Kathmandu

After arriving safely in Kathmandu, we had an acceptable night’s sleep.  Greg Vernovage, the expedition leader, instructed us to take some Melatonin as we went to bed last night to speed our body clock and sink with the 12-hour time difference.  We are now a half day ahead of Utah.

Greg spent about two hours with us this morning doing gear checks.  We passed!  Our trekking duffels average 32 pounds while the my climber’s duffel, going directly to Base Camp, weighs about 50 pounds. We are staying three nights here at the Hotel Tibet before flying to Lukla to start the trek.

I’ve met eight of the 12 climbers in my group so far.  They all seem nice, but our favorites are an energetic Canadian married couple, who are both medical doctors. Caroline is a OBGYN and Jason is a Naturopath specializing in sports medicine in Calgary where many Olympic athletes train.  They both hope to summit together.  To my knowledge there has been only one other married couple do this.

We spent part of the day walking around the tourist district of Thamel, an interesting area full of small shops.  The majority seem to cater to the mountaineering crowd, whether trekkers or climbers.

There is another IMG group of climbers that arrived a day before us and will continue to be a day ahead of us.  They are the Hybrid group.  They share a guide between four climbers. My group, the more experienced Classic group, will use mostly Sherpa support.  The Hybrid group were denied a flight to Lukla yesterday due to weather, but were able to fly up today by helicopter. The weather looks better for the next few days, so hopefully we’ll stay on schedule to fly up Sunday and start the trek.