Scott Hamilton Saturday, April 25 Katmandu, Nepal

Expedition activity continues at full speed. At an early morning breakfast meeting the numerous activities for the day were coordinated. All remaining expedition participants are arriving today on flights from Bangkok and Singapore. Bibhu Thakur, Managing Director of Himalayan Holidays Trekking, our Nepal ground agent for the expedition, and Scott Hamilton will be at the airport to meet the arriving members and assist them through customs. The Nepal Ministry of Communications has requested a live demonstration of our expedition satellite communications equipment and communications technician Jim Bruton will be "on deck" for that activity. Jim Williams, climbing team leader, has a full day ahead of him obtaining the required permits from the various Nepal agencies controlling the permits for trekking and climbing. Techno-whiz Nathaniel Merriam and Base Camp Manager Rick Satava will be at the headquarters of Himalayan Holidays supervising the final loads to be transported to Lukla. They will also set up and test the 3-D Doppler ultrasound, which will be put to immediate use for medical research work by arriving expert Chris Macedonia, MD.

Trek Manager Rabi Thapa met with the team this morning to discuss last minute details regarding porterage and equipment. Rabi will fly ahead to Lukla early tomorrow morning to personally supervise logistics prior to the arrival of the expedition. Rabi reported that our fifty-member sherpa team would arrive in Lukla today, completing their journey from Jiri. Nepal is in the midst of a serious drought and conditions enroute have been reported to be extremely dusty. The Sherpa porters have taken to wearing surgical masks to provide some protection from the dusty conditions. At Rabi's suggestion we are obtaining masks for the expedition members. We expect that the first three days of the trek will be the worst for dust conditions, and that things will improve somewhat above Namche Bazzar.

We have our first expedition briefing scheduled with all expedition members at 4:00pm this afternoon, at 6:30pm we are meeting with representatives of the US Embassy who have been of invaluable assistance to the E-3 Project. A second expedition briefing is scheduled for 7:30pm. With a bit of luck we will have all expedition members present in Katmandu, and all necessary permits in hand before the sunsets. It's going to be a really busy day!

Scott Hamilton