At 10 am, we traveled to the Ministry of Tourism to brief the Ministry on our climb and pick up the Permit. Our good friend, Kaju, from Asian Trekking, went with us to handle the paperwork. Everything went fine and we left with the

Permit and well wishes from the Ministry officials. They were all very courteous and helpful.

After meeting with the Ministry, we drove to the offices of Asian Trekking and met with all our friends at AT. I was so glad to see Ang Tshering Sherpa and his son, Dawa Steven Sherpa. Ang Tshering established and owns AT and Dawa Steven manages the day-to-day operations. David and I have a long and very strong relationship with Ang Tshering, Dawa Steven and AT. We also met Dawa Stevens girlfriend, Namrata Shrestha, a warm, beautiful and famous Nepalese actress. Naga Dorjee Sherpa, our Sirdar (head Sherpa) for the climb, joined us at the AT offices.After the cordials, Dawa Steven, David, Naga Dorjee and I went over in great detail the schedule, logistics, timing and strategy for the climb. We had a very productive meeting.  The tentative Itinerary is set forth below. After the meeting, Dawa Steven, David, Namrata Shrestha and I had lunch at Fire & Ice, one of my favorite restaurants in Kathmandu.

The balance of the afternoon was devoted to shopping for missing gear and making sure all the electronics are functioning properly. I was glad to be able to patronize Mingma Sherpa’s mountaineering equipment store in Thamel. Mingma and his family are dear friends of my family. Mingma and I summitted Mt. Everest together in 2009 from the South side of the mountain, and he was the Sirdar for my North side summit in 2014.

We fly to Lukla tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, and will trek from Lukla to Phakding. The excitement and anticipation are building. I still can’t believe this is starting after all the healing, training and waiting.

Bill

Itinerary
October 27-fly to Lukla and trek to Phakding
October 28-trek to Namche Bazaar
October 30-trek to Dole
October 31-trek to Machermo
November 1-trek to Gokyo
November 3-trek to Gokyo Lake # 5
November 4-trek across the Ngozumba Glacier and up the Guanara Glacier and set up camp on the glacial morain
November 5-trek to Base Camp at the foot of Burke-Khang
November 7-climb the East Colouir of Burke-Khang and set up Camp 1 on the snowfield
November 9-set up Camp 2 near the summit ridge headwall
November 11-climb to the summit and return to Camp 1
November 12-return to Base Camp
November 13-clean up Base Camp and return to Gokyo Lake # 5
November 14—-trek to Lukla and fly back to Kathmandu (trekking route to be determined)