Firat Eren

From a series of dispatches from the Alpine Ascents 2007 Everest Expedition team.

Well folks, we are off and running!

Welcome to the Alpine Ascents 2007 Everest Expedition. All but one of our team members have arrived here in warm, dusty and spectacular Kathmandu. This evening we’ll be meeting up with the crew and doing a bit of an orientation before a group dinner and early bedtime for those jetlagged travelers. In the a.m. we’ll be going in a few different directions: some on the first helicopter flight up to Syangboche, others on the Kathmandu valley tour, and 2 or 3 headed for last minute supplies and gear runs.

It’s already shaping up to be a great team here and I’m looking forward to getting to know some of these members more on the trek in. Even in the past couple of days we’ve had some wonderful times. We had Dr. Bruce Gardner from Seattle here giving physical exams to the 18 Sherpa students who are sponsored in their schooling by the Alpine Ascents Foundation/Sherpa Education Fund (www.sherpafund.org). Amy Bullard, myself and Kristine Kitayama helped the “Dr” with heights, weights, blood pressures, scoliosis screening, tooth exams, etc. It was fairly painless aside from the two teeth extracted from one of our young girls. What a champ she was though- even smiling after it was over. Dr. Gardner did a wonderful job and we are feeling very good about the students’ health.

After our initial flight tomorrow the rest of the team will be joining in Namche on one of 2 flights scheduled for April 2nd. Our trekkers will fly to Lukla on the 2nd as well and we will all reunite in Namche on the 3rd of April for 2 nights. This evening both groups will be together for a grand group dinner.

We will be in touch soon!

All the best,
Dave Morton