Mt. Everest 2005: Mountain Madness Expedition: dispatch one from Kathmandu

March 25 - May 31

March 26th, 2005: Hello everyone, This is Christine reporting in from Kathmandu.  Willie Benegas, leader of our expedition, and Dean Cardinale arrived yesterday.  Raymond Behm arrive on the 23rd.  The rest of our climbing team, Kay, Joe and Eric will arrive tomorrow along with our trekking and camp 2 group.   All the shopping and planning has been done.  We can now relax and wait for the rest of the team to arrive.  Yesterday was "Holy Holiday".  The nepalis celebrate by sacrificing animals to the Gods.  The kids paint themselves with red dye.  In addition the kids make water ballons or fill buckets of water and target innocent people as the walk down the street.  I was the the victim to this practice yesterday.  After an early morning walk I arrived at my hotel drenched with water from head to toe.

Besides the holy holiday, everything in Kathmandu remains normal.  We are look forward to seeing the rest of the team tomorrow!

More in a couple days!

All the best, Christine

Since 1994, Mountain Madness has led 29 team members on successful expeditions to Everest's summit.  This year's Everest expedition will approach the mountain from the Normal Route--ascending through to the South Col from the Khumbu Glacier, and continuing to the summit via the Southeast ridge.

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