It is May 5th in the afternoon and the entire team has already made it to Namche Bazaar, at 11,400 feet. It's scarcely been 24 hours since we finally flew from Kathmandu yesterday and we are already up here.                

After yesterday’s walk in the rain underneath what Shelley called the “walking patio,” those big bright umbrellas that we bought in Lukla, we awoke this morning to perfectly clear skies over the Village of Phakding . We took advantage of that to take a group photo with most of our staff, a bunch of guys who have worked for Berg Adventures for years, and then some new fellows as well, a really able, cheerful and very helpful group of guides, cooks, cook’s helpers, and we got a lot of porters and yak people who will be working with us as well; great people in the Khumbu and a great staff to have with us.

We trekked along the Dudh Kosi river and we climbed what is the notorious Namche hill, a 2000 foot climb straight up from the river to the village of Namche, and this entire team did very well. I told them it wasn’t going to be a very big deal and in fact it wasn’t.

One of the members in this group had problem with bridges. Wes and Dan came down from Edmonton to meet with us at the Berg Adventures office a few months ago about doing this trip. Wes said right off the bat, “I don’t like bridges, what are those bridges in Nepal are going to do to me?”  I said, “I think it’s going to be no problem.” He wasn’t sure, but today, just before we started up the Namche hill, he walked across his fourth big bridge of the day and he is doing just fine, his confidence is up that there aren’t going to be any bridges that keep him from doing this trek.

The beauty around us has everybody in this group really awed. Namche is an exciting place, you will hear more tomorrow from us about what we are doing here, but just know that Berg Adventures Everest Base camp trek 2005, as well as Island Peak team, is off to a great start, everybody is happy. We just had popcorn, some sweet breads and tea, and in a little while, Ball, our cook, will serve us a nice evening meal here at the Panorama lodge in Namche. 

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