Burleson

Click to hear Todd Burleson's audio dispatch recorded over sat-phone.
From Burleson's Audio Dispatch:
Hi, this is Todd calling The Mountain Zone. I am still in Kathmandu, Nepal. It's Monday our time. I have finished my briefing with the ministry of tourism; things are good there. I've finally gotten all the paper-work completed and our... liaison officer who will accompany us to Base Camp. I will not be leaving town until the day after tomorrow because there are no flights tomorrow up to the Khumbu. I have a bit of a cold today and am trying to get over it.

Everyone else left Namche [11,300'] today on their way to Thyangboche Monastery [12,700']. It's about a six-hour walk -- a beautiful walk. You traverse a high, mountain ridge that has views of Everest, Ama Dablam, Lhotse, all the great mountains. Basically, as soon as you leave Namche and walk around the corner, it all just opens right up to you.

I talked to Dawa, one of our... camp cooks, and he's trekking in with everybody. He says it's snowing quite a bit in the afternoons, and Pilatus Porter, which is a real high-altitude, small aircraft, wasn't able to fly in, and that's why I'm flying in tomorrow -- because there's so much snow on the runway. Very unusual for this time of year, and it just seems to have started to do this in the last week or so.

Things are good in Kathmandu. I was very happy to clear the Ministry of Tourism. Seemed to take forever -- it was very fortunate. We didn't finish until about 7 o'clock last night. Things move very, very slow in Nepal -- including, I guess, air-flights at the moment. Well, I look forward to getting out the day after tomorrow, and hopefully, Peter [the Mountain Zone correspondent] will be remaining in Namche for me. As soon as I get up there, we'll be able to send you some digital photos. And I got word from Namche that Peter has DHLed some more 360-degree photos back to you guys [watch for them on the Video Page].

Other than that, everything is good. I wanted to talk a little bit about the government. There was a change in government 15 days ago -- almost 20 days ago now. Looks like the communists are back in; it was on the congress party. Every six months, for the last three years, actually, the government has been changing hands. What happens is in a multi-party system [with] more than two parties -- there's like four or five -- they end up having to form coalitions to have a government. The communists and the congress are the two strongest; they both possess about 40 to 45 percent of the house -- not enough to have a majority, so not enough to have a government. So they have to form these coalitions. These coalitions end up falling apart. About every six months there's a vote of no-confidence. And there was a vote, as I said, about 20 days ago, roughly. There was a change of governments so the communists are back in power now.

So, there's a whole new set of ministers and secretaries, and it ends up causing great delays. There're delays anyway -- seems to be a big problem here. It causes a lot of problems for us because as soon as a set of bureaucrats get to know us and understand what we need for our expeditions to run smoothly, they all change. And a new set of people, who have usually never held a public office before, are suddenly in a position of power. Hopefully, someday they'll get this straight.

Nepal got democracy in the spring of 1990, and they held their first elections in '91. They were hoping great things would come of it, but very little has become a democracy in Nepal. One of the big emphasis was to have industry come in here, and no industry has come in. What has happened is there has been wide-spread corruption. Now there seems to be a hundred different ministries, and everyone's trying to get as much as they can while they're in power. It's causing a lot of problems in this country. Tourism is growing overall, but in general it has grown in a very, very small percentage. Really, the only industry in this country is hotel building. They were hoping to build big dam last year and flow the electricity through India, but that all fell through also.

Things are good for me at this time. I do have a bit of a cold; I'm hoping to get over it soon -- doing better and resting well. I look forward to flying up to the Khumbu the day after tomorrow. I will be six days behind everybody which is a long time in terms of acclimatization. When I fly up, I'll spend two days in Namche, and as long as I feel well, I'll move up to Thyangboche which is at about 13,000 feet; spend the night there and go up to Pheriche; spend two nights there at 14,500' and go right up to Lobuche which is a very high village -- probably the highest known village where people live year-round. Just a little over 16,000' there; spend the night there and then go directly to Base Camp. So, with a little bit of luck, I'll arrive at Base Camp at the same time as everybody else. They'll just have a little bit better base. I've done it several times in the past. Due to bureaucracy, I've had to come late and usually catch up with the group and everything's fine. Lakpa, our sirdar, is on his way to Base Camp now, and he'll have everything set up. Hopefully it will go smooth from there.

I will talk to everyone in a few days, and I hope to send back digital images soon. Look forward to talking to everybody on The Mountain Zone. Bye.

[NOTE: For those following the progress of the fish puja: after a long search for a live fish, Todd did buy and release one into the Bagmati River as the lama recommended. He'll be telling you about it later.]

-- Todd Burleson, Expedition Leader