Plans for the expedition

Plans for the expedition are coming along, we now have a departure date of June 10 and plan to return on September 3. We make our first deposit for our permits this week, we will do an electronic transfer to the agents bank in Islamabad. The search for the best price for airline tickets continue, and we have narrowed our choices down to two, Eithad Airways, and British Airways. We are looking at excess baggage charges of $i20.00 per bag, and I estimate each team member to have at least two extra bags. We are checking on Cargo rates from BA, to see if they are cheaper. Visa's are also being applied for and should not be any problem at this time.

As tension mounts with the struggle for funding, I vent myself by skiing uphill. Sunday, I climbed Mt Washington with my skis. I stashed my skis just below the summit where the snow ended in the rocks. I then continued to the summit in crampons. The wind was blowing at 35mph in under cast conditions where the summit was in the sun, but below was a sea of clouds with a couple of other peaks poking through. This is an amazing condition to experience here in the East, and you can imagine yourself in any mountain range in the world. On the way down, I located my skis by compass bearing, strapped in, then ripped down the upper snow fields back into right gully and down the Ho-Jo's to meet Linda. Today I'm heading up the Mt Greylock and ski the Thunderbolt trial.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008