Day 4: Namche

Hiking time: 5-6 hours
Difficulty Level: Moderate

We’ll follow the Dudh Kosi, ascending 2,300 ft./700 m through Himalayan pine and Doedar cedar forests, to the celebrated village of Namche Bazaar (11,300ft./3,444 m). The village of Namche is an historic trading post where Nepalese and Tibetan traders exchange salt, dried meat, gold and textiles. Besides being a superb place to shop for traditional crafts, Namche remains the central trading post in the Khumbu, attracting Himalayan and lowland merchants. Our group will spend two days in Namche, affording us the opportunity to acclimate, visit local markets and spend time with friends in town. On the hike, we’ll capture our first glimpses of Everest and neighboring peaks.

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Today we trekked from Phakding at 8,500’ up to Namche at 12,000’. We went over several suspension bridges and got our first glimpse of a few of the high snow covered peaks of the region. It has been a very sweet time getting to know our guests, Trevor and Adele, and Mike, my co-host for the trek. One of my favorite parts of time over here is always getting to know our local guides and sharing life with them. They’re truly the best in the business and take incredible care of us.

Namche is like a city in the sky and one of the coolest places we get to see on this trek. It doesn’t feel real. Thousands of people live up here and it’s a stark difference to the rest of the places we spend our evenings. Upon arrival we got settled at Hotel Namche then went for a walk around town to check out the local shops and got tea with a new friend from Germany that we met last night.

We had a great dinner with each other and got to interact more with the staff that runs the tea house that I’ve gotten to know a bit over the times I’ve been here. They gave us a warm welcome and made a cake for our team to commemorate our time here.

I love this country and this trek and I’m so honored to be back here. It’s a real pleasure to serve our guests and get to know the locals more and more.

Another night of heading to bed early and can’t wait for tomorrow!

-Nate Zuercher