All go - we have a team

Confirmed today our team will consist of the following climbing members:

• Jamie McGuiness - Kiwi (expedition leader / organiser)
• James - Irish (a doctor)
• Andy Falgate - Brit
• Gineth - USA / Costa Rica
• David Cole - Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
• Raphael - USA / French
• Anselm - Irish

...plus of course our great Sherpa team for their efforts to make this expedition possible.

Joining us also for Base Camp support will be:

• Marty - Kiwi
• Giannina - Dutch
• Tim - USA

All up a small team (originally 14 climbing members) but this will enable us to be more focused on the challenge that lie before us. We all fly to Kathmandu, Nepal next week to start breaking trail with about a week long trek up to base camp. Bye for now. David

Everest is back on

Well some awesome news today!

Jamie McGuiness our expedition organiser who has been in Nepal these past weeks trying to make through the confusing and frustrations over no permits being issues, contacted us advising that a climbing permit has been granted to our team by the Nepalese government enabling us to climb Everest from the Nepalese side.

Wow..talk about a pick me up!

This is most positive news after Tibet and Everest will be closed from the North side and we were faced with the grim prospect of waiting atleast another year to try again.

We are to get to Nepal before end of next week to immediately commence the expedition.

So, lots of organising gear this weekend in final preparation.

My website http://www.spiritofeverest.com/ will be updated over the next few days to reflect these change in plans and also have detailed route information for those of you interested to follow along.

Bye for now. David

Training prevails...just!

Despite the uncertainty of whether or not our expedition will still go ahead, training still continues (it has to), all though motivation is a heck of a lot harder to come by.

Today I repeated last weeks training session doing 7 successive ascents of Da Hei Shan, climbing a total of 2300m in 4 hours carrying a 20kg pack and 2kg of weights on each leg....feeling a lot stronger than last week.

Training also continues throughout the week with a minimum 1.5hrs at the gym every night doing strength building exercises and intensive cardio work outs.

Bye for now. David

Disappointment

A few weeks ago in Dalian I was introduced to a Chinese guy also named David who happened to be climbing Everest this year; a real coincident when in a city of 6 million people there is only one other person in Dalian to ever have summited Everest and this year there would be two of us attempting.

David called me tonight, clearly upset asking if I had heard about Everest being closed. Dave received notice that his attempt at Everest, also from the Tibet/China side, was cancelled due to the closure of the mountain. Any chance he had to summit Everest this year were dashed.

We tried to see the positive side of things (although that is hard to come by when you've trained so hard and so long for this once in a lifetime shot) and made a pact to get together next week for a few glasses of notorious Chinese bai-jiu (white liquor).

I am still waiting to here the status of our expedition - optimistic with reservations.

Bye for now. David

North side closed this season

North side being closed??

This cannot be good news for our expedition......see full story...

http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=17091

Training on a Chinese work horse

Well just 5 weeks to go now, and I think I am looking forward more to finishing the daily training routine more so than starting the expedition!

With these last remaining weeks, today I have shifted the training program to a greater bias towards hill climbing on Da Hei Shan (Big Black Mountain) which is an impressive backdrop to the Dalian downtown area seen in this picture:

The hill climbing started at 7am this morning, for 4.5 hours with a loaded 20kg pack, and 2kg weights strapped to each ankle; these weights replicating the weight of the high altitude boots & crampons we will wear climbing above 6000m.

Now Da Hei Shan is only 400m or so from the base to the summit, definitely more a hill than a mountain, and certainly not too much to get excited about for training, although it does make a pleasant stroll every weekend for the local Chinese ladies in high heel shoes! But, with the help of a local motorcycle taxi guy "Zhan" hired for a few hours, things worked out a lot better.

I would hike from the bottom of the mountain up along the road to the summit, and Zhan would "rev the rings" out of his Chinese workhorse winding his way up to the summit meeting me there about 25 min later. There I would be touted by the local corner drink vendor selling cold drinks to avid hill climbers, then jump on the back and we'd head back down to the base, riding the front brake lining all the way, and then do it all over again - a total of seven #$%^#* times!

Have faith right in the saying "No pain, no gain"? Bye for now. David