After arriving at our hotel at about 1:30am we went straight to bed and slept a few hours before a pretty busy day!
In the morning we had a wonderful breakfast! The lovely hotel staff remember dad and I from past trips and they remembered my omelette order! We met some friends from past expeditions which was so nice to see them again! I then did some schoolwork in the lobby.
We are trekking into base camp with our friends Tim, Sarah and their two girls Olive and Ella – we met them in the hotel and went out to do a bit of shopping for some down jackets and sleeping bags for them.
I then went to my friend Sandro’s studio and we took some shots in my climbing gear. He is extremely talented and I’ll post his pics when I get them 🙂 I’ve never really had professional photos taken so this was very new and so much fun to play around! However it was veryyyy hot being in my 8000m gear in warm Kathmandu!!
I rushed back to the hotel, where I met my Dad and we drove over to the Department of Tourism to sign the climbing permit. There are about 15 people on each permit, and 1 person is delegated to sign it, and is the “expedition leader” (from the government’s perspective). This season it happened to be me, so I basically listened to some briefings, signed lots of papers and shook a few hands 😄
I then went to the hot tub, sauna and steam room in the hotel to help recovery from my training and also clear out my sinuses and chest before we head up to the dry mountains. (and because it’s really nice hahaha😛)
We met up with yet some MORE friends and all 11 of us went out for dinner and Fire and Ice of course! (a very iconic pizza place in Kathmandu)
As crazy of a city that it is, I feel very at home here. It’s soooo nice to see the same lovely people and go to the same shops and restaurants as we always do.
Back to the hotel to organise gear and repack our bags for the very early heli to Lukla (first village of trek) the next day.
(p.s – tracker is on!)
Also thank you so much to all of those that are writing the comments on the blog and also those sending me SUCH kind messages on Instagram! I love it when people tell me where they are from because I cannot comprehend how so many people from all over the world are following my journey to Everest! I feel so much support!