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Zed
Al
Refai
Last Updated 4/23/2001
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Background:
Zed
Al Refai, a 34 year old Kuwaiti, wants to be the first
Arab to Summit Everest. Zed, has climbed 4 of the
Seven Summits to date. He plans to attempt Everest via
the Tibetan side of the mountain.
If
you are wondering if Saeed
Toossi, the Iranian climber (who was living in American) that we covered
last year would have been the first Arab. Zed tells
us, "Iran is not part of the Arab world, they are
Persians and they speak farsi which is totally
different and never considered close." sincerely
yours, Zed.
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Zeddy |
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Dispatch
One:
Hi everybody, this is Zeddy here ,as you all know by
now I'm trying to climb Everest and have the
honor of being the first ever Arab (Kuwaiti) to do so.
It has been a personal goal and an ambition of mine for a long time, so
inshallah (by the will of Allah) we will succeed. I
will be joining Bernard Muller, a well known French
guide and mountaineer with an impressive record and a
team of 9 French climbers. They all have their own envious backgrounds
on high mountains. It would be great if I were
speaking French, and they Arabic, better by the
expedition's end, let's hope.
Right
now I'm in Moshi, Tanzania where I've been training by
climbing Kilimanjaro (machme route). It is a high
mountain so I get started with my acclimatization
ahead of everyone. I summited the snow covered
Uhuru peak. It was cold but things went smooth. I'm
off the mountain heading to Katmandu to catch up with
my team mates.
Wish
me well. Zed
Al Refai
Dispatch
Two: Hi
guys, finally, I
caught up with my team at Abu Dhabi
airport and we made it to Katmandu in one piece.
The team looks very strong and I'm trying
to remember all their names. It will take some
time. We
heard today that we might be joined by over 30
expeditions on the north side and I
hope it is not true. ALL
our equipment is
ready, just
a few last details and off we
go tomorrow by bus to the Chinese border.
It will be some time before to get there,
and we want to have the proper acclimatization
on the way. We'll
be touring this buzzing town Katmandu or should I
say katman-don't!
I've read some time ago that some of
expeditions never leaves this town because of all
sort of reasons (sometimes I wonder). So
I'll keep you all posted while getting
acquainted with my fellow climbers and see how I
can manage with total strangers for over
two months. Zeddy
Dispatch
Three:
Hello EverestNews.com !
We
have just received a satellite phone call from
Zeddy who has already reached the Chinese base
camp. Bad news.. It so happens the high tech
equipment such as his laptop faced great
difficulties when crossing the Nepal/ Chinese
border. The hard disc simply packed up.!!!!!.
(so much for being a new PC, we won't mentioned
the brand).
Zeddy,
"The view is beautiful, but the wind is a
bit strong. In 2 days I will head to ABC. The
team is in good spirits. There are many teams
here with us. More details from ABC in a few
days. This is Zeddy from Mount Everest base
camp."
Dispatch
Four 4/16/01:
Hello EverestNews.com !
This
is Zeddy checking in from the Chinese base camp.
As the old adage goes if anything can
go wrong, well it went wrong. The generator doesn't
work, laptop got smashed beyond repair, the sat
phone reception is bad, but still my spirit is
ever so high! It has been snowing heavily
last night but we are having clear weather today. A
nearby camp member has suffered lung problems and
his adventure is over, he went down today. Also,
another one of our team members went down today
due to severe headache. Tomorrow we are off to
advance base camp and it will take us 3 days to
get there.
Dispatch
Five 4/17/01: Guys,
would you believe it, we are still at Chinese
base camp. We are having big problem with our
yaks. We have more than 5 tons of food and equipments, most
of it already at ABC, but we still have 1 ton to
go. We had a good walk up Rongbuk glacier, but
it was very windy and I started to cough. So I
decided to rest today. It is calm today and we
will be moving up tomorrow. Most of the other
teams are still around, taking it easy. You
can't mess with altitude. It will take us another
2 days to get to ABC. Zeddy
Dispatch
Six 4/23/01: Hello
EverestNews.com readers ! As you have noticed, we
have made it to ABC. I decided to change its
name from ABC to KBC (Kuwaiti Base camp). It has
been quite windy and we have one of our member
went down due to altitude illness (he is our
camera man) we are sure he well recover in time.
Zeddy
Update
Zeddy
had some
problems and was bought back to Kathmandu. The
update and editorial is here.
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