My second trip to Nepal was in October of 1992 and once again I hired and travelled with the Toronto based company "Canadian Himalayan Expeditions." I was grouped together with fellow trekkers from around the world and for this trip we would hike the path through the Himalayan foothills called "Everest in Hillary's footsteps." To elaborate, almost all people who visit "the Khumbu", or "Everest" region of Nepal do not hike to the base camp of Everest directly from the end of the roads in Nepal that lead to the Khumbu. Ninety nine percent of visitors to the Khumbu region fly from Kathmandu directly to a grass strip in the small village of Lukla and then trek in to the base camp of Everest from there. By doing that they remove not only a huge amount of the distance between the two locations but also a great deal of the beauty of the landscape as well. Our group willingly chose to hike the exact trekking path through the Himalayan mountain foothills that Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition took when he traveled to the base of Everest in 1953. The route is ninety miles of walking through the stunningly beautiful landscape of the Himalayan foothills arriving at Lukla. From there you continue on the same pathway all other visitors of the region take onward to Namche Bazzaar, Tengboche, Dengboche, Loboche, and then finally Gorak Shep on the Khumbu glacier which is the last outpost before you reach the mountaineering base camp of Mount Everest. We spent a few hours at Everest base camp and chatted with a combination French, Russian and Ukrainian climbing team who had failed in their attempt and were packing up to leave. From there we trekked back down the Khumbu glacier and then eastward up a valley to climb the mountain Imja-Tse, or, "Island peak" as it is called in English. It is a 20,350' peak, or more accurately, a ridge off the mountain Lohtse-Shar, the fourth highest mountain in the world. Island peak is a great "tourist" mountain in Nepal that is routinely climbed by visitors to the Khumbu region. Imja-Tse does require some mountaineering skills and equipment but is by no means an extremely technical mountain. We reached the summit at about 11:30 in the morning of Wednesday October 28th, 1992. After we descended from the summit we continued on back down the valley to Dengboche and then turned southward and went back down the valley we had hiked up past Tengboche, Namche Bazzaar and then on to Lukla where we flew out to Kathmandu. I stayed another few days in Kathmandu before flying out home. My second trip to Nepal was fascinating and fulfilling, and as I pour through these images and write the captions for them I am anxious to one day revisit this land of wondrous beauty and do some more trekking. All of the images in this gallery were originally shot on Kodak chrome slide film and have been digitally scanned and enhanced to the best of my abilities. Due to the degradation of my slides over the decades some of these images have not transferred well to digital copies despite my best efforts. I hope that the viewer can forgive me for this.
© Steve Tambosso - "The Wandering Fireman"
