We spent our last three days of our Japanese stay in Kamikochi in the Japan Alps, sort of a warm-up trip for Nepal. The mountain trails there are at least as rugged as any we will find in Nepal, and we both found ourselves rather out of shape. I did manage to get to the top of Oku-Hotakedake, the third highest peak in Japan, and one that I’ve tried to climb on several occasions before. Marcia turned back and even so, she felt like the day had been too much for her. I’m sure we will be in much better shape as the treks go on!

We flew to Kathmandu via Singapore on September 29, arriving the 30th. We spent the next day and a half interviewing tour companies and trekking leaders and finally settled on a trip organized by Ngima Sherpa, the brother of the guide who took us around the Everest region almost 10 years ago.

Our planned trip is one of the most remote in Nepal – Lower and Upper Dolpo, the area made famous by Peter Matthiessen’s book The Snow Leopard. We will be on the trail for about 26 days and no access to cell phones, email, or even electricity from start to end. If all goes well, we will come out at Jomosom, an airport on the much more heavily traveled Annapurna loop. The Dolpo region is of Tibetan culture and very high, most of it between 4000 and 5000 meters elevation. We will acclimatize carefully and be fine, and we will have a good team of locals who can help us if anything goes wrong.

We are packing furiously tonight, because we leave the hotel tomorrow morning at 7am to fly to Nepalgunj, a low-altitude airport hub from which we will fly to Dolpo very early the next morning. With some luck, we will have internet access in Nepalgunj and can add some more notes, but if not, we’ll see you all around November 1 when we get back to something approaching modern civilization.

Take care, everyone, and come back for our next post, whenever that might be.