The Small Town Feel

I'm back in Namche and feeling good to be out of the expedition life and back in to a small town. Logan stayed up in Pangboche and is with the bags. I needed some internet time to find out what's happening out there. Cali's burning up, i'ver heard. Not good.
I ran in to our other expedition team members and they plan on going up to Pangboche tomorrow and meeting Logan at the Sonam Lodge. This four room Hyatt in the middle of no where features a hole for a toilet and a view of Ama Dablam for 100 rupies a night, 65 cents. In this country you really get what you pay for but you can't pay more so you get what you get. It's a kind of forced culture shock. Wake up white people!
Namche is filled with travelers and I am one of the few that has been here for longer than two days. ONe day arriving and one leaving. The internet guy is a crack up.
I don't think that I talked about my friend A'yal (sp) getting frost bite yet so here it goes. That shit sucks. His toes looked like they had been boiled and he could hardly walk. We walked from the high camps on the mountain down to base camp keep his boots on. In part not to look at his feet and also to keep them intact. When I saw them it was hard to believe that the cold did that to his feet. Puss and purple ruled my vision and I prayed to what ever power keeps skin cells alive to help him with his feet.
Two days later a helicopter flew in to basecamp and pick him and another frost bite victim up from our expedition. I remember on the climb that my feet were cold so I stopped and loosened my boots to get more blood to my feet. My hands seemed to be warm until the last 1000 ft. of the mountain and then they seemed like logs. I pulled the down mitts out and had a hay-day with my axes on the perfect snow conditions. The end of my axe ripped through the snow like putting old coolers on the slope and killing them.

Gotta Go
james