Everest 2006: N. Ireland and England Everest 2006 Expedition Update

©EverestNews.com

Today the team all visited a Buddhist temple in Nepal to receive blessings of good will and to spin the prayer wheels. After this we headed to do some last minute shopping in Kathmandu ( Oh Kate's such a little liar, imagine saying that she was bored going around all the gear shops in Kathmandu, she was the one dragging us to all the shoe shop's, is that all matters to a woman? ). Oh Adrian's rucksack has still not been found, so he has decided to purchase replacement equipment, now this was not helped by the fact that Adrian's feet are size 13, however after some time he managed to replace all the necessary kit for $150, all original manufacture no copies they told us! So the next any of us need any equipment we are coming to Kathmandu instead of going to the shops in the UK.
Anyway after lunch, we left the pollution and smog of Kathmandu behind and traveled out along what is probably one of the worst roads in the world, sheer drops for most of the way, no road surface with many obstructions along the way, vehicle passing by mere inches between them, the only positive thing is that they don't travel very fast. Nepal is a beautiful country, but it's so poor and unfortunately the political situation is not helping either, we passed through numerous Maoist army check points along the way and thankfully we encountered no problems. After traveling for five hours we thankfully arrived at our accommodation for the night, now normally in the western world you park and walk a few meters from the car to the door, in Nepal you take a 4x4 from the road for some distance, then you trek up some seriously steep ground for fifteen minutes and then you have arrived, I must say however that you are far more grateful to have arrived at your hotel in Nepal than in Europe.

That's all from me for today over to you Kate....

Let me just set the record straight on the shopping? I have not been in any shoe shops- I was too tired after being trailed round all those gear shops! When we finally managed to extract everyone from the shops in Kathmandu, we piled bags of gear onto the bus for our journey into the unknown. What a journey!

The roads at home are motorways in comparison to the mountain roads leading out of Kathmandu. They are just slightly bigger than the width of a bus, so when lorries come hurtling towards you and there is a straight drop down into the valley below, we all found ourselves breathing in and hoping for the best. Due to the skills of our bus driver we passed safely through the smog of Kathmandu and up into the foothills of the Himalaya.

As night fell we still had not reached our hotel, and to be honest I wasn't expecting very much since I had been assured that the life of luxury would end in Kathmandu. The off-road drive in the 4x4, and trek up steep steps (struggling under the weight of all the gear Raymond had bought in the last few days) didn't bode well for our accommodation. Yet again I was surprised by the level of comfort our hostel has afforded us- a loo, a running shower and a feed of Sherpa stew has set us all up for whatever tomorrow brings. I'm told that we will be heading further up the valley towards Nylam where we will try some light walking for a few days, so watch this space!

Finally after 5 hours I have just got this Sat connection to work its 12 at night, I am going to bed!!!!

Sorry run out of battery power when sending this through!!!!

Climbers: Jon Salter, Neil Elliott, Raymond Hassard, Fergal Corrigan, Steve Hodge, Geoffrey Weir...

Dispatches

Built to handle a myriad of different climbing pursuits, the Ultralight Universal is our best selling crampon. This crampon lives for trekking, glacier travel, or steep couloirs and snowfields. Totally adjustable Zytel straps make this crampon durable and easy to use. Fits everything from moon boots to flip-flops, our lightest crampon available. Weight: 590g Points: 10. See more here.

   Ascenders

   Atlas snowshoes

   Atomic

   Black Diamond

   Botas

   Brunton

   Carabiners

   CaVa Climbing Shoes

   Chaco

   Clearance

   Clif Bar

   Cloudveil

   CMI

   Crampons

   Edelweiss ropes
   Eureka Tents

   Exofficio

   Featured

   FoxRiver

   Garmin

   Granite Gear

   Harnesses
   Headlamps

   Hestra
   Helmets

   HighGear

   HornyToad
   Ice Axes

   Julbo

   Kavu Eyewear

   Katadyn

   Kelty

   Kong

   Lekisport

   Life is Good

   Lowa

   Lowe Alpine

   Lowepro

   Millet

   Motorola

   Mountain Hardwear

   Mountainsmith

   MSR

   Nalgene

   New England Ropes

   Nikwax

   Omega

   Patagonia

   Pelican

   Petzl

   PowerBar

   Princeton Tec

   Prescription Glacier

   Glasses

   Primus

   Rope Bags

   Salomon

   Scarpa

   Seattle Sports

   Serius
   Sleeping Bags

   Stubai

   Suunto

   Tents

   Teva

   Thermarest

   Trango

   Tool Logic

   Trekking Poles
   Yaktrax
   and more here