Whenever I return from traveling I always have the intention of "finishing" the writeup of stories from my trip. This never happens. So I'll close my account of summer travels with one last story.
During my trek in Nepal we stopped at Everest Base Camp.
base camp sits atop a glacier
It was still early in the season so there were only three expeditions underway - an American, a Japanese and five Czechs. The American and Japanese climbers were both above Camp 4 on their way (potentially) to summiting Everest. The five Czechs had just returned to base camp after being turned back by bad weather on their way to Lhotse (a different peak, but shares the same approach). I was feeling a bit dizzy from the altitude so I decided to walk into the Czech tent and began mumbling Czech-like sounds...dobry deen, ja jsem mluvim troshku cesky, muzu....muzu, ummm...
Czech (& Slovak) mountaineers
I must have produced something that resembled actual Czech as they soon invited me to stay for lunch! The menu included:
Knedliky (Czech dumplings, made on the spot by Sherpa cooks)
Cesky Zeli (Czech style cabbage)
Sunka (ham)
Prosicutto!!!
knedlikly & Cesky zeli
mmmm
The food tasted pretty damn good and was probably the best meal I had all trek. Especially the prosciutto, which they confirmed was authentic Italian (though not di Parma). I continued talking in broken Czech and English and asked them a bunch of little kid questions about climbing. Turns out they're serious badasses and have been climbing together for years. They don't use oxygen and carry as much of their own gear as they can. By contrast, the lone Japanese climber attempting Everest had twelve climbing Sherpas helping him en route. The Czechs referred to themselves as "sportsmen."
To cap it all off, the meal ended with a delicious espresso made from an Italian Moka heated over a camping stove - so much better than the instant nescafe I'd been drinking the prior ten days. They reserve the Slivovice for dinner.
To cap it all off, the meal ended with a delicious espresso made from an Italian Moka heated over a camping stove - so much better than the instant nescafe I'd been drinking the prior ten days. They reserve the Slivovice for dinner.
Anyway, I think the moral of the story is that the world doesn't really make much sense so you might as well learn some czech if you want to enjoy prosciutto and espresso while trekking in the Himalayas.
the road to Everest
