Everest 2003 North Side Expedition
Russian Adventure Team Dispatch Five

4/7/2003 News from Russian Adventure Team Everest expedition from Moscow under the leadership of Alexander Abramov.

Alexander Abramov reports :"April,6 at 8:15 a.m. the bus with our team and the truck with all our equipment left the Katmandu hotel for Chinese boarder. The road moves in zigzags: up and down. The whole Himalayan ridge stands on the horizon in all its grandeur: Xixapangma, Cho Oyu, Everest, Makalu, Lhotse.

All the way along the road there sit people, hammering at the stones. This is the cheapest way to get ingredients for the concrete. In the afternoon we reached the frontier check post: here all the people and loads are shifted into Chinese cars and proceed along to Zhangmu (2600m). Two more expeditions crossed the boarder together with us: French expedition (7 people) and International (2 people). This year it is much warmer in Zhangmu than it was in 2000. I hope by the time we reach BC, there will be no snow there.

There are lots of "Red Lights" houses in Zhangmu. Those who know say that Amsterdam is not fit to hold a candle to Zhangmu "Red Lights". They say, Sherpas come here after 2 months of expeditions. Zhangmu is situated on such a steep slope, that the roofs of one houses serve as bases for the others. We tried several sorts of beer in order to decide 12 boxes of what kind we are taking with us to BC.

The atmosphere is very friendly in our team. Tomorrow were are leaving for Nielamu. Good-bye"

April 8,  2003 News from Russian Adventure Team Everest expedition under the leadership of Alexander Abramov.

Alexander Abramov reports from Zhangmu: “April,7. In the morning we rushed to buy beer. It is of great importance at BC. People there drink it warm, mingled with hot water – it helps against quinsy.

There was no need for us to choose among different kinds of beer yesterday – there turned out to be only one sort of beer in the store. Today we are leaving for Nyalam (3700m) – so today we’ll gain 1000m.

Dispatches