First Expedition Report From Nepal

Friday 31st March 2000 - Suketar,Nepal
This time a week ago I received a call from the Expedition Patron, Admiral Sir Peter Abbott, in my office in Portsmouth. He wished us well and a safe journey to and from the mountains.
One week later the two teams are camped at the side of the almost cursory landing strip in the tiny village of Suketar, perched precariously high on a narrow ridge, in remote North East Nepal,


The previous three days were spent in Kathmandu at the Summit Hotel which was welcoming and very comfortable. There we sorted and packed our 3000kg of food and equipment ready for Captain Goubranov Valeri to fly it by helicopter to Ghunsa and Oktang to await porterage to our respective Base Camps at Pangpema for the Ramtang Team and Pache's Grave for the Kangchenjunga Team.
Thanks to the diligence of our trekking agent, Kit Spencer, at Summit Trekking and our own Advance Party of Andy Hughes, Colin Scott, Andy Edington and Tom Martin we were able to meet our scheduled departure this morning with all Trek Permits, Climbing Permits, Visas and Radio Licences completed.
We flew from Kathmandu in two twin otter aircraft which are about the only fixed wing aircraft able to land on the precarious grassy landing strip perched on the edge of a cliff adjacent to the village and dug out of the land and rolled flat by the hands of the villagers themselves. One of the aircraft had a malfunction on the GPS system and the pilot asked if we could let him have 4 batteries to get it back up and working. There was no shortage of batteries volunteered! The landings were interesting and the look on the faces of the team as the plane slammed into the short, grassy, bumpy landing strip and careered towards the hill at the not so far end was worth a thousand words! The unpacking of the planes was a little haphazard and resulted in 4 of our bags going back to Kathmandu but they will be sent on tomorrow to catch us up in a day or so.
At Suketar we were met by our Sirdar, Norbu, and the cooks and porters who will accompany us on our trek into the mountains. Which starts tomorrow morning.
The teams are in good health and good spirits and are eagerly looking forward to the challenges ahead - of which there will be many.


Steve Jackson
Expedition Leader