Everest North Side Expedition
St. Petersburg Everest - 2003 Jubilee Expedition

4/5/2003, Vladimir Belous: Hi everybody! After several unceasing days of worries and moving of items.... it was the first day, when I understood how my satellite phone works with e-mail, but I did not check the inverse call to my satellite telephone yet.

Short news about our previous days.

On March 31 we flew from Moscow to Delhi. Because Delhi, Kathmandu and other such cities are full of infections, in the plane from Moscow we have begun our disinfection by Scotch, Gin and Martini, purchased in the duty-free. After a night at the Delhi airport we have flown to Kathmandu.

On April 1 we arrived in Kathmandu and had a festive dinner with powerful desinfection :-))). We have a professional physician Dmitry and he prefers this method because we do not want to drink Metronidazole or other such drugs.

On April 2 we were in Kathmandu and visited a lot of small shops with climbing and tourist equipment and souvenirs in searching for necessary things, that we left in Russia or forgot to take with us. For example, we ordered and bought a Russian flag forgotten by us in Moscow.

On April 3 we drove from Kathmandu to Kodari, crossed the border and stayed at the Zangmu Hotel - the best hotel in this small Chinese town. The town of Zangmu is on the altitude about 2300 m and located on the slope with steepness of 45 degrees. A street is as a serpentine here and its next whorl goes along the roofs of houses of the previous whorl.

On April 4 our caravan of 3 jeeps and a truck drove from Zangmu to the village of Nyalam on the altitude about 3700 m. The road leads along the narrow, deep and very beautiful canyon and we did several stops to take photos and video. At Nyalam we were accommodated at the hotel that looks like a 3- floors shed. After lunch all our members went to the neighboring mountains for acclimatization, but I remained to work with my computer and satellite telephone. After two hours work I could get the first e-mail and then climbed the nearest hill.

Today, on April 5 all members have gone for acclimatization again. Tomorrow we will drive to the next village where we will spend a day for acclimatization too.

Best regards to everybody ....

Dispatches