After numerous delays Qatar Airways – whose corporate motto is “time to spare, go by air” – finally got us to Kathmandu. We came in from the west and had a rare glimpse of Annapurna, the tenth highest mountain in the world, and by many estimations the most dangerous. At one time the mountain had a ratio of almost one fatality for every summit. It’s topography places much of the climb in avalanche paths. Annapurna was the first 8,000 meter peak ever climbed and that just 63 years ago in 1950. It has a special significance to me because Maurice Herzog wrote one of the most famous mountaineering books of all time about the climb called appropriately enough “Annapurna”. That is the book that fired my interest in climbing. I never could have imagined that one day I would see it much less have a chance to climb it’s taller brother.

As our modern plane was rolling out on the runway today I was reminded about a story I read in the English language paper last time I was here. Seems Air Nepal was having an intermittent mechanical issue with their one and only new airliner they had bought. The article said as a last ditch effort they were planning to sacrifice a goat. I promise I really read this. It may have been a joke but I read it twice and never found the April fool’s line. It can be tough being livestock in some places.