Burleson

Click to hear Todd Burleson's audio dispatch recorded over sat-phone.
From Burleson's Audio Dispatch:
Hi, it's Todd calling The Mountain Zone. I'm in Namche [11,300']. I've been here a day. I finally got through -- it took me forever -- I had to take two helicopter rides before I got in. I was up at market yesterday, it was fantastic. It was absolutely gorgeous. There were probably a thousand people here coming from all the different valleys of the Khumbu, and everybody comes to Namche on Saturday to trade their goods and to buy goods to return back to their village. Some of them walk three or four days to get here. All the way from Base Camp people come here to buy supplies.

I'm leaving here in about 10 minutes to head up toward Base Camp. I'll be going to Thyangboche [12,700'] today, tomorrow is Pheriche [14,000'], and in Pheriche, I'll skip three days and go directly to Base Camp [17,500'] as long as I feeling well. I feel pretty good. I need to get up there -- things are moving.

The weather has taken a drastic turn towards the better. It has been really lousy up here. Lots of snow in the afternoons. It's beautiful right now, and I'm looking forward to a great trip today. Got a few yaks going up with me, and it's great to be out of Kathmandu. The delay was bad for several days. I ended up flying into Lukla [9,400'] because we couldn't reach Shyangboche [the airstrip in Namche]. They dropped me off there, and as I started walking up the hill towards Namche, a helicopter flew by, and I was able to run up and jump on it and fly the rest of the way up.

My health is good; I am back on track -- ready to go. I will call you all probably in the next 12 hours, and I'll have Dawa come in and give you a call -- one of my lead sherpas. Here comes the chopper right now -- flying in. God, it's beautiful: you can see Thamserku, Kongde, Khumbila -- all the mountains surrounding me right now. It's fabulous.

Oh, also one more story while I have you here. I gave literally two days of puja. One, a little bit because of the accidents last year, but also one because it's my cake year. [See Todd's earlier dispatch on the lama's instructions for safeguarding the expedition and the ritual puja for Todd's 37th birthday, the cake year.] Padima, Ongchu's wife, who has been coming to America with us for the last years too, had seven lamas come and do a puja for the last three days to bless me and to help protect me. It was a great experiences -- wonderful lamas. They are quite concerned; they're going to keep praying for the next couple of days to make sure our expedition is safe.

Talk to you soon. I'm on my way to Thyangboche, and I'll do another puja there tonight. So, more stories later. Talk to you soon. Bye.

-- Todd Burleson, Expedition Leader