Bushwalk Australia

I experienced the trip of a lifetime, walking the fabulous Everest Circuit in December 2012 and January 2013 with World Expeditions. The still and timelapse sequences in this video capture the scenic and cultural adventure our group experienced.

The video includes stunning timelapse sequences I shot at the Everest Viewpoint at Namche Bazaar. The cloud was doing a stunning dance as the sun was setting. The Everest timelapses were composed from around 900 individual photos.

http://vimeo.com/58016672

(make sure you watch full screen)

Everest Timelapses are primarily towards the end.

Other things to look out for:
- face in the clouds in a photo of Lohtse
- face in the ridge line near the top of the mountain behind Tengboche Monastery

excellent presentation - thanks

Well put together - nice work!

Dave

Very nice, thanks for sharing

thanks for posting. It looks awesome.

Awesome- what fabulous memories and a beautiful slideshow

Thanks all for the feedback

As for the timelapse, I'm sorry I didn't have my tripod for the whole trip ( a heavy I.e. stable tripod is essential for timelapse). I left it in the lodge at Namche. I felt sorry for the porters and didn't want them carrying my tripod when we went up and over the Cho La. I was also carrying a nasty head cold the day we left Namche so didn't want to burden myself with a heavy tripod either.

I've now been back 2 weeks and I'm still trying to shake the khumbu cough, although it's more an annoyance now.

Awesome presentation, thanks for posting it.

I am extremely jealous.

Tony

Awesome Photo there Graham!

I was also in nepal around the same time as you, and can show a side to kathmandu you will definitely see when you arrive, but you rarely see on photos.

Firstly, did you notice dirt roads everywhere? I cant believe even many of the main arterial roads were just rubble and potholes everywhere!


When you leave the touristy areas like thamel, I found a large number of homeless poeple. I gave each one a chocolate bar. Thinking back, it was probabally a bad idea due to their lack of dental care.



This is the mountain hardwear store. Prices are at US RRP, so you can get stuff cheaper if you buy from the US with their sales on. But its great for last minute gear you forgot to bring with you. On this same street just outside of this store, is actually a ladyboy area after 10pm. Walking along here, at least 10 ladyboys approached me to solicit their services. They get quite aggressive if you dont take up their offers.



You simply can not be in kathmandu and NOT notice the power black outs. Seems to happen on a daily basis and being in the middle of winter showers in the evening were out of the question. Even staying in a comfortable 4 star hotel there was no hot water after 6pm every day. Not the hotels fault, but something people should be prepared for.



As soon as you leave Kathmandu, nepal shows you what its famous for - The mountains are just beautiful. This is Langtang Lirung (7227m), photo taken from Kyanjin Gompa. We failed at our winter ascent so there are no summit photos to post here. But i did really try to have a good crack at it.

Here is another view of the mountain from our camp. Beautiful moutnain, excpet we could not get to the top. Climbing in nepal gets expensive very quickly, because you require permits which can cost alot of money. Unlike in NZ where you can just choose a lesser peak and have a crack at that instead, In nepal, you need to organise your permits BEFORE you enter the area. Hence unfortunately we were not able to summit any other lower peaks, but our only option was to head straight down.
a mountain guide, a trekking guide, a lama monk, a cook and 4 kitchen helpers, and a large team of porters. There were only 3 of us climbers. all 17 heading down the mountain in a sad state.


On the way down, we found special herbs. Lots fo it. this stuff grows everywhere in nepal! despite my lungs filling up with fluid (suffering from HAPE) and coughing up copious amounts of blood, word from some skardus (indian gurus) was that these herbs had magical properties. we gave it a shot and at least it stopped my sadness.

The trek in took a week and the trek out took another week. all up it was a pretty good holiday despite not summiting anything.

My arrival in Kathmandu was an eye-opener for me. It was my first visit to a developing nation. I had a couple of experiences where begging children approached taxis I was in ( but guidebooks and other literature I saw recommended not donating ).

The state of the roads was a surprise. The dust in Kathmandu was also a new experience.

I had little spare time in Kathmandu but did manage to venture into Thamel after a half-day tour. I picked up a pair of soft shell pants for $20. Quality seem reasonable enough, even if they may have be fake.

We also went to Thamel after our trek for dinner. Walking back to our hotel at night was an experience due to the darkness ( none of us remembered to take a headtorch). A few of us nearly had nasty falls, tripping on rubble, potholes, etc.

In Kathmandu, we were staying at the Radisson. There was the odd power failure, although it came back on quickly (maybe they had a generator). No issues with running out of hot water.

I'm wishing I spent an extra day or two in Kathmandu as I would have liked to go back to Durbar square, visit some of the other sites and have a better look around.

Great video Graham! Enjoyed the footage of clouds forming off the peak of everest. Gokyo lake was frozen!

Ninja - Same, I was a bit suprised as well to find our taxi dodging past cows and rubble on the way to Thamel, was more third world than I'd expected in the capital city.
Heh we first wondered why there were candles at all the bars/resatraunts.. didn't take long to figure out And yeah those weeds were pretty common alongside the Annapurna circuit.. Apparently KTM along with Goa in India used to be meccas for hippies, maybe they planted it everywhere..
Ninja did you have any nifedipine or viagra available when you had HAPE? that's bad.

ninja pay attention to what youre eating regarding HAPE
the integrity of cell walls and their permeability to fluid can be determined by what fats you eat
you need a reasonable amount of saturated fat.
avoid supermarket brought oils or processed foods with a lot of vegetable fat in them. it degrades cell walls and increases the fuid permeability in the cells. dont eat anything fried in vegetable oil. or fried anything
dont touch margarine . 50% of cell walls is fat, and how the cell walls function can depend on the quality of fat, as you get older it becomes a bigger issue.. healthy cell walls are full of medium chain saturated fat. the same fat thats in coconut oil.
the locals there eat saturated fat by the truckload..... yak butter..... they wont be eating as much processed vegetable fats as westerners..

vegetable oils should be cold pressed, or eaten from raw nuts or seeds preferably soaked in water a few hours ..
coking most vegetable oils degrades it,

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... n=20130127

You need more dhal bhaat. Deri deri kripaya.