Nepal

Above Everest Base Camp, Nepal. Finally, after many days of uphill hiking, the end of the road. This is the scenic overlook at Kala Pattar. Everest base camp is down in the valley behind me, kind of between my feet. The summit of Mt. Everest is the high peak behind me. It's hard to believe how high that thing really is. I'm huffing and puffing here at 18,500 ft of altitude, and the summit of Everest is over 2 vertical miles higher. How did anyone ever make it all the way up there ?!?

On the trail to Everest. There's stunning scenery around every corner along this amazing trail. Left: A farmer plows his field with yak-power, planting this year's potato crop. Ama Dablam is the pointy Matterhorn-like peak in the background; it's another famous climbing mountain. Right: One of many high suspension bridges along the way. It's a real bouncy ride when a herd of yaks is coming across the bridge in the other direction!

Khumbu Region, Nepal. Mountain scenery just can't get more extreme than in the Himalayas.

Top left: Prayer flags getting whipped in the wind above Tengboche Monastery as clouds race by below.

Bottom left: Porters carry heavy loads along a ridge line, high up in the Himalayas. What a grueling way to make a living. They have a great attitude though, and are always joking around. On rest breaks they'll sometimes sneak rocks into their buddy's load as a practical joke. Some 'friend"!

Right: The "tiny" 18,500-ft peak of Kala Pattar is where you get the best views of Everest. This peak is right across the valley from Everest with base camp in between. You climb up here because you can't really see the summit of Everest from base camp - the lower slopes of the mountain hide it from view. That big band of jumbled ice running down the valley floor is the massive Khumbu Glacier, stretching many miles downhill right beside the trail that got us here.

Kathmandu, Nepal. Just a few of the many-many amazing temples and monuments around this exotic and hectic city. Unfortunately many of these structures were damaged in the 2015 earthquake. Some of the temples in Durbar Square (left) were shaken completely to the ground.

Kathmandu, Nepal. A people-watcher's paradise. There's an amazing diversity of humanity here: holy men, unholy men, kids, animals, and plenty in between.

Annapurna, Nepal. Off on another great hike. This is the Annapurna Circuit, a 50-mile loop around a huge cluster of mountains named, appropriately enough, the Annapurna massif. The massif contains several connected peaks over 23,000 ft in altitude, including the tenth highest peak in the world. We hiked this trail for 18 days, constantly moving from one tiny Nepali village to another while circumnavigating this giant cluster of mountains. This trip was in 2013; in 2014 massive avalanches killed 43 people on this trail.

Mustang District, Nepal. This nice, lush, green farm valley looks so out of place surrounded by all the high-altitude desolation. Up here in the Mustang region even the valley floor is above 10,000 feet. The huge pointy peak off in the distance is Dhaulagiri 1, the seventh-highest mountain in the world at almost 27,000 ft.

Kagbeni, Nepal. This picture shows about 3 days worth of hard hiking. The pass between the high mountains off in the distance is Thorung La, at 17,800 ft. We came from the other side, up & over the pass, then down the valley to this little town at the junction of two huge valleys. Being a little tired and food-sick, we rested here for a couple of days. Our stay coincided with a large and very noisy Buddhist festival at the local monastery, which we visited often for good vibes.

Mustang District, Nepal. We thought this scenery was some of the most spectacular of the entire trek. The Mustang region is still a very wild part of Nepal and was off-limits to foreigners until fairly recently.

As we hiked this circuit in 2013 the Nepali government was building a road that would connect all these villages along the Annapurna Circuit that were formerly accessible only by foot. I don't think that will do anything good for the hiking potential of this famous loop trail. In some areas we hiked along sections of the completed road in 2013; the noise, dust, and pollution definitely took away from the experience. Soon you'll be able to just do the whole thing by Jeep : (

Bottom: The scenic farming village of Marpha. As we descend down the Kali-Gandaki valley the scenery gets greener, a welcome sight after the lunar landscapes above.

The Kali-Gandaki valley connects the Indian lowlands with the high plateau in Tibet, basically providing a clean cut through the Himalayas. As the Tibetan plateau heats up in the afternoon sun the hot air rises, and gale-force winds scream up this valley from India to fill in the void. Every single day! We learned real quick to get our walking done early, before the winds come up.

Top: The unusual house-painting style in this part of Nepal.

Middle: Looking up the Kali Gandaki River valley toward China/ Tibet, a day's walk away. It still takes a $500 permit to hike up this valley! We passed on that.

Manang, Nepal. You gotta be tough to live up here. A short, stout, well-insulated Nepalese horse, with Annapurna 3 in the background.