Scott Hamilton Thursday, April 22 Katmandu, Nepal

Greetings from Katmandu,

The E-3 expedition team spent the entire day of Thursday 4/22 working at the headquarters of our Nepal agent Himalayan Holidays Trekking. Loads were sorted for transport to Lukla Village, and the sherpa support team was instructed in the peculiarities of some of the high technology equipment. The new expedition shelters, including the Kifaru Int'l teepee tent and the DRASH shelter were set up, and the support team was clearly impressed by the quality of the equipment. The new generator received a multiple hour "run-in", and our solar power array was assembled and tested, while we reviewed technical manuals discussing the process of solar power generation, inverting current, equalization charges, current controllers, modified sine waves and the merits of MOSFET transistors. The bottom line is that everything seems to be working well. Early this morning the DRASH shelter, both generators and the OLYMPUS microscopes were transported via twin otter aircraft to the expedition-staging site in Lukla

The political atmosphere in Katmandu remains interesting. The general strike planned by the Communist party was partially called off, which resulted in an unusual day with greatly reduced traffic, and few businesses being open. Public transport was largely halted. It turned out not to be too big a deal with the exception of a few "petrol bombs" being hurled in areas of the City. Today things seem to be back to normal.

Weather experts in Nepal are currently predicting an early arrival of the monsoon, which brings the risk of significant snowfall in the higher elevations. Rain and snow have been tremendously below normal in Nepal, which has resulted in very difficult climbing conditions in the Himalayas this season. We are receiving numerous reports about mountaineering expeditions encountering unusual difficulty in their ascent efforts due to these abnormal conditions.

Over the next three days the balance of the E-3 expedition team will be arriving in Katmandu. Final preparations are in full swing and we look forward to heading to the Khumbu region Tuesday morning to begin our medical research enroute to Mt. Everest.

Scott Hamilton