Mt. Everest!

I'm going to get a little out of chronological order here because I just have to share a photo from yesterday.

It was a good reason for an early-morning wake-up call: I got up before sunrise and headed to the Kathmandu airport to board a little Buddha Air plane to fly around the Himalayas.

The plane cleared the thick haze of pollution over the Kathmandu Valley at around 9,000 feet, and the stunning mountains came into view, looming high above us. We flew eastward, parallel to the range. Peak after peak after peak appeared in the crystal-clear sky. Each was absolutely breathtaking. It was awesome, in every sense of the word. Soon we reached our cruising altitude of 30,000 feet, about the typical altitude of a cross-country flight. The crazy thing was, we were still at eye level with the tallest peaks!

Mt. Everest, or Sagarmatha in Nepali, was the second-to-last large peak. It was a distinctive peak because it forms an "M" shape with its sister mountain, Lhotse. As we flew by, I wondered if anyone was attempting the summit at that moment. It's the most-climbed mountain in the Himalaya, and according to Wikipedia, by the end of the 2008 climbing season, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals. 210 people have died on the mountain. That makes it one of the less deadly Himalayan peaks, however; K2 claims 27% of those who try to climb it.

There really aren't words to describe the majesty of the Himalayas, so instead I'll share a photo (and there are more to come, I promise!)

Mt. Everest (left) and Lhotse (right). Click on the picture to view it larger.