Climbing@alanarnette.com

After 17 or more expeditions, I have everything I need so there will be only a few last minute purchases.

I will send another dispatch before I leave introducing my teammates.

Other reports say they asked the Nepalese to close the South side. MountEverest.net publicly broke the origional story yesterday.

While there was no mention of the limitations being related to the Chinese's more stringent limitations on the North, the connection is obvious.

This now makes a complicated situation even more complex. North side teams, including ours, have been investigating alternatives given the Chinese March 10th decision to refuse entry to all expeditions on Everest until May 10th - presumably after they carry the Olympic torch to the summit, weather permitting.

While very difficult, it would not be impossible to still make a summit bid arriving at the North Base Camp after May 10th as shown by the Altitude Everest team last year. They arrived at BC around May 10th and summited on June 14th but they were very lucky with good weather in 2007. They were also very, very strong climbers and leveraged the logistics of Himex and their ropes. So while not impossible, it would be very hard for "normal" climbers like me.

As I posted last week, it is not clear if teams on the South will be allowed above Base Camp before May 10th. A decision will be made this week. The normal acclimatization schedule calls for at least one night at 7000m or Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face. While there are other mountains we could acclimatization on, it makes the logistics more complex.

I am extremely grateful that our expedition leaders moved swiftly when the Chinese announced restrictions on the north side and secured permits and logistics support on the south as a backup for our team. Also, our entire team including our Nepali Sherpas have agreed to make the switch thus we will be climbing together.

The Road Back to Mt. Everest began over a year ago. It had two parts: raise awareness and money for Alzheimer's research and climb five mountains culminating with Mt. Everest on April and May of 2008.

How time files!

Tomorrow I get on a plane and end up in Kathmandu on Saturday.

But a thin smile came across my face as I stepped into the airport and was greeted by a big Nepali grin. I moved quickly through customs and then downstairs. Grabbing a cart with a serious wheel malfunction, I moved near the door to the snake like carousel.