The journey begins...

Here we are around the beginning of our journey to Everest. Everest is behind Jesse's right shoulder in this picture, just barely peeking over that far ridge.

As you look at the rest of the pictures, you'll probably notice that we're wearing the same clothes throughout our journey. Just be glad these pictures aren't scratch and sniff.



This is the airport in Lukla that we flew into to begin our trek. Notice the steep uphill (or downhill) incline and the absence of, well, anything off the end of the runway.

We spent many hours at this spot scanning the skies for signs of the flight that would finally take us back to Kathmandu at the end of our trip. We were stranded in Lukla for about five days waiting for the weather to clear. Maybe you're wondering, "hey, why is there barbed wire in this picture?" Well, you try being stuck in Lukla for five days at the end of a two-week march with no clean clothes and the haunting prospect of celebrating Thanksgiving by eating rice, lentils, and yak cheese and see how you feel about the place. Barbed wire pretty much sums it up. (as it turns out, we convinced a certain hotel to fix us roast chicken and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving Day, so it was pretty good....but our clothes were still dirty).