April 5 Kathmandu, 4,000 feet warm and smelly

I am standing at an intersection in KTM. There are about 1,500 motorcycles with slightly under 10,000 passengers surrounding a few dozen cars waiting for a chance to charge across the crossing street. There is no traffic light. Traffic control in KTM is what we used to call “chicken”. Traffic piles up on a side street until there is a break in traffic – that is defined as “three feet between two cars going less than 30 miles an hour”. Then like a flood first one then hundreds of motorcycles, bikes and cars surge into the gap and ”voila” traffic is now crossing the other way. I am not sure our reliance on traffic lights is much more efficient but it is not nearly as exciting.

I have hiked down to Thamel, the local climbing shopping supercenter. It is a warren of small one lane streets crowded with cars, motor bikes, bicycles and pedestrians. Most of the shops are tiny operations. Because the power is out in KTM a couple of times a day you might want to bring a flashlight. The selection of “name brand” goods is pretty amazing. Of course it is not names you would immediately recognize like “Narth Face”. Oddly enough the quality is very good on much of it. I am told that the same Chinese who sew for North Face or Mountain Hardwear during the day go home and make this stuff at night. It is at least ½ less. I wouldn’t buy any rope here though.

A Nepali drivers license test must only involve demonstrating your ability to blow your horn. So many people are blowing their horns that nobody pays any attention. I am looking for a popular restaurant when I realize one of those people was honking at me. He helped me realize this fact by bumping me with the side of his car. Fortunately I was facing the other way and he didn’t run over my toes. They’re considerate that way.

Despite bringing an entire REI store I still had a couple of things I needed. Nothing is marked and you quickly learn that the only way to get to the bottom of the price negotiations is to walk out the door. In Nepal shopping is a full contact sport. I eventually get what I need and head for dinner. I have two days here in KTM to get my gear sorted into technical and high altitude climbing gear and one small duffel that will accompany me in on the ten day trek to base camp. The other duffels will be loaded on porters and yaks. These porters amaze me and I’ll share more about them in a future post.

I also encounter the incredible frustration of discovering that two packages I had shipped ahead and was told had arrived were not mine. Mine are MIA and may not show up. I will have Terri replace and reship if necessary and hire someone to carry to base. By the way I can get 50 kilos – just over a hundred pounds carried to base for less than I can get a 10 lb small package shipped from the states. Whatever – it’s only my kids inheritance I’m spending. More on that later too – maybe.

Even that pales in comparison to my anguish when I discover that the new high tech sat phone that I bought to replace my old school brick is DOA. It has a beautiful color screen, weighs nothing and can do everything except heat my water. Unfortunately it can’t call home. It refuses to link up with the satellite. If you were at the Yak and Yeti hotel last night I was the mad man in the court yard a 2:00 AM trying to get it to work. This is compounded by the fact that technically you are suppose to buy a permit from the cash strapped government for use of a sat phone – only $2,500US. Naturally no one does this and no one cares but to try and ship another to KTM might be a problem. But as a friend of ours once said “if money can solve it then it isn’t a real problem”. In this case lots of money. For me staying in touch is absolutely essential. Sooooo, in for a penny in for a pound. Maybe I should have walked out the door during the negotiations but the begging had probably already given me away. April 1 Columbus, Georgia 430’ elevation wet and ugly

I remember the let down I always felt every time I got a new book on climbing and the first few chapters were devoted to the logistics. I wanted to get to the mountain and the climbing. Who cared about toilet paper and porters. This is now the third Everest trip I have had the misfortune to be involved in the planning and preparation for. My first was 2006. I got sick and had to be evacuated by helicopter. Last years trip that was aborted, for me at least, before it began because of the Chinese Olympic year climbing restrictions. Suffice it to say that getting everything together for a two month trip on the other side of the world is a real challenge. It helps immensely that we have an experienced outfitter in Nepal but it doesn’t solve all the challenges. On top of that is the work and planning necessary to leave my family and business for that long. Fortunately I have a wife who is long suffering and immensely capable. She has put up with me for 31 years. I also have a staff that have always risen to the occasion and for whom I have the ultimate in respect and trust for. They are all taking on a great deal of extra work and responsibility so I can pursue my narcissistic dream of climbing the highest mountain on every continent. By now they are experienced at it too!

Suffice it to say that especially for the last six months my life has revolved around Everest. I go into work at 5:30 AM. Quit about 5:30 PM. Eat a bite of dinner while fussing at the news. Work out for a couple of hours. Go to bed and start all over again. On weekends I have my long workout – hills with a heavy pack and ankle weights – for hour after boring hour. I know in a few days all the planning will be behind me. The trek to base camp is ten days long and very pleasant – at least the first week or so. That will give me an opportunity to start thinking about the practical aspects of the climb - instead of going to sleep every night wondering what I forgot.

A few ground rules. I will attempt to post every day. I didn’t do very well with that last time. The process is I type this and send it over my sat phone. Some days, for example when I am at base camp I can type it on my laptop in the relative comfort of the comms tent. I have a solid state drive so I hope it won’t crash. The air is so thin at base camp that the hard drives which are small spinning disks riding on a cushion of air frequently crash. Base camp is where IPOD’s go to die. Above base camp I’ll do the thumb thing like my kids. Unfortunately I am not very good at that and when you can get frost bite from one paragraph the post will be short.

I don’t have access for fact checking. Please don’t flood the office with complaints if I make some innocent mistake about when Hillary summitted! Some things I will avoid including inter group tensions, disagreements, criticisms etc. This is a real reality show – sort of Survivor where not everyone survives. There are always problems when you are stuck some times for days in the same tent with someone but emailing home what jerk they are won’t endure them to you. In that same vein although the Ledger-Enquirer will be carrying many of these post I am not a reporter. Lots of people have endured much worry over premature publication of deaths and accidents on the mountain. I have seen in 2006 when we had a death on our team just how easily someone posting erroneous information can cause problems. Once official announcements are made I’ll fill in what ever detail I might have that would be profitable. Finally, I think it is a small mind that can only think of one way to spell something!

Mountain climbing is a lot like flying – hours and hours of endless boredom interrupted by moments of shear terror. I’ll try to keep you informed, entertained and inspired with my boots (or crampons) on the ground accounts. Thanks, Bud