Scott Hamilton Wednesday, April 21 Katmandu, Nepal

Namaste (Nepali greeting...means "I see the spirit in you")

The advanced team of the Everest Extreme Expedition arrived safely in Katmandu, Nepal. Scott Hamilton, Rick Satava and Nathaniel Merriam made a pre-arranged rendezvous with Jim Williams in Singapore and the group arrived in Katmandu Wednesday afternoon, April 21st.
Total flying time via Frankfurt and Singapore was 26 hours, so the team is now recovering from jet lag and working feverishly on final expedition preparations. The team is quite pleased to report that all expedition gear transported with them arrived in good condition and has cleared the complex Nepal customs system.

Katmandu is expecting a general strike today, called by the Communist party, which will shut down all businesses and transportation, making the expedition preparations a bit more complex. Expedition gear already being ferried to the mountain village of Lukla via Twin Otter type STOL aircraft. Normally this is done in one large load via chartered Russian MI-17 helicopter, but these large choppers were recently grounded by government mandate due to lack of proper maintenance.

Today the expedition's main priorities will be initial transport of expedition equipment to our staging area in Lukla village, in the Khumbu Himal region, where the trek to Mt. Everest will begin just a few days from now. Other projects include sorting equipment in loads appropriate for porters and yaks, and working on expedition equipment including tents. The expedition will be using Trango 2 mountain tents from Mountain HardWear for sleeping accommodations, and has two new terrific large tents that we will be working with today. Kifaru International (www.kifaru.net) has provided the expedition with a very large and unique teepee style tent that we intend to use to shelter most of the expedition communications and technology equipment. DHS Systems LLC (www.drash.com) has provided a DRASH (deployable rapid assembly shelter) a heavy duty high-tech shelter developed for the military which will be the primary location for the medical research activities at Mt. Everest.

Katmandu is full of interesting people, and we have already run across David Breashears, Everest climber and cinematographer of the IMAX large screen "Everest" movie. Also, we met with Elizabeth Hawley to discuss the E-3 project members and goals. Ms. Hawley is famous in mountaineering circles for having the latest information regarding Himalayan climbing activities. She has many years of service as mountaineering correspondent for Reuters, American Alpine Journal, Himalayan Journal and other leading publications.

Other projects for the team today include sorting the complex power requirements of the expedition. Technology whiz Nathaniel Merriam and Base Camp Manager Rick Satava are working out the details of generators (which run on a mix of gasoline and kerosene in Nepal!) and the varying voltage and power distribution requirements of the advanced medical devices the team will be testing on Mt. Everest, beginning just a few days from now.

Scott Hamilton