Mount Everest South Side Expedition
Sean Burch: Dispatch One

Kathmandu, Nepal: I arrived in Kathmandu this morning. The flight was pretty much uneventful, which is good. On the way in, SAS served us AquaVite, so I toasted my expedition with this traditional Norwegian drink. It brought to mind all of my Norwegian ancestors who have inspired me to climb.

I'm staying in the Hotel Manang in the Thamel district of Kathmandu. The actual Everest climbing permit holder of record is my outfitting company here in Kathmandu. The outfitting company is allowed to resell individual permits for up to ten climbers. I met up with Charlie and Chris, two of the other climbers on my permit. There are two other climbers on the same permit, two Belgian climbers who I haven't met yet. There was supposed to be one other climber with us, but he got frostbite on a training climb on Mt. Ranier about a month ago, so he's not here. So there will just be five of us hiking in together plus a couple of trekkers.

We're all meeting with Reuters, the press association, at 8:30 tomorrow morning for an interview. Then at 10:00, I'll be meeting with the local logistic trucking company to finalize some details.

I've collected over 100 post cards for all of my family and other people who have given me support, so I'll be spending a good deal of today and tomorrow finishing them up and mailing them out.

I haven't slept in about 48 hours, so I'm pretty tired. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be better rested and can relate more of what's going on. Sean

Dispatches