April 7th 2009
Namaste,

Having our flights cancelled yesterday was good thing since we got to see Apa all over the newspapers in Kathmandu this morning.

Apa was on the front page of all the newspapers as all of Nepal is excited to see him back doing what he does best...breaking his own records. The Nepali people are proud of Apa and they are all behind him.

Of all the flights that I have taken to Lukla airport, officially called the Tenzing-Hillary Airport, today was the latest time that I have ever landed at the airport. After an entire day of waiting and hoping, praying and wishing, the wind finally calmed down and we finally got on our plane at 5 arriving at 5:30. That does however mean that it was too late for us to starting walking and we are staying here in Lukla for the night.

As they say, always look on the bright side of life and so I do. With nothing else to do than to wait, we had the opportunity to get to know each other a little better. I am happy to say that we have all very quickly become more than mere members on the same expedition, we are becoming friends.

This year our Base Camp manager for all Asian Trekking expeditions on Mt. Everest is my uncle Pertemba Sherpa. He is the first person to climb Mt. Everest from three different routes and is a known best for being Sir Chris Bonnington’s trusted Sirdar on his many expedition in the Himalaya.

On our expedition, our dear and close friend Will Cross (USA) is back again. Will is a type one diabetic who has already reached the three poles, including Mt. Everest. He summited Mt. Lhotse last year and was on the Eco Everest Expedition 2008 team. This year he is coaching and accompanying his friend Michael Kobold to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

I am also delighted that Bill Burke (USA) is back with Eco Everest. Last year, after contracting a nasty virus on the flight to Nepal, he developed pulmonary edema by the time we reached Pheriche. Finally, he had to be flown out by helicopter back to Kathmandu. I requested Bill to be our expedition leader on the permit and I am very glad he accepted.

[As a Nepali, I can only be named as a high altitude worker and not as leader on the permit. This is something my father and I are lobbying the government to change.]

Some of the others on our team you will hear about in my future postings are Nic Cunningham (USA) on the last of his seven summits; Jesse Easterling (USA) with a glowing smile and an easy manner; Mogens Jenses (Denmark) who is carrying the UN declaration of human rights to the top; Bud Allen (USA) an aircraft aerobatics instructor, so obviously not a stranger to pushing his limits; Henry Voigt (Germany) quietly listening to every word, I expect wise words of wisdom from this composed man; Yury Pritzker (USA) a software engineer from Chicago whose wife is already waiting for him up in Namche Bazaar. This small group flew up today.

There are others on the expedition, a group of five Austrians and Germans who went ahead to acclimatize on Island Peak. Finally, Miss Krushnaa Patil, a 19-year-old from India will be joining the expedition at base camp. She is currently in a training session at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India. Together, they make up the 14 foreign members on the permit.

We start walking on the trail to Everest Base Camp tomorrow and I can feel everyone’s excitement and anticipation. We plan to go to Phakding tomorrow, then to Namche, then visit Apa’s lodge in Thame, then one night in Khumjung village, then Tengboche, after which we trek to Dingboche where we stay two nights for acclimatization and similarly trek up to Lobuche and stay two nights before finally arriving in base camp.

May Guru Rinpoche bless our expedition,

Dawa Steven Sherpa