Kangchenjunga International Expedition 2003

Report 4/18/03: Hello Everyone, News from Gary!  Here are some highlights: The walk in was long and expensive primarily due to porter problems. The weather was good and now is excellent.  We got to base camp (at 5400m) about three days ago, rested one day and went up to about 5850m to check out the route on the second day.  Camp 1 will be at 6200, camp 2 at 7000 and camp 3 at 7900. All climbers are very accomplished, some not needing the rope, we are fixing in places!
      The other two teams are a bit ahead of us and Carlo's team has already spent a night at camp 1. That night we got a fairly big snow and the slope to camp 1 became a bit dangerous. They came down nonetheless early in the morning. Everyone has been in base camp since. Tomorrow we plan a carry to camp 1 of 2 tents and 400m of fixing line for further up on the route. We are supplying the rope and Norbert's team is fixing it in place.
      Base camp is very beautiful with magnificent views in all directions.  Everyone is getting along - cooperating and doing their own thing at the same time.  Some of the other climbers intend to head to Lhotse after this.
      So, we will carry group gear tomorrow and the next day move up personal kit and maybe some members will stay up for the night, then the others the next night, all taking turns. So long as the weather holds we intend to make continuous progress upward."

Dispatches