Wifi zone in the mountains

Just arrived in koto - 2487m after 10 hours on the road.

The road was absolutely crazy, rocks, rivers, steep climbs, cliffs; we were all thrown from one side of the car to the other, but we were rewarded by a breathtaking view of Manaslu (8000m+) and a moonshine just before getting to Koto.

We met the team of porters who drove ahead of us in a truck. The amount of gear is enormous.

Tomorrow no more driving, we walk and we are all super excited about it.

In the dining room of the snowland hotel, Koto. Incredibly there is wifi here so I am able to post this update.

Besisahar

Ready for the 6 hours jeep drive to koto after a night at besisahar. All the expedition gear tents, food has been unloaded from the bus and shifted to a 4x4 truck. The road ahead promises to be rough. Prob one of our last internet connections and last post for a while. 

Things are getting real

After breakfast and last shopping opportunity, we are packed and check out from Dalai La Hotel.

6 hours drive through Nepal and we arrive in besisahar.

We have just picked all our freeze-dried meals for camp 2 & 3. Things are getting real by the minute.

First day in Kathmandu

8-10am: I catch up on my work, call my team in HK and Shanghai.

10am: breakfast with the crew

11am: Chris Harling, our expedition guide, turns up with Florence - the last member to join the expedition -. Chris covers the schedule for the coming 3 days, recos: stay ultra hydrated, drink a lot, buy the remaining gear today. Then Chris proceeds to checking our bags and gear one by one.

12pm: bag check done, we head for the gear shop to purchase the last remaining items. It never ends!

2pm: lunch at roadhouse cafe, excellent pizza.

4-6pm: nap

630-830pm: Nepalese traditional dinner with excellent food and local dances. 

9pm: a drink at Sam's bar and headed back to the room to finish packing, do a little work and go to bed.

12am: time to sleep!

Schedule of the Expedition

See below the schedule of the Expedition so you can follow us more easily

Week Day	Date	Day	Comment
Thu	22-Oct	1	Depart Qatar, Netherlands, Hong Kong -> Kathmandu
Fri	23-Oct	2	Arrive Kathmandu (1295m)
Sat	24-Oct	3	Drive to Besisahar in bus
Sun	25-Oct	4	Drive to Koto in jeep
Mon	26-Oct	5	Trek to Meta
Tue	27-Oct	6	Trek to Kyang + acclimatisation walk (3820m)
Wed	28-Oct	7	Trek to Phu + acclimatisation walk (4080m)
Thu	29-Oct	8	Trek to Himlung Base Camp (4920m)
Fri	30-Oct	9	Acclimatisation + puja
Sat	31-Oct	10	Carry to C1
Sun	1-Nov	11	Move to C1
Mon	2-Nov	12	Carry to C2
Tue	3-Nov	13	Move to C2
Wed	4-Nov	14	Return to Base Camp
Thu	5-Nov	15	Rest day
Fri	6-Nov	16	Rest day
Sat	7-Nov	17	Move to C1
Sun	8-Nov	18	Move to C2
Mon	9-Nov	19	Move to C3
Tue	10-Nov	20	Summit day (7126m)
Wed	11-Nov	21	Return to BC
Thu	12-Nov	22	Spare day
Fri	13-Nov	23	Spare day
Sat	14-Nov	24	Helicopter to Kathmandu
Sun	15-Nov	25	Kathmandu -> evening flight back to HK

Time to go!

Enjoying the lounge and champagne and celebrating our departure.

One year in the making and it's finally time to go. Glenn is on the plane, Xavier has been flying for a while and Pat and I are about to board. Kathmandu here we come!!

24 hours before we board our flight to Kathmandu

The final gear has arrived. -29C black diamond guide gloves, slings for the ice axes and the clever 'tree trunk' special merino wool underwear delivered with actual birch 'tree seeds' for users to go and plant a tree anywhere they like, cool concept, love it.

This morning last endurance training with tritons triathlon club at Disney. 1 'airport lap' of 55km with Stuart, Ross, Nick. Great camaraderie with the group. A lot of them will be racing the Taiwan half-ironman beginning on November while we will be climbing.

And finally we found our Italian coffee pot to take on the expedition, nice coffee guaranteed even at 5000m base camp!

A nice send off from Lars & Meri

Lars was originally part of the team but had to drop out for good reasons with the arrival of a third member of the family, now 3 months old Lis (pictured below with her shoei helmet)

Lars and Meri prepared a super nice send off dinner last night in Saikung, I was very touched. We shared stories, great food and a great moment of friendship.

1 week to go & overweight

Talking about it for a year and now here we are with 1 week to go. Can't believe it's finally time to go. So tonight I have decided to finish packing the base camp bag. I am still waiting for my black diamond gloves to arrive and the slings for the ice axes.

How much weight with all this gear?

Overweight!

Testing harness, then playing with fire...

Tonight, I am actually starting to pack. I have been postponing this moment. Not sure if it's because I am afraid it will not fit in the bag or because it will get me too excited and won't be able to wait until 22nd October before heading to Nepal.

Anyway, during packing I need to try stuff and make sure it works. So first trying the black diamond harness with all the gear to confirm the size - it's unbearably hot in hk weather to be wearing high altitude gear!

Then testing of the flinter 'light my fire' survival spark maker which produces a 2,900 degree celsius spark, that's bloody hot.

And that's what it looks like - while resting:

New North Face duffle is ready to be filled up

Expedition Gear pictures

A collection of 2 pictures showing some of the necessary gear for our Nepal expedition, more will follow, these 2 focus on walking & climbing