Going back home..... ish.

Over the weekend, my girlfriend and I went snowshoeing. It wasn't anything real crazy, but it was good to be out in nature. We bought a pass to RMNP a few weeks ago and decided that we needed to get up off of the plains of Colorado.
There is just something relieving for me to be out on the trail. That smell.... what a wonderful smell - the pines just below tree-line. I love that crisp, cool bite in the air as I break tree-line at dawn. My buddy Terry keeps after me, "So when are you going up Everest?" I always laugh, but he's inspiring me to check on vacations to Nepal and Tibet. Too bad this shit is going on.
Heather is also giving me some go with her stories from when she lived in China. Someday, I have to find a pub in southwestern China and get lit on bai-jo while losing my ass at backgammon! The thought of screaming over a board at a small asian (or european as this is not a new idea) who is screaming equally loud right back at me in Cantonese into the wee hours sounds like so much fun! Then again, I've topped out at 14k and change. Base camp at Everest is something like 20k and change. Meh, maybe I'll have to train for a couple of years. I really have no desire to climb it, but going to base camp would be cool. BC of Parbat and/or Lhotse would be equally if not even cooler! To sit below the last 8,000m peak and chill would be something tough to be topped! Something else that'd be cool - hangin out at the Rongbuk monastery with some of the monks! Wow, I should look into that in a couple of years.

Trivia for the day: What was the last 8,000 metre peak climbed? It was in 2001. Answer