Simonson

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Hello, this is Eric Simonson calling from Kathmandu. Today is the 25th of August, and I'm happy to report that our 1999 International Mountain Guides Cho Oyu Expedition has safely landed and ended up in beautiful, rainy Kathmandu. The monsoon is still going on here, and it's been raining almost everyday—probably still another couple weeks to go.

I'm here with guides, Craig John and Jason Tanguay, and also joining me are climbers Henry Hamlin, Dave Shaffer, Frank Howington, Joe Coughlin, Cory Heins, Ellen Miller, Bill Smith, and J.T. Thompson. Also joining us is Leslie Howington. She's going to go up as far as Camp I.

We got into town yesterday and came here to the Hotel Tibet, and now I'm calling you from the roof of the Hotel Tibet. Yesterday, we met with our eight Sherpas, and they included some of our old friends who were with us on Everest this spring including Tashi, Ang Pasang, Pa Nuru, Da Nuru, and Kami. And our two cooks this year, Pemba and Lakpa Gelje were also with us this spring.

We have a really strong team and they've finished packing the food up for our departure tomorrow. I'm going to be flying to Lhasa along with Jason and the eight climbers and Leslie and Craig John is going to travel to Zhangmu with the eight Sherpas and our truckload of gear. We expect he's going to have some fun cause we know that the road's washed out in at least two places.

Yesterday, we changed $1000 into small, rupee notes so we'd have plenty of money to pay off porters along the way, which we're going to have to hire to carry the loads over the landslides and then hire trucks on the other side of the landslides. So it's going to be a little bit interesting for Craig, but we're hoping he's going to be able to join us in a few days in Tingri, in Tibet.

In the meantime, I'm going to be with our climbers travelling to Lhasa tomorrow by airplane. We'll fly on China Southwest Airlines, and we'll go to Lhasa, spend a couple days there doing some tourist sightseeing of the Potala and the Jokhang Palace and the famous sights of Lhasa. And then we will travel to Shegatse and then finally to Tingri where, hopefully, we will meet up with Craig and the Sherpas.

So all's well here from Kathmandu, and we're looking forward to sharing another Himalayan adventure with our Mountain Zone audience. It's going to be a lot of fun this year, and we'll keep you posted. For the time being, this is Eric Simonson signing off from the roof of the Hotel Tibet in beautiful, rainy Kathmandu. Goodbye.

— Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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