Kathmandu and Summary of Everest Climb

Toured Kathmandu...received a good luck blessing from a monk...visited big temples, saw lots of pray wheels, monkeys, traffic and smog.

EVEREST SUMMIT PLAN
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will fly from Kathmandu (approx. 4500 ft) to Lukla (9000 ft.) and will begin the Trek to Everest Base Camp.  Once at Base Camp (17,300 ft. or 17,700 ft...depending upon which T-shirt one buys), we will train and review mountaineering skills for 4-5 days.  Then up through the Kumba Ice Fall (i.e., lots of crevasses and aluminum ladders) to Camp I (19,500 ft.), spend the night, then up to Camp II (21,000 ft.) for a couple of nights.  Camp II will serve as our Advanced Base Camp ("ABC")....then back down to Base Camp. 

After a couple days of rest, we go back up passing through Camps I and II and on up to Camp III (23,500 ft.) where we will spend the night without oxygen.  Most climbers have a difficult/interesting night at Camp III....then back down to Base Camp and below for rest, oxygen and rejuvenation.

Once recovery has been achieved....back up to Base Camp....and back up to ABC (i.e., Camp II) without too much delay.  All focus then turns to weather forecasts.  When a weather window appears to be opening, up to Camp III where we begin using oxygen during the night...then on up to Camp IV (26,300 ft.) where we spend about 24-28 hours resting and breathing oxygen...then around 10:00 p.m. we begin the summit attempt---weather permitting---and should reach the top around 8:00 a.m. if things go as planned (i.e., weather holds, our brains don't blow up, our lungs work properly, we've trained sufficiently, we are strong enough, no one panics, the oxygen bottles aren't empty etc.).  We dance around at the top for about an hour and then return to Camp IV where we spend the night and then down to Camp II...then down to Base Camp...and an all out sprint off the mountain.

More details later....