Everest Expedition start

We are on the move - the sherpa climbing team is on the mountain

Packing starts

Dawa and the sherpa climbing team started checking tents and and packing oxygen etc in early March, having at least half the expedition supplies sorted and packed before Jamie flew to New Zealand for three weeks. I really had planned to stay in Kathmandu in the couple of months prior to the expedition but with a free ticket offered by a documentary maker, how could I say no? It was wonderful to experience the clean air and see friends and relatives. I arrived back to a few hectic days of final packing then the sherpas left Kathmandu for the mountain.

14 April - Pre-expedition dispatch

Our sherpa team is already on the mountain! They left Kathmandu on the 1st of April, reaching base camp on the 5th of April and trekked up to ABC, arriving on the 11th of April. So by the time we fly to Lhasa first loads would have already been carried to North Col.

Our climbing team is arriving over the next few days and we fly to Lhasa on the 17th of April.

Yes, we are heading in later than many Everest teams, most are now at base camp already. Over the years I have watched a lot of climbers summit early, in the first with a window and suffer frostbite and other problems, especially crowding on the mountain. We are going to avoid any sort of weather window around the beginning of May, and only try to summit in late May when conditions should be much better. We hope this will make it easier for our sherpa team to carry the critical loads of oxygen up to the highest camp in better conditions, rather than the normally very marginal conditions when planning an early summit attempt. Logistically, carrying the oxygen to 8300m is the most challenging aspect of the climb.

14-16 April - Kathmandu

Everyone arrived over several days, plenty of drinking coffee and beer and buying the last few things. We had dinner at Duncan's place, meeting his team, and dinners at New Orleans and Rum Doodle. Some people went sightseeing.

The intestinal bugs of Kathmandu are getting stronger, and a couple of people were hit. This is a good reason to have been here before, in which case you are less likely to get sick, or at least not as severely. Our time in Kathmandu is also to recover from the long flights and time zone changes and ensure you are ready and relaxed before flying to Lhasa where the altitude there (3660m) will hit.

17 April - fly to Lhasa

After a team photo, we were off, everything running smoothly. Unfortunately during the flight there was lots of cloud not the views we have sometimes had. Arrival in Lhasa was also smooth enough.

Kirsti Samson and Jayne Wilton are sisters, in case you hadn't guessed! - Jamie