I had a terrible night again and it was not easy to get up in the morning. There was too much pain and Ibuprofen had no effect. Later that morning, at 9:00am local time, I went back to the CIWEC Clinic to get my X-rays done. Today was April 16, and it was three days after my accident. Once again, this was extremely painful, especially when I had to turn the back in a certain position for the X-ray. It was hard for me to believe that this pain is only muscular, there must be something more. After the X-ray was developed, I had an appointment with the doctor and he confirmed my thoughs: Fractions on two ribs!!!.

On April 12, at 5:30am Nepali time the Sherpas, Bart and I and all our equipment left Kathmandu in a big bus in direction Tibetan border. We arrived in Kodari, the last town on the Nepal side about four hours later. The road is not the best in this part of Nepal so traveling takes quite some time. Once we had arrived at the border checkpoint, our equipment was moved across the border mostly by women porters. I remembered this picture from last year, but once again, it was for me an unbelievable and shocking fact to see these women carrying such heavy packs on their head. However, I had to learn again, that this is part of the culture here. After a short lunch on the Nepali side we finally crossed the “Friendship Bridge” by foot and had to go through the strict Chinese customs check. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the group visa of our Sherpas and it turned out that they were not able to enter Tibet that day. This had nothing to do with the papers of our two Sherpas, they were in order, but since most expeditions are using group visas for climbers and Sherpas, things can get complicated. If one person is missing or has been replaced by another person, the visa has to be reissued.

April 7 – April 11, 2012 – Getting ready for the long journey to Chomolungma
I arrived in Kathmandu from New Delhi on April 7, 2012 early in the morning on a beautiful and sunny day. During my flight I admired the great Himalaya mountain range with all these amazing 8,000m peaks. Memories came back from my last journey to Nepal and Tibet, a trip which I really enjoyed. I landed on time at 8:30am local time and Fur Geljen Sherpa welcomed me again with a flower necklace, the traditional Sherpa way.

Welcome to my Mount Everest 2012 blog. After Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, McKinley/Denali, Aconcagua, Everest and Vinson this will be my seventh expedition. It will bring me again from Kathmandu overland to the Chinese Base Camp in Tibet. We will cross the border into Tibet near Zhangmu and drive on to Tingri. Along the way we will do some acclimatization hikes and take some rest days. From Base Camp at 5,200m/17,000ft the expedition will start up the East Rongbuk glacier to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 6,400m/21,000ft. From there the real climb will start.

Please follow this blog if you are interested to learn more about the expedition in general and the progress made on an ongoing basis. I will try to provide you with updates as much as the conditions will permit. However, since we will be a small group of two climbers led by two Sherpas, Ang Pasang Sherpa and Pasang Karma Sherpa, we will not have a huge communication infrastructure which you may find in many large expeditions. Nevertheless, I will try to share with you as often as possible along the way my feelings and impressions as well as many pictures. This is my second trip to Everest, and it will again be a long and exciting journey into Tibet and back to Nepal. I am looking forward to meet again Chomolungma, “Mother Goodess of the Universe”, how Mount Everest is called in Tibet. As on all my long trips, it is the journey, not the destination, that counts! Enjoy the blog!!!

Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down healthy is mandatory.