo Aceves, Jr's first Major League start giving up 5 hits and 1 run over 7 strong innings to a 7-1 win. But unless the Rays and the Red Sox start playing .300 ball this will be the first time in 13 seasons we go home after 162 games. Just think, in his entire Major League career to date, Derek Jeter, who passed Babe Ruth on the Yanks' all-time hit list last night, has always played October Ball.

 

Finally 36-year-old Lance Armstrong said he will come out of retirement to go for a record eighth Tour de France win in 2009. Team to be decided.

 

Now I

Sept 8th - We set out from Nam Che Bazaar at 8:30am. For some reason the first half hour or so of every day hike seems to be the worst.  We got over it and hiked on side of the mountain along the Doodh River.   This river had been along with us since Lukla. 

All of a sudden we came across a memorial in the middle of the trail.  It a was a memorial celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first summit of Mt Everest in 1953.  It was in honor of Penzig Norgay and the Sherpas of Everest as "true tigers of the snows".  The memorial as shortened had been paid for by the descendents of Penzig Norgay as well as Rolex Geneva.  Go Swiss.  Penzig Norgay was the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the top of Mount Everest in 1953. 

After Mr. Hillary become famous for his summit, he spent many years building schools in Nepal.  He loved Nepal so much that he turned down an offer by a Hollywood movie company to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his climb with big movie productions and promotions.  Instead he came to Nepal to celebrate with the Sherpas without whom he could have never climbed Mt. Everest.  Mr. Hillary died last year, I believe, but is revered by the Sherpas for the good work he has done for Nepal.  Lest we forget.

We again had great views of all the peaks surrounding us including Mount Everest and Ama Dablam.  The sun was shining and we were hot hiking up and down the sides of mountains. So we were mostly in shorts, t-shirts, hats and tons of SPF 55+ moisturizing lotion.  A little further down the trail we came across a man, Mr. Pasang Lama Sherpa who from afar looked like he was manning a lemonade stand.  A bit old to be manning a lemonade stand.  And for once I was right.  It turns out he's been maintaining the trails that lead up to Mount Everest Base Camp out of a sense of social duty.  I confirmed this with our Sherpas and I was happy to leave a donation.  I think I'll leave a bigger donation on the way back because he's doing tremendous work.  By the way, I did ask our Sherpas why the government did not maintain the trails.  Their answer verbatim, "Government has no power.  Only man has power".  That's a sobering thought. 

As we were enjoying our down hill hike, disaster struck.  Remy, our checker from Amsterdam, Holland, was experiencing boot failure.  The soul of his brand new Dutch hiking boot had separated from the body of the shoe.  Super Sherpa came to the rescue.  He took the shoe to the tiny village we just passed, had the soul sewn back on for $1 and was back in 20 mins.  Good for Remy. Because the next hour or so was a severe hill climb to the town of  Tengboche. 

We had stopped for lunch.  There for the third time on this trip, we ran into Random Trekker 2 (or RT2 for short).  But more about RT1 and RT2 on a later date.  Now lunch was interesting because even though we arrived last, we got served first.  Why was that? Was it because as RT2 said, even our people knew people? No.  It was because we figured out how the tea houses work. Tea houses don't start harvesting, cleaning, chopping and cooking the food until the order is placed.  So rather than wait to order until we were seated, we would send one of our Sherpas ahead of us who would arrive there an hour before we did.  We knew what to order because all the tea houses basically served the same food.  So when we get to a tea house for lunch our food is ready, our water boiled and everyone else is just wondering how this rather boisterous group gets their food so quickly.   The answer, never underestimate the power of 11 Type A+ personalities on a trek. 

At Tengboche we visited the local monastery, which was beautiful.  I must explain that in addition to learning about Buddhism the monks are taught sciences, history, geography and other things about the world.  Since many of the monks in training are in school and are college aged boys and young men, this approach makes sense to me. 

No rest for the weary.  After the monastery we trekked for a few more hours through the town of Pengboche.  We walked through Rhodadendrum Force and along Kashi River, since we had turned away from the Doodh River at it's source.

Linda, Remy and Nima stopped by the medical center run by a local nurse trained in India and dropped off the over the counter medical supplies Linda had brought along from New York City.  We arrived at our tea house in Peng Peoche at about 5:30.  We had dinner and were in bed by 8:30.  Long Day!

Authored by Gautam Gujral, called in by Tom Djurdjevich via Satellite phone from Pheriche Resort, Nepal

Today we are resting from our trek up the hill yesterday to build red blood cells to deal with the altitude. Some of our team are feeling a little slow due to the altitude, but in general we are all fine.

Today we got up as the Sherpas brought us tea in bed (score!) and after breakfast hiked up the hill for our first views of Mt. Everest and the valley. We spent a lot of time hanging out there, taking a few gigs of photos between us and joking with the Sherpas.  We also spent time talking to other trekkers from Belgum (who made fun of Remi from the Netherlands.) Gautam and the Tank were talking to a Nepal Army commander about life in the Nepal Army.

We went down to Namche for lunch.The afternoon was spent walking around town and buying trinkets.

Tomorrow we will be going to visit a Buddhist Monestary in Tengboche, the largest in Nepal, the same one where Sir. Ed. Hillary was blessed before he went on to the summit. Then we trek on to Pangboche (12,700’). A long day but last of the long hikes, from here on in the mileage is shorter but we go slow due to the altitude gains.

Posted by Steve in Namche Bizarre.

Saturday, September 6, was when I relearned to become a mountain goat.  I first learned in the side path to reclimb to the Great Wall at Mile 20 of the Great Wall Marathon in May 2005.  Let's just say that I hurt just as much in climbing five to six miles from Phakding (9,500') to Namche Bizarre (11,500') yesterday as I did in the entire Great Wall Marathon which was the hardest of the 12 marathons I have thankfully completed, touch wood.

We started out dressed in gaiters to keep the water out of our boots.  But it dried out and we removed them to keep our feet from getting to warm.  I normally have an issue with cold feet in a figurative and literal sense as some of you may know.  A slight drizzle came down to cool us down and made a hard day somewhat easier. 

We crossed swaying metal suspension bridges which were just above the foaming white water rushing just below.  We saw some of the most beautiful water falls that you will ever see.  (It would give Victoria Falls a run for its money.)  A slight drizzle came down to near one, I was able to keep my head below water longer than Steve and Joel.  Some of you know that I have practice keeping my head below water as I almost drowning twice when I was 10 and 18 years old.  Steve is a great swimmer but I had a brief moment in sun (water). 

After a contentious political debate at lunch, Steve pushed us as punishment and to beat the two British climbers just ahead of us.  The two British climbers were led a female sherpa ("sherpa getty") who had climbed Everest a while back.  Steve wanted to trade one of our sherpas for the female sherpa.  Ngima wouldn't have any of it.

Steve pushed us up hill after hill.  "Are we almost there Papa Smurf?" lost its meaning by the tenth hill where we thought we were getting closer.  Gautam and I were going to translate "Una Paloma Blanca" into a German as our hiking song.  By the end, I would have lived with Rammstein's "Du Hast".  We arrived at the same time that the porters did.  Wow!  We were cruising.

I had the best shower of my life after getting to the tea house.  We had a good relaxing dinner and I slept like a baby. 

Posted by The Tank in Namache Bazaar, Nepal.  

I apologize for not updating the blog over the past couple of days.  Besides Internet access issues, I woke up extremely depressed on Friday morning for personal and business reasons.  However, Team Figjam tried to lift my spirits as we left the hotel for the Kathmandu Airport for the flight to Lukla.  I tried to cheer myself up by being thankful for not a job in the 78th and 79th floors of the World Trade Center after Bay Ridge Bob got me the interview in August 1999.  (The second plane went through the 80th floor just above on September 11 and my persumptive boss Jonathan escaped with jet fuel on his shirt.  Four people in that company died.  I grateful that Bay Ridge Bob and I weren't the fifth and sixth.)

Steve was very pessimistic because he didn't think we would leave on time.  Instead of the in flight meal and movie, the stewardess gave us cotton balls so our ears wouldn't pop.  Our seats were bleacher seats with cardboard on top.  Just like with my fellow Bleacher Creatures at Yankee Stadium.

We loaded up for an incredible flight over the mountain into Lukla.  If you have ever skateboarded, our runaway was like a 50+ degree skateboard ramp where you touch down low and then taxi up to stop the momentum and brake.  The pilot banked around the mountain and then dipped to nail the landing.  Take that Tony Hawk.  

We couldn't pose for X Games Victory photos and medals because there were people waiting for up to 12 days to get out of Lukla.  The pilots hustled people in and out as we stay in the local lodge for a couple of hours.  You would have thought we were at JFK.

We went to the local lodge for some yak (mountain goat milk) tea.  Delicious!  Just like back on parents' dairy farm.  We adjusted our poles and Steve introduced us to Ngima Sherpa and the rest of the sherpas. 

As we started hiking from Lukla (9,000') to Phakding (9,500'), the depression slowly started to wane.  I don't have full closure yet but it's not often that I have full closure?  Keep the Faith and keep your eyes glued for emotional and trekking updates.  

Posted by The Tank in Namache Bazaar, Nepal.

Wow!  What a day!  We visited some of the holiest places in Buddhism and Hinduism today.  Incredible views of Kathmandu.  I know Bob Seger is smiling somewhere now that I have made it here. 

Seriously, we witnessed a Hindu burial today.  It was one of the most moving experiences in my life.  We have a pretty slow Internet connection here so posting photos will come later.  I offered to troubleshoot the issue but it was in a far away place which I could not troubleshoot remotely.  Hey, I'm a geek and that's why I'm on this trip. 

We will hopefully fly to Lukla in the morning.  Exciting stuff.

 

(2) NFL Picks: The NFL Season is about to kickoff in later today.  Wow!  I haven't studied the season much but I have to keep my promise to Buffalo Steve to exchange picks before the season starts.  Here goes nothing:

AFC

Division Winners:

AFC East: New England

AFC North: Pittsburgh

AFC South: Indianapolis

AFC West: San Diego

Wild Card: Jacksonville, NY Jets

Dark Horse: Buffalo, Cleveland, Tennessee

AFC Champion: San Diego

 

NFC

Division Winners:

NFC East: Dallas

NFC North: Minnesota

NFC South: New Orleans

NFC West: Seattle

Wild Card: NY Giants, Tampa

Dark Horse: Green Bay, Philadelphia, Arizona

NFC Champion: Dallas

 

Super Bowl Champion: San Diego

Posted by an excited Tank in Kathmandu, Nepal.