Simonson

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Hello Mountain Zone, this is Eric Simonson calling from the roof of the Hotel Tibet, and it's the evening of the 25th. And we're all ready to go for tomorrow. Craig John is leaving at five o'clock in the morning with the Sherpas and all the equipment, heading for Zhangmu. We've heard that there are now three landslides over the roads! So he's looking forward to working with the Sherpas and doing the duffle-shuffel through the landslide areas.

The rest of us will be out of here in the morning, going to Lhasa and meeting up with Craig in Tingri. Otherwise, everything is looking good and everybody is psyched and we're all packed and ready to go. This morning we met with our Sherpas or went off to Bodhnath Stupa, and we visited the Rinpoche from Thyangboche, at one of the monasteries out there, and we had a puja, and bought prayer flags, and things for Base Camp. We are all ready to go, and when we get to Base Camp we'll be able to have our puja and be all set in that regard.

Today we were just packing and getting the last of our fresh vegetables all ready and all the different gear sorted out. Otherwise, that's about it. Just checking in with one last phone call and we hope to talk to Mountain Zone from Tingri when we get back together with some good news that all is going well.

As a side note, Craig's going to be taking the phone with him and I'm going to take the computer. So, maybe Craig can give you guys a call from Nyalam or something along the way and let you know how the duffel-shuffle is doing with the landslides. Okey-dokey. Bye-bye.

— Eric Simonson, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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