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World
Summit's Everest 2001 North Ridge Expedition
Dispatch
Two:
On Sunday March 25th, three members of the team,
Kathryn, John and Neil, flew to Kathmandu.
They had a long, tiring journey however they
arrived on the 26th and were met by Ian, the
team leader. For Neil it was his first
experience of Kathmandu and he was blown away
with the crowds and kid's offering to carry everything.
His comments so far are 'Kathmandu is
awesome'. I spoke with him yesterday and
he is moved by Kathmandu. The team went to
visit some of the monasteries and Neil found
it difficult when he was watching the locals burying
their dead by the side of the river.
The
American section of the team along with the
remaining two Brits arrived on Tuesday the
27th to be met by the rest of the team and
then the expedition has started to pick up
some momentum. They have been running about finalizing
permits, trying to clear customs with freight
that was caught up in the never ending customs
strikes. For a small fee of US $150 the 300kg
of freight was released. However it has been
sealed by customs and is not allowed to be
opened before it gets to Tibet. Doesn't leave
any room for errors.
The
expedition leader has been purchasing all sorts
of odds and ends which we supposedly require
on the mountain. We now have 16 tents to put
up on the North ridge!! I think it may be too
many but hey I'm not there. So how's the team?
Katheryn has been a little ill with her stomach
and Ian has the Kathmandu cough, so that's not
good. Hopefully they will get well.
The
team leaves Kathmandu today 30th March. This is
the end of stage one. All the kit, freight and
food is now moving towards Tibet. My
only concern now is that they do not rush to
BC and all become completely ill.
We
are all ready for the overland travel to Tibet
and all the adventures that await in the once
forbidden country.
As
the team themselves says; "We are excited
and of course wandering through the doubts of
the mind. But, in some regards it is the
visitation of these private places of ones
mind, seldom examined in ones home
life, that is one of the real reasons
anyone does this kind of thing anyway. So in
some sense weve already begun the
journey."
