Dan Mazur's Kangchenjunga Spring 2002

April 5 dispatch: Chris telephoned from Taplejung at 9am. They all (Mark Bryant, Mike Farris, Stuart Findlay, Chris Grasswick, Ian Lloyd, and Tek  Bahadur Tamang) made it to Taplejung on the Twin-Otter flight. Now they are planning to begin their trek. The rest of us hung out in Kathmandu, wrote letters, tried to phone home, etc etc. Waiting for the strike to end. Ivan and Julio and Felix made a video about arriving to our hotel, the Nepal International. We met the Liason Officer. He left the meeting in disgust when we said we were too broke too fly, and would be taking the bus. We went out for Pizza last night, and had a delightful time at Fire and Ice, the establishment of Anne Marie, a kind and famous lady from Naples, who has an amazing way of being able to quiet down screaming babies. We asked the cashier (not Anne Marie) if she was fire or if she was ice, and she replied: "both". I think she is more the latter than the former. 

April 6th dispatch: The weather was beautiful and spring-like today. The ministry apparently called Mr. Murari Sharma at Parivar Trekking (our  awesome trekking agency) last night, and asked what we had done to piss off our liason officer. He said nothing, that we just did not have a ton of money to throw around on LOs. So, the LO came back today, looking a bit more realistic, and Murari sorted him out, and we settled on a reasonable figure, suitable to a low-budget expedition such as ours. He said he is definitely not going to leave the Kathmandu valley. Apparently, they don't like government officials where we are going. They do like tourists, cause the newspaper just published an eight page diatribe that specifically said (several times repeatedly) that tourists are welcome in all of Nepal.  We bought a whole bunch of medicines and food today, and finished packing some of the 5 members bags into waterproof containers. They had forgotten to do so at the last minute (they left all of their bags with us, because they would not fit on the tiny airplane). Now, we are ready to head out at 1:00 am on our bus, we are 7 members and seven staff, with a huge amount of stuff, bound 500 kilometers east to Kangchenjunga. Our roster for the bus journey:

Felix Berg Germany
Steve Dodson USA
Malte Hagge Australia
Krishna Lama Nepal
Daniel Mazur USA
Julio Mesias Ecuador
Paul Rowntree England
Ang Galu Sherpa Nepal
Dorje Sherpa Nepal
Kipa Sherpa Nepal
Dorje Tamang Nepal
Kaji Tamang Nepal
Ivan Vallejo Ecuador [Note: Ivan is one of the best in the world, one of four men in the world to summit Everest from both sides and K2, all WITHOUT OXYGEN !]

Along the way, we have to remember to buy kerosene, bamboo wands, potatoes, and onions. If all goes well, on 9th April, we will be hiring over 100 porters at Taplejung, in a huge wild session of tobacco smoking, tea  drinking, and haggling. The bus ride should be wild, bumpy, monotonous, and hot. We hope the strike really is over, and that the bus doesn't break down too many times. Wish us luck!

Thank you very much. Cheers for now. Yours
Sincerely, Daniel Mazur from http://www.SummitClimb.com

Please join us in watching the "live-update" status of 2002 climbing expeditions to Nepal and Tibet on: http://www.everestnews.com/kang2002.htm