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We had a busy day
today with the arrival of 5 Expedition members - Tom Boydston from
Boston, Clayton Kuhles from Arizona, Tom Lannamann from Connecticut,
Marc Serravezza from Colorado Springs and Brian Rolfson from
Colorado. The guys spent the
day getting over jetlag and poking around Kathmandu. We met at the
Yak Cafe for dinner and a "get to know you session". (Tom Boydston
and Jay couldn't stop talking about the food in Boston). All the
Team Members seem to have a similar outlook on mountaineering and we
are all coming together nicely. It would seem Dan has selected the
members well. |
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| Dan took
a walk to the Monkey Temple this morning, along with Bidya, owner of
the Hotel Nepa, and Patrick Bernier. This walk is becoming an almost
daily ritual. Kathmandu truly is a fascinating city when walking
around early in the morning. There are few cars on the roads,
allowing more time to see, rather than having to watch where you're
going. Rex and 2 Sherpas -
Ang Shera Sherpa and Galu Sherpa - left this morning for Lukla and
Basecamp. We haven't heard any reports from them yet as to the
weather or trail conditions, but no news is good news.
We have another 1000kgs of stuff
being packed ready to go to the airport tomorrow morning. This
consists of mainly member baggage and - Yep, you guessed it - more
food! Right now, there are poor, tired, jetlagged members
frantically packing and repacking their duffles for the trip. The
pack animals - yaks and zopkios (a yak-cow cross) can carry 60kgs.
We try to make each duffle 30kgs so the animals are easy to load -
also it's better for the animal to carry two equal size bags rather
than many small ones.
Dan spent about half the day
speaking with various US and UK embassy officials, trying to help
Nepalese colleagues obtain their visas. It is extremely difficult
for a Nepalese person to get a visa now, it would seem.
Tomorrow night we have our big
group dinner, and on the morning of the 2nd of October, we will
review all of our equipment and plans with each member, to make sure
everyone is on the same page, and in case people need to buy a few
more bits and pieces. Then, early morning of 3 October, we plan to
fly to Lukla, if the weather permits.
Stay tuned, Yours Sincerely, the
Ama Dablam Expedition Team at www.summitclimb.com
 Dispatches
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