April 8 – The first blessing by a Lama
Today was a very important day for all of us, the Sherpas and Jim and I. At
9:00am this morning we went to a Buddhist monastery here in Kathmandu. Once we
arrived there all of us received the blessing from the local Lama.

March 31 – April 7 – Getting ready for the high altitude
We left Kathmandu early in the morning of March 31 by jeep and it took us seven hours to drive 135km (?!) to the small village of Syabru Bensi. The next two days I walked up the Langtang Valley to village of Kyanjin Gompa at 3,730m.

March 29 and March 30 – Beginning of the long journey…
I have arrived safely, but tired in Kathmandu on March 29, at 8:30am. Lhakpa Sherpa and Geljen Sherpa welcomed me in the traditional way with flowers. It was a good feeling to start my long Everest journey and it was nice to be welcomed so warmly.

Welcome to my Seven Summit blog. After Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, McKinley/Denali and Aconcagua this will be my fifth expedition. This time it will bring me 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 three climbers led by Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa and his team of local Sherpas, we will not have a huge communication infrastructure which you may find in many large expeditions. Nevertheless, I will be happy to share with you along the way my feelings and impressions as much as possible. It’s the journey, not the destination!