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Preparations are still continuing in Kathmandu and you will hear us talk from time to time about the weather conditions here. This must be one of the murkiest springs in Kathmandu that any of us can remember. There are fires burning west and in the east of the country. The smoke and haze just drifts up into the mountains, making it really difficult for planes either to get into Kathmandu or into Lukla, which is the landing strip in the Khumbu that we need to get into.

We are busy making alternative preparations to see if we can get helicopter transport into the mountains and hopefully that will be worked out in the next day or so. Yesterday a crew from NBC came and visited and invited us out to dinner. They, too, are facing the interesting logistical problem of getting about two tons of broadcasting equipment up to Lukla and ultimately Thyangboche and a little beyond.

We are today going to be at the ministry to do an expedition briefing we also have planned a Puja, or a blessing ceremony. The hotel where we are staying tonight is run by [inaudible] and they have asked if they can arrange a puja for us. We are looking forward very much to that. That is a bit of Sherpa culture, to do a blessing ceremony. We will give you a report; hopefully, a photographic dispatch.

Meantime, we are running around in different directions in Kathmandu taking care of small projects, be it picking up more bolts, wires for the solar system or making final adjustments to the food provisioning. All these little chores, none of which by themselves are all that difficult or complex, just a lot of them to do in a fairly short number of days. We will know, I hope, this afternoon who our liaison officer is for the expedition, generally the ministry does not pre-announce who you are going to get, you find that out at the briefing. So we are looking forward to finding out this afternoon.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. My best to everybody at The Mountain Zone and all the Zoners tuning in. This is Charles Corfield, Kathmandu. Look forward to speaking to you again, bye.

—Charles Corfield, Climber

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