Namche Bazaar

I think it does help that the course is net downhill.

So you start at base camp, and then you run a marathon back down to a little town called Namche.

And, uh, so that helps a lot.

There's definitely, like, some uphills in there, and then they had to add in, like, a little out and back going up and down to get to a marathon.

But, um, yeah, I tried to, like, push on the downhills and everything like that, and so that kind of made up for it.

[laughs] But, um, yeah, I think it helps that it's, like, net down.

I think if it was the opposite direction, running from Namche up to base camp, it would be, like, [laughs] much, much more difficult.

[laughs]

[instrumental music] From Kathmandu, I'll fly into Lukla, the mountain town known as the gateway to the Himalayas.

From there, my team and I will trek on foot first to Namche Bazaar, and then on to Dingboche as we acclimatize to the altitude.

As part of my acclimatization strategy, I'll then attempt to summit the 20,300 feet of Island Peak.

Returning to Dingboche, I move on to Everest Base Camp before my ultimate goal, to summit Mount Everest herself without supplemental oxygen.

Arriving in Lukla feels like the expedition is finally beginning.

This place is real, not a simulated environment in a lab.

We've got three days trekking ahead of us before we reach Namche Bazaar.

With our Sherpa, we'll be climbing from 9,383 feet to 11,290 feet.

This is my friend, Bingley Sherpa.

In the Panorama Lodge, Namche, we've been staying here for 20 years.

This is the water machine he's installed to reduce the plastic bottle waste generated.

Last season, he saved more than 35,000 plastic water bottles by having this machine available here in his lodge alone.

Only one lodge, one season.

passing through Namche on the way to Everest.

So these are things that we want to keep our eye on and encourage and support along the way.

Expedition operators have been doing cleanups, but we know that where there are great crowds of people, we also know that while there are a lot of good guys on the mountain, there are also a lot of bad guys who are cutting corners.

And then he was like, the trip that I want to do.

So typically people will go to Namche, which is kind of like base camp for the Everest region, right? Everything starts in Namche.

And then there's like these valleys.

So people either go up to Everest base camp and come back or they go up to Gokyo and then come back or Renjo and then come back.

We were so diverse.

To see how these women... got together supporting we don't know each other you know that's the beauty of it but we we was like we knew each other for ages so wow see that was fantastic but i want to quickly get into my journey so on day three is when I woke up and we're in this beautiful town up in the mountains called Namche Bazaar.

And it was really cold.

There's no insulation where we sleep in the tea houses, but you look through the window and I was like, oh, I hardly slept today.