Roger Coffey will be the base camp manager for a team who will be climbing Mount Everest in late spring 2006. He will be writing about his adventures on this blog.

(Posted by Roger Coffey on March 30, 2006 at 12:05 AM)

I have one more day, just one. It seems the more I pack, the larger the pile behind me grows waiting to be thrown in. You can make a list, check it twice, then pack thrice (is that a word?). Daily shipments arrive with expedition equipment. There are radios, power inverters, laptops, PDAs, batteries, cameras, solar panels, chargers and on and on. I'm also in the constant info gathering mode trying to organize and inventory equipment, record contact information for the home crew, emergency numbers, email addresses, etc. Then there is the personal side. I know I have to take a camera for me, a hacky sack, books, bible, short wave radio, sunglasses, sunscreen, socks, undies, down clothing, warm sleeping bag, water purification tablets, the long list of meds like diamox (for altitude illness), cipro (for dysentery), ambien (to help sleep at altitude), immodium (for diarrhea), zantac (heart burn), compazine suppositories (acute nausea), pain meds and anti-inflammatories, connector cables, spare batteries, memory cards, playing cards, shave kit, cot, and let us not forget a flashlight in this much abbreviated list of heavy luggage.

When it's all said and done, there is more fascination than stress. I can only think of the Nepalese people, the mountains I've dreamed of seeing, and praying to help put someone on top of the world's tallest mountain.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Roger. Friday, March 31 I catch a plane headed west. First stop is Atlanta, then to L.A., Bangkok, and Kathmandu. As BCM (base camp manager) for Team No Limits expedition to Mt. Everest '06, I have a unique roll on the team of organizing, tracking, watching, and encouraging climbers, sherpas, equipment, weather, communications, and anything else we can come up with, all the while trying to teach our camp cook to play hacky sack. Life will be tough at 17,600ft for nearly 50 days. Check us out from time to time!

Soon I'll be there...

It's all overwhelming

(Posted by Roger Coffey on April 03, 2006 at 06:07 PM)

An overwhelming 72 nonstop hours of travel through 13 or 14 time zones ultimately landing in an overwhelmingly strange city with sights, smells, and sounds which are difficult to comprehend. The last 4 days are simply blurry but a fantastic better-than-expected start to this adventure. It wasn't until I ran through Los Angeles airport to a plane ready to leave without me that our team was finally all together. We then spent the next 17 hours in the air rounding the earth for Bangkok, blessed by the presence and company of a humble and polite star Himalayan climber Jang bu Sherpa who may be the current Michael Jordan of Everest summiteers. Sharing a cup of coffee and listening to stories of 5 successful summits and the daunting task of carrying the IMAX camera to the top of the world was awesome, just awesome.

If you've never been to Kathmandu, it's an experience that's not describable. Somehow my writing skills will never be adequate to tell this story. Everytime we step into the street, we're taken back with a culture so foreign you hold your breath. The local people are sincere and warm yet are faced with a devastation, poverty and hopelessness like I've never imagined.

The infrastructure is insane, without rhyme or reason. The driving is one seamless traffic accident in perpetual motion with more adrenaline moments per mile than NASCAR could ever produce. This place is crazy!

While we're enjoying Kathmandu, we're anxious to get going, but unfortunately delayed by six expedition duffles lost in transit. It's maddening but there's nothing to be done but wait. You don't track packages or baggage in Nepal, you wait. Often you wait for everything, the electricity, your food, the traffic, none of it is familiar. Hopefully we'll be on a small plane in 2 days headed for Lukla where we'll begin the upward trek to base camp.

Until then, we stay overwhelmed.

Things will happen on a trip this big

(Posted by Roger Coffey on April 06, 2006 at 10:08 AM )

It's just inevitable that there will be a million walls to climb to plus one huge mountain. It's Thursday morning, Kathmandu and the climbing team left yesterday for Lukla and are well on the trek into base camp. I've volunteered to stay behind and await the arrival of lost expedition gear. One piece came in yesterday (thank you Thai Air) and we can only hope and pray the last remaining duffle will arrive today. Nothing happens quickly in this country, except maybe the arrest of political dissidents, but more on that later. Our perpetual answer from the local authorities is.. "Maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow". If the last duffle doesn't arrive, then Roger gets to scour kathmandu for critical climbing gear, then hop on a plane and get out of here. Rumor has it they may use a helicopter to get me closer to the team. We'll see. I can only imagine my first view of Everest from a dillapidated chopper!

I should introduce Team No Limits. Our team leader is Doug Tumminello from Denver, CO, Lonard "Larry" Rigsby from Chattanooga, TN, and Matt Tredway from Steamboat Springs, CO. You can read bios on http://www.nolimitsclimbing.com and see dispatches on http://www.everestnews.com. These are humble, polite gentlemen I'm honored to travel with and pray hard we'll put one of them on top and more than anything, bring them all back safely.

As time moves on, you'll hear other climber’s names as well. Team No Limits comprises myself and the three climbers I've just mentioned, but there are 9 other climbers on the mountain on our permit alone. That means we will be sharing information, radios, weather, tents, etc. on the mountain.

My apologies to those who would like personal replies to my blog, but internet access is sketchy and after I'm on the mountain, even more so. I appreciate all the great well wishes coming in everyday. I feel "connected" to home just a little more.

Times are a little uneasy in Kathmandu. There's a national strike starting this morning. If you catch any of it on the news, you may realize there's great suffering in this country in many forms. I feel safe for now, but will have to be smart moving around.

Take care. Hopefully I'll be on my way tomorrow.

Walking lighter

(Posted by Roger Coffey on April 07, 2006 at 10:45 AM)

I'm walking lighter now, but not because of the Kathmandu trots. I'm walking lighter because I'm finally headed for the mountains.

After days of worry and nail biting, problems are solved and there's a helicopter waiting to lift me to Namche Bazaar tomorrow morning first light, hopefully catching Doug, Larry and Matt before they begin to move higher in the mountains. I've dreamed of seeing Mt Everest and that day is approaching fast, as well as our team reunion. We have a mission to accomplish and I'm sure we will all feel better when we're together and working side by side again.

I'll miss the guys at the hotel. While the team has been trekking, I've made friends here locally. I've discovered some of the warmth and sincerity of the local population. Their friendship is genuine and their desires for a better life are sincere. My life is enlightened after frank discussions of money and opportunity. Most of the young men working at hotel Vaishali have bachelor's degrees and are earning a whopping 2,800 rupees a month (70 rupees per dollar... you do the math) after working 12 to 14 hours per day, 6 to 7 days per week. They can't afford cars, clothes, a vacation to anywhere, or a night on the town. They can barely afford food. They are incredulous when I tell them stories of American big business with many jobs, how everyone owns cars and takes vacations, how eating in nicer restaurants is common place and buying a pack of gum is a thoughtless process.

Perhaps it's not appropriate to say, but I could head-butt the next fool I meet on American shores who despises our country. If you want to see a bad economy, come to Nepal. God bless America! I would return to visit this country in a heart beat, but I couldn't live anywhere but home, sweet home.

Welcome to Namche

(Posted by Roger Coffey on April 09, 2006 at 08:48 AM)

Welcome to Namche and where's the bathroom? Having been down this road before, I know just what to do; drink lots of water, take cipro twice a day, and keep plenty of toilet paper on hand. Smart travelers know that a prolonged stay in Kathmandu will make you a runner, like it or not.

A video of my chopper ride into the Himalayas this morning would be priceless, but it's not going to happen. Walking out onto the tarmac to see a run-down Russion cargo ship waiting and a mechanic walking up top working like a rat on cheese to get her ready was, well, right up my alley! I knew right then that another adventure was waiting. That bird shook worse than a Yugo with 4 flat tires rounding the bank at Daytona speedway. But up she went the entire flight, up and up with the ground growing closer and closer as we drew into the Khumbu valley. At times, I thought we would splatter into the next mountain pass, but we would just clear it and the bottom would fall out endlessly. Soon, the mountains were so high about you couldn't see the tops from the helicopter windows but you could see Mt Everest! Off in the distance like a giant on a throne with Lhotse to the right.

Yesssssss!!!!!!!!!! How do you describe mountains so massive they're indescribable? You don't. You tell everyone to get off their duffs and come on over.

May I recommend you go look up Namche on the internet? It's a terraced village cut into vertical Himalayan wall with Yaks running the streets and not a bit of level ground. Just what I need to start this part of my adventure. I'll acclimatize here for a day, then climb a couple of thousand feet to another village, then keep going up.

Guess I should mention that I unfortunately missed the team here in Namche by about 1 hour. That's OK, they need to be going up. Besides, they don't need a little old hick like me showing ém how to walk uphill!

It's time to walk

(Posted by Roger Coffey on April 09, 2006 at 11:35 PM)

The Sagamartha National Park Headquarters overlooking Namche Bazaar is really a military compound. Surrounded by layer after layer of concertina and barbed wire with machine gun entrenchments and fox holes, it's supposed to be a fortress against foreign invaders marching through the Himalayas.

I wonder just who might march through there (Chinese?) and just how long could this handful of young boys with rifles could hold off an invading army?

I laid my map down beside a machine gun bunker and began studying the mountains around me. Slowly, I began to realize that my orientation was off.

I had been looking up the wrong valley the day before, wondering where the trail would take me. Well, it won't take me anywhere. It was actually beside that bunker that I saw a familiar looking pyramid mountain top up the valley more easterly and a very distinctive trail leading up. Before me I could see Ama Dablam and Mt Everest. I would have been screaming at the top of my lungs like some redneck who just won the lottery, but I figured those young soldiers might just have itchy trigger fingers. So I fought back the tears instead (yeah, it's that emotional to me) and marched down to pack.

It's time to walk brothers and sisters. Let’s get up that mountain.