Namche, Nepal Himalaya

Hey all,

Well, do not know where to begin as it would take pages to catch everyone up on the last month up here in the thin air. But here goes…

The last DFTE has us leaving Tangboche headed for Pheriche where the HRA clinic is located. There we sorted gear and equipment in prep for EBC.
From there it was off to Loboche then Gorak Shep for our final acclimatization climb.

We arrived at EBC to a lonely site…we were one of the first expeditions to arrive in base camp to begin setting up. Words cannot do justice to the views and surrounding peaks that filled the scene; just awesome! The next few days were spent setting up the medical base camp and getting equipment going for the season. Rather quickly more and more expeditions began showing up and the EBC area started to grow rapidly!

Weather remained awesome..out of the three weeks we were there we had only had 4 days of snow...the rest of the days and nights were beautiful.

Katabatic had a successful season completing all of our goals and then some. Our task included: Setting up the solar system to power the medical equipment; assessing the medical equipment and recommending further equipment for the following seasons and the best and funnest (is that a word?) training the climbing sherpas in rescue techniques while on the Big E. We trained them with the SKED and spine splint. Set up scenarios for lowering and crossing the ladders in the Khumbu Ice fall...patient packaging and assessment while in the care of the sherpas. There were several in the group that had taken Kristins wilderness medicine course here in January and to say the least...they were already dialed-in! Willy Bengas, Mark Tucker, Dave Hahn (to name just a few) helped organize the training; these are some of the most recognized climbing guides in the world and it was a pleasure working with these gurus! Anyway, during our down time we explored the Khumbu Ice fall and I had a chance to Ice climb with one of the climbers who is scheduled to summit the Everest…cool!

I know this is a bit of a ramble because so much has been going on since our last dispatch…please stay tuned as when we return we will post an interactive slide show on our website...it will explain it all in more detail and include lots of awesome pics!

Ok, here is the deal with all the political mess surrounding the Olympic torch and Everest this season: As you know the Chinese Gov closed the North side of Everest to climbing this season and asked the Nepali Government to do the same for the South Side (Nepal side), but they did not close the climbing but they did enact several restrictions: no summit attempts until after May-10 along with several other restrictions regarding when and to what elevation climbers could go...also, there is no email dispatches and/or pictures, videos and SAT phone calls from base camp until after May-10. All this information was obtained the day we departed from EBC from the Nepali military official who held a base camp meeting for all expeditions and medical clinic staff. The Nepali Government is very serious about these regulations and everyone is on pins and needles and self-policing each other until the restrictions have been lifted. Hence to our sponsors: we apologize for not being able to send any pictures of our time at base camp. You will have access after May-10 when folks start climbing for the summit. Please be very cautious when printing this dispatch to your sites as we do not want to cause any expedition to lose their climbing permit. As stated above, as of April-15 the above restrictions were read to us by the Nepali officals...we are NOT the messengers for the climbing community, just folks who were there were introduced to these restrictions that are subject to change.

Ok, that’s the story thus far. We are here in Namche for another two days, then we start our trek back to Lukla to fly back to Kathmandu. We will spend another week in Kathmandu touching base with the HRA headquarters there and hopefully going to the Chitwan national park to ride an elephant! Then back to Colorado for a few days then off to the Bahamas to teach a few courses to the EMS service on Eleuthra island (and of course work in a few days of paddling and Bone fishing).

Again, check out www.EverestER.org for filed dispatches and current happenings as they are allowed. One more thing, check out this months OUTSIDE magazine, Kristin made the 50 best jobs article. From what we understand via email, its pretty cool!

Hope all is well and look forward to seeing you folks real soon. For you North Cackka lackky folks...we will see you the last week in May as we are headed back for a wedding and a little surfing and climbing!!!

Oh and will someone in the Divide area please tell Joe to email us and let us know how our house and cat are doing!

Be safe and 'till then,

T&K