Aug. 23 - Kathmandu
    
Namaste Everyone from Nepal and welcome to the Alpine Ascents 2004 Cho Oyu Expedition.

All of our team members made it into Kathmandu yesterday with very few problems. A couple of bags made an unexpected second overnight layover in Bangkok but have arrived today and all is well. Last night we began our expedition with a round of beers and a couple of toasts in the Yak n Yeti bar and then headed off for a tasty meal. All 4 of these guys even slept well their fist night in Kathmandu which is a great sign!

We've just now returned from a tour of the city with our guide Krishna where we visited the three main temples here- Swayambunath, Pashupatinath, and Bouddanath. While at Boudda we received a blessing at a nearby monastery for safe passage and success on the climb. Lhakpa and his crew spent the afternoon packing food and dialing in our new BC dining tent. So- it seems we're all set to head out to Lhasa tomorrow a.m.

Terry, David, Tony and Paul all are having a great time so far and I'm looking forward to spending a month on the mountain getting to know them. We're bound to have a great expedition with this crew.

We'll be leaving the hotel nice and early in the morning and touching down in Lhasa in the early afternoon. Then a couple days of sightseeing and we'll start our overland journey to BC. Once our systems are up and running we'll be adding some photos to our dispatches (we got a couple great ones last night with all our Sherpa/Nepali staff).

We'll be in touch from Tibet tomorrow!

Dave and the team