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Hello Mountain Zone. This is Eric Simonson reporting to you live from beautiful, green Zhangmu...yahoo. Yesterday we got up at 4am and, after a quick cup of tea and coffee, we busted down the three tents that we had remaining from the day before—those would be our two big Chinese Army tents and our big Mountain Hardwear satellite dome—and packed them up into the truck and left Base Camp.

The day before, we had taken down all of our other tents and packed everything else up and finished packing the trucks the night before, after they arrived, so as to expedite our departure. And we were on the road at 5am yesterday morning, just as it was beginning to get dark, which was good because it took us a full 12 hours to get to Zhangmu.

We first drove out to Tingri. And then we stopped at Tingri and had lunch and unloaded one entire truckload of gear into my storeroom in Tingri in preparation for my Cho Oyu expedition this autumn. And then the remaining two trucks continued on to the border.

We went then to Nyalam, and we stopped there and dropped off our Tibetan helper Kaysang. And then we continued on down the incredible Bhote Kosi river gorge, now in rain and mud, to Zhangmu. And fortunately the road hadn't washed out, so we made it here, late in the afternoon, and into the Zhangmu hotel.

Last night I had my final negotiations with our Chinese liaison officers, and went through all the bills and everything. So, by golly, we are good to go this morning and as long as we don't get busted at customs, we are going to be in Kathmandu tonight.

So, yahoo! Back to the land of good food and all kind of things. Okay, we'll be talking to you next, probably from the hotel—the rooftop of the Manaslu Hotel. Signing out, this is Eric.

—Eric Simonson, Expedition Leader

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