Dan Mazur Ama Dablam Expedition: Dispatch One

Dispatch One: Dear EverestNews.com readers,

Ama Dablam copyright Dan Mazur

Well - our Expedition has officially kicked off with my arrival in Kathmandu yesterday afternoon. Nepal looks great after the monsoon season - lots of water in the rivers and the countryside very green. In fact, the air pollution has seemingly gotten less due to the Governments' crack down on old vehicles. We can actually see the mountains of the valley rim!

I spent the afternoon catching up with friends - Marari Sharma, our ever helpful Trekking Agent, and Bidya Tuladhar, kind owner of the Hotel Nepa, where our Expeditions stay.

We have quite a large group going to Ama Dablam this year - 26 in fact! The first three of which arrived late last night. Hansi Miettinen, Antti Oksanen and Ville Saarinen, three guys from Helsinki, Finland. They have climbed throughout Europe's alps and are a very strong start to our team. They will leave early tomorrow morning for a trek to Everest Base Camp, before returning to join us at Ama Dablam on the 7th of October.

I also met up with our Sherpa staff today - and had a lot of fun!

Many of our Staff are long term and have been with us for many expeditions. Gyalu , Shera, Tenszing, Maya, Lakpa, Tenszing, Pasang and Phurba make up our list of super strong High Altitude Sherpas for this expedition.

Gyalu and Shera both summitted Ama Dablam last year. They also climbed very high on Manaslu earlier this year. Tenszing summitted Pumori in April 2003, while Maya, formally a trekking guide, has recently returned from a month of intensive climbing training at the Nepal Mountaineering Association's school in Manang. She is now a fully trained High Altitude Sherpa and will be climbing Ama Dablam.

Lakpa and Tenszing both climbed high on Manaslu in the spring of 2003. Pasang is new to us, but comes with a wealth of experience, having summitted Everest, Kangchenjunga and climbing very high on other big mountains such as Dhaulagiri and Langtang lerung.

Tomorrow I'm taking the Sherpa staff to the Pasang Lamu Climbing Center to refresh them on climbing and roping skills. Should be a lot of fun! Stay tuned and watch for that report. Until then, thank you for watching and reading.

From Jay Reilly and Summitclimb.com