In Kathmandu / Final Prep

Arrived in Kathmandu last night at about 10pm local time and greeted by our hosting trip organisers. On the drive from the airport to the downtown Thamel area, a striking observation was the lack of any people or traffic on the roads. Our driver reported this was partly due to an increase in security patrol and encouraging people to be off the streets in the lead up to the upcoming Nepalese elections on 10th of April.

This morning woke to the usual hustle of Kathmandu where the narrowness of streets is exemplified by the motorbikes, small cars, rickshaws and pedestrians going about their daily activities. Traders opening up their stalls to sell a range of different wares - fabric materials, blankets, household plastics, locally made jewelery and crafts, traditional Nepalese knives, vegetables and spices, to a selection of fresh (or not so fresh) cuts off meat street side.

After a fully stacked breakfast, Jamie McGuininess (our expedition organiser/leader of Project Himlaya) and I caught up for the first time to get to know each other and go over a final gear check, and then later met up with some of our key team members - seen from left to right in this picture - "Dawa" (Team Lead Sherpa), "Sarki" (Head Cook), and "Ming Ma Lapa Sherpa". Dawa is well respected in the sherpa community having been on Everest several times, and he will see to coordinating activities and logistics on the mountain with other team sherpas. As for Sarki, as head cook, the pressure is on him to churn out a range of hearty good tasting food for the team in base camp kitchen.

Tomorrow morning the real adventure begins - we have an early start at 6am to head to the airport and catch the infamous flight to Lukla where we will spend one night, and all feeling well, head for Namche Bazaar the following day; moving with the porters at a casual pace in what is a most spectacular setting in the heart of the Everest Himalayan region. From there these guys will likely go on ahead. Over the course of the next week I will be making my way towards base camp slowly gaining altitude to ensure proper acclimatisaton. From Lukla to Everest Base Camp it is about a 50km trek.

One member of our team, James, is already up in this region trekking to acclimatise, and the remainder of our team members will be arriving in Kathmandu on 6th April note being able to get here early due to heavily booked flights from Europe and USA.

The Everest season in Nepal is all go now - the climb begins! http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=17176

Bye for now...David