Local time: 20:00 4 Nov 2007
Location: Dhola
Altitude: 4070m
Weather: Fine in the morning, then clouds & wind in the afternoon.

Hi everyone it's Paul Adler here with my first dispatch for the trip. Today we walked up the Gokyo Valley to Dhola, a reasonably hard day even though there was only a 200m height gain above Khumjung. However we had over 600m of climbing to do during the day.

Change in plans
Well not sure if you didn't pick up in last night's update, but we made a slight change of plans in Khumjung and decided to head up the Gokyo valley to see the lakes and then cross over the Cho La pass to get to Lobuche. This is instead of going up via Pheriche. Time is not with us, so the altitude profile is a little more ambitious than I'd ideally like. However if any of us start displaying any AMS symptoms we will all head down immediately and continue up the normal route to Everest base camp. If we can all get over the Cho La pass ok at 5300m, this should put us all in good stead for getting to Everest base camp and also being very well acclimatized for our attempt on Island Peak. GI health is critical so we are taking as much care as possible in this department.

Meeting Sherpas in Khumjung
Last night I met Pemba Tshiring and Mingma Nuru, both who climbed Everest with me this year. They had just finished a trek up the Rolwaling valley and climbed Mt. Parchemo. It was great to see these guys again, go to their homes and say hello to their families. We also saw Ang Nima, the guide who was with Cas and Fiona's group earlier this year. All these guys greet you like long lost friends, giving you big bear hugs. Mingma Nuru had a lot of stories to tell, as a few days after finishing our Everest expedition, he flew to Switzerland for his first trip outside of Nepal. He was a guest of a friend who owned a small cheese factory. Of course being the type of guy he is, he helped out a lot. The most significant thing for him was how much milk the Swiss cows could produce, and he absolutely loved the milking machine. He climbed a small mountain too, which he thought was very beautiful.

Great group
It's a great group that we have here, with a lot of joking going on amongst the guys. Everyone seems to be doing well with the altitude - it was personal altitude records for David and Paul B today. Tomorrow we have a very easy day with a similar altitude to where we are today and no ups or downs to climb at all.

Regards Paul A.

Your Messages
Angela, We laughed a lot at your message, because before we received it the guys had been criticising Darren for writing about the little details (I personally think the little details are interesting).

Zoe & Joel, We haven't worked out who has to carry the Yaks horns (they are actually Nak's horns). Darren carried it again today, because everyone voted that no one else had done anything foolish. We have a new rule which says that if one person carries the horns for more than 2 days, they get to decide who carries them the next day. Darren does think that he might just give them to Cas though. Cas is a little worried and has been very nice to Darren today.