Well the day is finally here. It has been a long time coming, but now that it is here it seems it has come way too fast. I am pretty much ready, but still need to pack a few things. It is always difficult to predict the emotional toll a trip like this takes on me and my family. Up until now the reality had not really sunk in, however, last night a spent a while watching my children as they slept. It was an emotional time for me knowing that I will not see them for over a month. For them it has not seemed to sink in yet. I travel a lot with work and they are accustomed to me being away. This time will be a little longer and I suspect after a week or so they will start to notice the difference. My wife, Susan, remains positive although I know my being away is especially hard on her. I am very lucky to have her support. Tonight I will take my kids out for Halloween before I go. Amy is a witch and Colin is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. We live in a great neighbourhood and they will come home with way too much candy. They have much greater will power than I do as this candy will last them for most of the year. Once they are off to bed I will drive to Buffalo for my flight tomorrow morning. I fly from Buffalo to New York and from New York to Bangkok where I will overnight then fly the next day to Katmandu. My climbing partner will join me on Nov 4. We then plan (weather permitting) to fly to Lukla and start our trek on Nov 5. My climbing partner has our PDA that we will use to send updates and we will pick up our sat phone in Katmandu. The technology is a little daunting right now and I am not convinced that we will work it all out. If we get it all working I hope to post on this site every few days. I may or may not be able to respond to messages posted to this site. Dream Big, Scott.