Anchorage, Alaska (via email)
Partly Cloudy and 30's F
11:15pm Alaska time

Howdy, this is Eric Brown, reporting for the Patagonia Mountain Agency's Everest North Ridge Expedition 1999.

Jacek, Talli, and I have spent the last two days running errands and packing. We are staying with Jacek's parents. This evening Mrs. Maselko cooked up a hearty and tasty going away meal: borscht, czerwony (similar to spaghetti, except this was with venison) and krokietem (chicken croquets) and a hazelnut wafer dessert. Mmmm!

Jacek spent all day spreading gear around on the floor (organizing, he says). I spent time on the phone checking on the sat phone, making sure we were all "hooked up" and had to rewire the dc converter. This evening finally made contact with an operator (on the sat phone). Whoop! Talli packed and packed. The afternoon brought more shopping for fuses, stickers, storage bins, batteries, etc. Jacek's brother, Maciek, was a big help helping us find all the stores we were looking for. I could go on about the packing, but it's all done: food, gear, personal items. I'm a bit frustrated because now I need to call the sat phone people from Seoul Korea to activate our smart card which I thought was done 4 days ago when I talked to them.

Most dispatches won't be this long because of sat phone time, so don't worry. Now the COOL part!!!

We leave in 4 hours at 03:29 Alaska time (3 am folks) on Korean Air, change planes in Seoul, then on to Bangkok Thailand for a day. We leave Bangkok on 4/4 and arrive in Nepal (Thai airlines). After 1.5 hectic days in Kathmandu, we fly some kind of aircraft to Lhasa, Tibet on 4/6. Jacek doesn't know what we will be flying... Anticipation. If you've read "In To Thin Air", you are familiar with the top notch aircraft used in Nepal.

Once in Lhasa we load up Landcruisers or Land Rovers and start our 10 day 4x4 trek towards base camp... Yes, 10 days!

Well, as we make last minute preparations (Talli is making tapes of our favorite bands for base camp, etc), our excitement grows. And we here at PMA hope yours does too. This is an incredible learning experience and adventure for me, and Talli, Jacek, etc, and technology permitting, we will keep you posted on our journey. Peace and wish us good luck. Gig'em... hasta luego......do uslyszenia !!!