You might see Everest in the morning, our trek leader tells us, gesturing toward the cloudy horizon after our second day of hiking in the Himalayas. It's been an exhilarating two days hiking up to Namche Bazar, the Sherpa village and historic trading crossroads of the Khumbu region on the Nepali side of Everest.
Our group of 17 people – mostly from the U.S. but with others from Australia, Argentina, and Norway – traverses paths lined with bright magenta rhododendrons and lavender wild irises. Cable foot bridges grace the landscape like elegant silver necklaces. Below us is the Dudh Koshi, the Milky River, the meandering turquoise stream that patiently carved this valley. At every settlement there are prayer wheels, brightly painted with heartfelt sentiments that with every spin are catapulted far and wide.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest (and my 60th birthday), my wife Jackie and I are trekking to Everest Base Camp with Jamling Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. On May 29, 1953, Tenzing and Edmund Hillary were the first people to reach Everest's summit, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth.
Base Camp is our ultimate destination; we have no intention to climb the high reaches of the mountain. Our trek is about 40 miles, a series of climbs to high ridges followed by steep descents into river valleys, and the diminished oxygen at high altitudes makes the journey challenging for those of us who reside near sea level.
DAY 1: Kathmandu to Lukla to Monjo (9,200 feet) Reading Jan Morris's Coronation Everest – the exclusive account of the 1953 British expedition that was the first to reach Everest's summit – I learn that back then Nepal had no roads outside of its capital; the only way to get to Everest Base Camp was to walk 200 miles from Kathmandu. After arduous days of hiking, the climbers crawled into tiny tents, so low they could barely sit up.
Soaring above 29,000 feet, the mountain seems impossibly distant – making it from Namche to the 17,600-foot-high Base Camp feels
