Tuesday, April 1. Phadking 2700m
This morning at 4:30am my Everest expedition officially began. Our Nepal agent, Kili Sherpa of High Altitude Dreams, brought us our climbing permit last night. It was good to have a real permit in hand and see my name on it.
It was with mixed emotions and a heavy heart that I left Kathmandu. I am very excited to be starting this expedition of a life time. I have been dreaming of climbing Everest for over 20 years and planning this climb for over two years and now that it is here it seems to have come so fast. Am I prepared, is this the right time to go, how will my family handle my time away, how will the business do without me. Questions, questions, questions. Many mixed emotions.
I spoke to Amy and Colin last night. That was a difficult conversation for me. I miss them so much that for most of the conversation I am fighting back tears. It was good, however, to speak to them and I plan to make one call a week back home. I also sent a note home with Susan for each of them that they can keep in their room to remind them of me.
Having Susan here was great, but it also made it an emotional departure for me and I know for her as well. She is on a flight home as I write this and will see our children soon.
Pujan and Michelle (the Courtyard Hotel owners) gave us a great send off this morning with a fresh flower lei, a silk kata, and a personal card each. They are great hosts and I would highly recommended their hotel if you are in Kathmandu. After our send off we drove to the airport, almost getting in several accidents along the way and coming the closest I have ever been to running over a pedestrian. Kathmandu is a crazy city. The airport went smoothly and we were in the air by 6:30am. We landed smoothly in Lukla and weighted around for over an hour for our bags which were coming in on another flight. Eventually we got tired of waiting and decided to start our walk while our Sirdar (head Sherpa) Lama stayed Behind to make sure our bags caught up with us.
We only had a short walk today to Phadking. I was experiencing some stomach issues today so I was glad of the shorter walk. We are staying in the Sunshine Lodge that is quite plush as far as lodges go. I am sharing a double room with Angus and we have a western style toilet in our room with a sink and a hot shower.
We had a nice dinner and I am now sitting in bed as I write this. Tomorrow we will be on the trail by 8am and plan to make it to Namche in about five hours.
Big hugs to Susan, Amy and Colin.

Scott.   Wednesday, April 2. Namche 3500m. Today we hiked to Namche and I felt great. No problem on the Namche hill. We are back to the SherpaLand Hotel and everyone is quite happy with the accommodation. It was nice to walk into town as I ran into Ron and Karen who we met ib Deboche. They have had a great trek and are headed to Lukla tomorrow to fly out. I have also met up with KC who is the manager of the hotel, Tsedam who runs a gear shop and Pemba who also runs a shop where we bought some Everest Hardware clothing. It makes Namche seem very friendly when I see all these people I know. I almost feel like a local. We will spend two nights in Namche for acclimatization and then head to Deboche. The trail today was very busy with trekkers. There is a very visible difference between the number of people here now compared to when Susan and I came in two weeks ago. As we entered the park today I looked at the statistics on the wall. In March of this year there were 3688 people who came into the park compared to 3000 in March of 2007. This is the largest March in the last ten years. It appears that this will be a big year for trekkers in the Khumbu valley. That's really about it for today. I am feeling good and doing well. Susan, I hope your flight home went well. It must Be amazing to see Amy and Colin again. Big hugs to Susan, Amy and Colin.

Scott.