From Nepal · living in Omaha, Nebraska

Aneesh
Bhattarai

Raised in the shadow of the Himalaya. Husband to Moti, dad to Roselie and Doobie. Red on matchday. Up early for lights out. Happiest on a trail, a long highway, or a dark field with the Milky Way overhead.

41.2565° N, 95.9345° W Kathmandu 27.7172° N, 85.3240° E Bortle 7 at home · 1 on the good nights
01 / Home · Nepal
नमस्ते

Where the
mountains start

Eight of the world's fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres stand in Nepal. Everything else on this page, every trail and every dark sky, gets measured against them.

Nepal's eight 8,000-metre peaks drawn to scale beside Trail Ridge Road (3,713 m) and Omaha (332 m)0 m2,000 m4,000 m6,000 m8,000 m8,849EverestSagarmatha8,586Kangchenjunga8,516Lhotse8,485Makalu8,188Cho Oyu8,167Dhaulagiri I8,163Manaslu8,091Annapurna I3,713Trail Ridge RdColorado332OmahaNebraska

Heights in metres, drawn to the same scale. Everest stands about 26 times higher above sea level than Omaha. Scroll sideways on small screens.

3,210 m
Poon HillSunrise over Dhaulagiri and the Annapurnas.
4,130 m
Annapurna Base CampAn amphitheatre of ice walls on every side.
5,364 m
Everest Base CampThrough Namche Bazaar and the Khumbu valley.
5,416 m
Thorong LaThe high pass on the Annapurna Circuit.
5,644 m
Kala PattharThe classic viewpoint for Everest's summit.
02 / Family · the home team

The starting
five

Every matchday, race weekend and road trip starts with this squad.

AneeshCo-captain
MotiCo-captain
RoselieAge 7
DoobieAge 5
MainerdNine lives

The girls wear their ages as shirt numbers. New kits every birthday.

03 / Matchday · Manchester United

Glory, glory
from Nebraska

Four thousand miles from Old Trafford and still on the edge of the couch every weekend. The club's story is the reason it never gets old.

  1. 1878
    Newton Heath LYRRailway workers start a football club in east Manchester.
  2. 1902
    Manchester UnitedRescued from bankruptcy and given the name it carries today.
  3. 1910
    Old Trafford opensThe Theatre of Dreams, now the biggest club ground in England.
  4. 1968
    Champions of EuropeTen years after Munich, the first English club to lift the European Cup.
  5. 1999
    The TrebleLeague, FA Cup, and two goals in stoppage time at the Camp Nou.
04 / Race Week · Formula One

Five red lights,
then everything

CircuitLap lengthLapFrom OmahaGetting there
Circuit of the AmericasAustin, Texas5.513 km
≈ 870 miRoad trip
Las Vegas Strip CircuitLas Vegas, Nevada6.201 km
≈ 1,290 miRoad trip
Circuit Gilles VilleneuveMontréal, Québec4.361 km
≈ 1,280 miRoad trip
SilverstoneNorthamptonshire, England5.891 km
≈ 4,100 miFly + Old Trafford
Spa-FrancorchampsStavelot, Belgium7.004 km
≈ 4,500 miBucket list
SuzukaMie, Japan5.807 km
≈ 6,300 miBucket list

Bar = lap length relative to Spa, the longest track on the calendar. Distances are rough road miles or great-circle miles.

05 / Trails · on foot

Loess hills
and higher

The bluffs along the Missouri are closer than most people think. The Rockies are one long day's drive west.

  • Fontenelle ForestBellevue, NE · boardwalk and river bottoms15 min
  • Hitchcock Nature CenterLoess Hills, IA · prairie ridges, hawk watch30 min
  • Platte River State ParkLouisville, NE · waterfalls and the lookout tower35 min
  • Indian Cave State ParkShubert, NE · bluffs over the Missouri2 hr
  • Rocky Mountain National ParkEstes Park, CO · alpine lakes above 10,000 ft9 hr
Elevation comparison: Omaha at about 1,090 feet versus Trail Ridge Road high point at 12,183 feet OMAHA 1,090 FT 12,183 FT 6,000 0 FT
Omaha to the top of Trail Ridge Road: about 11,000 feet of climb across 600 miles.
06 / Roads · on four wheels

Go west
on I-80

Fill the tank, queue the playlist, and let the plains open up. Every one of these ends somewhere dark enough to see the Milky Way.

MILE 0
OmahaHome base. Coffee, snacks, full tank.
≈ 300 MI
Merritt ReservoirSandhills sky so dark it hosts the Nebraska Star Party.
≈ 470 MI
BadlandsStriped buttes at sunrise, then Wall Drug for the obligatory stop.
≈ 520 MI
Black HillsNeedles Highway, Custer State Park, bison on the shoulder.
≈ 600 MI
Rocky Mountain NPTrail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the US.
≈ 700 MI
Great Sand DunesA certified International Dark Sky Park with dunes for a foreground.
07 / Night Sky · looking up

Chasing
the dark

Stargazers rate sky darkness on the Bortle scale, 1 to 9. Drag the slider to see what the city lights take away.

Bortle 2

Tonight's moon

  • Leave 20 minutes for your eyes to adapt. No phone screens.
  • Red flashlight only. White light resets night vision.
  • The new moon week is the window for the Milky Way core.
  • Pack a layer more than you think. The plains get cold fast.