Everest 2008- Kathmandu

Hello and Happy Easter from sunny Kathmandu. A delayed schedule saw me arrive here late last night just in time for the staff at the Summit Hotel to stage a welcome puja ceremony for us all and then a quick dinner was followed by a couple of drinks as the team did a bit of bonding. Two off our team, commuting from Dublin, did not meet the Heathrow connection, and should arrive later today or tomorrow. We are a team of seven climbers, 3 Irish, 2 Scots and 2 English, with an Expedition Leader, Deputy Leader, Base Camp Manager as well as all our Sherpa., Porter and Kitchen crew. The news on the permit is that a joint proposal by all the teams has been accepted by the ministry but they have referred it up to the Nepali Cabinet for final approval. We should know tomorrow morning but the way things have been panning out of late I will not hold my breath on that one. All going well, we will start the 10-12 day trek into basecamp tomorrow morning. It will all start with the exhilarating flight up to the mountain airstrip of Lukla that I enjoyed so much back in 2005 and then it's on foot all the way. I hope to have a couple opportunities to post dispatches on route but no guaranteed dispatches until we get our communications set up at basecamp.