May 2 – Expedition Underway in Kathmandu

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It is Monday, May 2nd, and I am happy to report that the entire Berg Adventures – Nepal Spring 2005 Team is together at the Yak and Yeti Hotel; both the Everest base camp trekkers and the Island Peak climbers.           

We are getting ready to have a team meeting, at 4 pm here. Yesterday Brad Van Ness arrived; Wes and Dan arrived from Alberta, I have been in town for a few days, Shelley also came, today we were pleased to go out to the airport and meet the Waddells, Richard and Katherine, having spent a few days in Bangkok, they looked rested and excited to be in Nepal; I think they ‘ve had a great time in Asia so far.

Tonight the team will go out to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in Thamel, the trekking district of Kathmandu, we are going to a garden restaurant that serves all kind of food, Bhutanese food, Tibetan food, Nepalese food, Indian food, Chinese food and for those who aren’t feeling in those kind of mood they always have pizza, steak and chicken on the menu as well. It will be nice to relax and have a good time in the open air of Kathmandu.

Kathmandu’s weather has been great and it has been raining but that’s kept the dust down and the air is very clear, it is surprisingly cool, we are excited to be off in a just 2 days time, to Lukla and the mountains. Tomorrow we have a city tour at this marvelous and fascinating city, and we certainly will report to you from there. The Berg Adventures team, 4 of us from Alberta, 2 of us from Georgia, 1 from Colorado and one from California.

We are going to be with all our sherpa friends and our Nepalese team, we will be reporting to you daily, as always, and we look forward to that, we will tell you about the adventures to come down the road, we send a happy and excited note from Kathmandu, it is great to be on the ground and underway.