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Everything's Fit To Go
Namche - Thursday, April 6, 2000
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Tejas

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Good morning Mountain Zone, this is Vernon Tejas with Alpine Ascents, and we're at Namche Bazaar where we've been acclimatizing. Yesterday we went for a hike about 300 meters above town to the Sherpa village of Khunde — beautiful scenery and wonderful weather — couldn't have been better. That afternoon we were treated to this [these] fine children at the local elementary school of Namche. They sang for us and recited their alphabet, and believe it or not they learned one of the same songs I did when I was their age; we sang 'Kookabura Up in the Old Gum Tree' and it was just bringing back wonderful memories.

Another thing that was very hot on our list yesterday was checking our O₂ bottles out and making sure that we had topped-off bottles and we checked the pressure gage on every bottle, in Namche here, and made sure that everything's fit to go up the hill.

Just for those people who are interested in numbers, we also have got a calculation here of 33 degrees this morning, that's .5 centigrade and the wind is 3mph out of the north east; no wind chill this morning and our altimeter has changed slightly. We're now at 3,525 feet. So you can see the weather is moving around a little bit.

And we want to encourage you to stay tuned and we'll see you tomorrow. Today we are going to go hike up the valley to the town of Thame and get acclimatized some more. Ciao for now, Vernon clear.

Second Call
Good morning Mountain Zone, this is Vernon coming back with a correction. Earlier I said that we were at an altitude of 3,525 feet that's actually supposed to be meters, which converts to 11,562 feet. So kids stay on those conversions and don't get confused like some people at altitude can do. I'd also like to report that the average blood-oxygen saturation is at 90 today for the group, and that our average pulse is 65 for those people keeping track.

Now one of the things that we measured yesterday in the afternoon was the wind speed and that is up to 25k in gusts — that's kilometers per hour — up on the hillside and sometimes in town we'll get a little spin come through here. So just to give you and idea that even though my reports are saying it's pretty calm here in the morning, those measurements are usually taken at 5-6 o'clock in the morning, but in the afternoon the wind builds up and sometimes that can be up to 25kph. How do you convert miles per hour to kilometers per hour or vice a versa? Stay tuned; talk to you next time. Bye.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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