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Equipped with satellite communication tools, the team is sending
dispatches and photos back to this Web site.
You’re invited to follow the climb through written accounts
and digital images.
| March 29, 2001Hello,We’ve arrived in that famous
of towns — Kathmandu. As always the buzz surrounding an expedition is only
amplified by the eclectic travelers, trekkers, and of course travelers who all
seem to come in search of something in their visits to this place.We’ve
put the final touches on the expedition planning: acquiring hanging stoves, rope,
testing sat phone equipment, completing paperwork, sorting gear, and doing all
of the preliminary items that people forget are pre-expedition requirements.It’s
also a time to become reacquainted with fellow expedition members. It’s been
a year since Phil and I climbed together and four months since Tim and I were
together in the pursuit of mountaineering challenges. Mike, I have only now met
and as promised by Phil he is a great addition to our small team.We’re
all ready for the overland travel to Tibet (due to begin in 24 hours) and all
the adventures that await in the once forbidden country.We’re excited
and of course wandering through the doubts of the mind. But, in some regards it
is the visitation of these private places of one’s mind, seldom examined
in one’s “home life,” that is one of the real reasons anyone does
this kind of thing anyway. So in some sense we’ve already begun the journey.All
the best to everyone at home from Kathmandu. Walter
Keller
2001 British American Lightweight Everest Expedition
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