Scott Hamilton Saturday, April 24 Katmandu, Nepal

Expedition members continue to arrive in Katmandu. Yesterday our expedition telecommunications technician Jim Bruton arrived with his satellite phone equipment. Later today Faanya Rose, expedition data technician, is expected to reach Katmandu. Preparations for the expedition continue in full swing.

In earlier times expeditions to Mt. Everest would walk all the way to the Solu Khumbu region from the edge of the Katmandu Valley, a process that would add at least two weeks to the approach trek. Sending expedition gear by foot is still a routing practice, as it is far more cost effective than flying everything into the region by chartered aircraft. The E-3 expedition currently has an entourage of fifty porters carrying expedition equipment to Lukla Village. This day the gear is driven to the end of the road, literally, at Jiri Village, then transported by porter, a process that takes about a week. Other expedition gear is being sent daily on a "space available" basis on the commercial STOL aircraft that routinely fly to the airstrip in Lukla.

Lukla is now the traditional portal to the Khumbu Himal. Its narrow, extremely short, sloping gravel runway was originally carved into a mountainside as an emergency rescue strip. Shortly thereafter daring bush pilots began flying equally daring passengers to the Everest region by utilizing this strip. Unlike most airstrips you absolutely must land...there is no way whatsoever to abort a takeoff or landing as on end is a sheer chasm and the other a steep mountainside. It was at this place that the wife and daughter of Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary lost their lives in an airplane crash. The strip has subsequently been lengthened slightly. But plenty of "pucker factors" remains for pilots and passengers alike.

Early this morning the E-3 expedition sent an additional 200 kilos of expedition gear to Lukla via Twin Otter aircraft. Beginning tomorrow we will also send a few senior sherpa support team staff members to Lukla as well in order to begin organizing loads and porters. Yaks will be used at higher elevations, but they cannot survive at the "low" elevation of Lukla Village, only 9,000' above sea level. By tomorrow evening the entire E-3 team will have arrived in Katmandu. Once assembled we will have only a single additional day to complete preparations before our own early morning flight to Lukla, and the beginning of our trek to Mt. Everest.

Scott Hamilton