Mount Everest South Side Expedition
Sean Burch: Dispatch Two

3/25/03, Kathmandu, Nepal: It's early morning here. We're supposed to be flying out today to Lukla, which is as close to Everest as we can get by air. But it's been raining hard here since last night. The clouds are low, making it look like we'll have trouble taking off. So we're all going to go out to the airport and be prepared to spend the day, waiting for a window of opportunity to take off. From Lukla, we'll start our trek in to Everest. I'm anxious to get things moving and get to the mountain.

My time here in Kathmandu has been busy getting all of the last minute details straightened out. I had my interview with Reuters that I mentioned in the last dispatch. It turned out to be pretty much a form interview that they conduct with all the Everest climbers. I guess they're looking for potential stories. I suppose they've heard it all because they didn't seem too impressed with my expedition goals. It's hard for me to be so detached; this is a pretty big deal to me.

I also went through the form interview with the Department of Tourism here. All permit holders have to go through it. Like government bureaucracies everywhere, it was much more wait than interview. We spent about three hours waiting around for what turned out to be about a five-minute interview. I have no idea why and what they were looking for. The sitting around was especially frustrating since I still had many chores to get done before departing for the mountain.

The highlight of the day was meeting the Sherpas who will be helping me and my personal Sherpa get to the top of Everest. They all look young and strong and eager to go, so I'm excited about how that part of the expedition will go. I'll be spending quite a bit of time on the trek to Base Camp talking to my personal Sherpa planning the climb. I'm anxious to tap his experience but also to tell him about what I'm planning so that on the mountain, up in the death zone, we'll both know what to expect. I also found out that five bottles of oxygen have been allocated to me. Of course, a prime objective of my climb is to do it without oxygen, but it's comforting to know that in an emergency, it'll be available. My personal Sherpa will carry two bottles from the South Col to the South Summit and keep it there in reserve.

Kathmandu itself has been a real culture shock. Of course, it's an Asian city, so it's crowded and dirty with narrow, winding, teeming streets. I expected that. What I didn't expect was the overwhelming smell of the place, a combination of eastern food spices, traffic, sewage, and people. I'm sure that if I stayed here longer, I'd get used to it, but with the rush to fly in, make arrangements, run chores, and fly right back out, it's all been a bit much. I'll be glad when I'm out of the city and out in the open countryside with the majesty of the Himalayas all around.

Well, it's off to the airport. Wish me luck on making it out to Lukla quickly.

3/25/03, Phakding, Nepal. Elevation 8700 feet: The flight from Kathmandu to Lukla was pretty uneventful after all of my worrying. The flight took off almost on time and flew above the clouds that looking so menacing from underneath. The landing strip at Lukla is newly repaved. This airfield was built in the 50s specifically to support Everest climbers. The expedition that Hillary was part of was a big contributor. The field is in a fairly narrow valley. To give pilots room to do their low speed approaches for landings and climbs after takeoffs, the landing strip was put right up against the mountainside on one side of the valley. So there is no such thing as a wave-off or a touch-and-go from this field. Once the pilot looks things over and decides to land, he has to land and stop before hitting the mountain. The camaraderie among us climbers - even though we've only known each other for a few days - is terrific. It helps a lot to get into the spirit of the assault on Everest. We all looked out of the window approaching Lukla and started joking about there being only two outcomes of the pilot's approach. Either we would hit the mountain and die, and we would walk off the plane safely. Once we landed, we could see that the runway is sloped up toward the mountain to help slow the plane down.

After we had unloaded all our gear, we started the trek toward Everest immediately. I'm absolutely blown away by the Sherpas. The very casually carry huge loads. We walked about three hours to get to Phakding. Now that we're finally moving, I'm really excited about getting to Base Camp. As we trek through the little villages, we are already being surrounded by snow-capped peaks. Of course, we're continually climbing, so we can look forward to watching the snow line come down the mountains toward us day by day.

There are many large prayer wheels called manis along the trail. Most of the population here is Buddhist, and a mani is a way of writing out a prayer and sending it to God on the wind. There are also mani walls made of hand-laid stones. Many of the stones have prayers carved into them. Very cool. I suppose carving a prayer into a stone makes it endure longer than it would on a windwheel.

We're staying in the Phakding Lodge tonight. Considering the remoteness of the location, the lodge is very luxurious. I'm sure it's because of all the foreign trekkers who stay here. So far, I'm feeling fine, no problems. Tomorrow should be a full day.

3/26/03, Namche, Nepal. Elevation 11,500 feet: We hiked all day up one valley after another. Everyone is in high spirits. About mid-day, we entered the Nepali national park that contains Everest and the other high peaks. We arrived in Namche at about their dinnertime. Actually, we could smell the town before we saw it. Yak dung, wood smoke from heating and cooking fires, and cooking food. The town has about 200 dwellings and is the largest town in the national park.

We're staying tonight in the Panorama Hotel, which is really a smallish lodge. It sits above the town and gives us a great view over the town and down the valley. Beautiful.

I seem to be feeling better the higher up we hike. Maybe it's just the exhilaration of actually working after all the preparation. Sean

Dispatches