Weblog & Podcasts

Hi all, here is just a small update from chaotic capital of Nepal: Kathmandu!

Once you wake up and hear at least 5 different types of music from just as much directions and you have a japanese lunch with Russians while talking English and being Dutch, you know it: you are in Kathmandu!

The city is charming and noisy as ever and the small cars, riksjas and motorcycles are still competing for space and movement.

Riksja Driver on the streets of Thamel, Kathmandu

As I need to do a lot of preparations with Alex and the rest of the team, I left the Lowlands (Amsterdam is below sealevel) last monday. Romke, Arnout, Eduardo all came to say goodbye and helped out getting the TNF duffels onto the bus. Kevin & Milan were there as well to film it as part of our upcoming documentary. Did I say bus?

There are 4 Norwegians in our 7summits.com/7summits-club.com expedition team, a small subteam as they are all friends. I have asked them to introduce themselves:

"Here is a short article about us "crazy" Norwegians:

We are four Norwegian joining The 7 Summits Everest expedition this year. We're living in 4 different places in Norway. Despite that we are good friends and have climbed several mountains together, both in Norway and in foreign countries.

We are experienced climbers and mountaineers, and we're hoping we are well prepared to climb Mount Everest. Petter had to give up his attempt climbing Everest last year, but he doesn't give up so easily. For the rest of us this will be our first meeting with the highest mountain in the world.

His name had already been mentioned, but now it is official:

Christopher Harris will be part of our 7summits.com/7summit-club.com Everest 2006 expedition. He is only 15 years old and wants to be the youngest 7 summiteer! He will be joined by 2 very experienced climbing cameramen who will be filming. This is the official pressrelease as sent out by his father Richard Harris, who will be joining as well.

We wanted to wait for a while, but Explorersweb has already published our teamlist, so I guess I can do it myself as well now

As you know our SightOnEverest.com team is part of the larger 7summits.com/7summits-club.com Everest 2006 Expedition. We will likely have the largest team in Everest history and a great one! More than 20 climbers for the summit, 20 Sherpas, 5 ace guides and a full kitchen crew. Sit back and enjoy!

Expedition Leaders: Alexander Abramov & Harry Kikstra

Alex & Harry at ABC, Everest 2005

Expedition Guides:

Alexander Abramov (7 summits), Harry Kikstra (7 summits), Nikolay Cherny (Everest and 6 other 8-thousanders), Valery Babanov (2 Piolet d’Or), Bolotov Alexei (2 times Everest summitteer, without oxygen from the North, 5 other 8-thousanders, 2 Piolet d’Or), Mingma Gelu Sherpa (Sirdar, 5 times Everest Summiteer).


Assistant Guides:
Sergey Kofanov, Ludmila Korobeshko, Andrey Selivanov (doctor and ABC manager) Maxim Onipchenko (mountain ranger, BC manager), Sergey Chistyakov (internet project manager).


List of expedition members:

After all the phone calls & emails finally the team met up yesterday. Thomas, who lives in Abu Dhabi, visited us and we went climbing on the Bever Ice wall.

He had already arrived Thursday evening and we surprised him in his hotel with an enormous load of wonderful The North Face gear. I had already left Kevin totally flabbergasted when I gave him his clothes, but Thomas was very happy with them as well. Thanks very much TNF & Henry, Hans & KeesJan!

On friday Milan, Thomas and I drove up to The Hague together to meet Kevin and do some Dutch Iceclimbing. First we had to do some gear shopping! In the UAE desert they are not used to -40 temperatures and it is hard to get a down suit or warm boots there...

Thomas trying on the warmest boots on the planet!

The largest Bever Zwerfsport, The Globe in The Hague had all sizes of the wonderful Millet Everest boots available, so Thomas could quickly find the best pair. We also have to get him a down suit, I had brought mine for size testing purposes.

Thomas in my TNF down suit, with Kevin making fun of him

Hi all you (armchair) mountaineers! The days are getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere and you know what that means: Everest season is coming

This year 7summits.com/7summits-club.com is back, bigger and better than ever. We have more than 20 climbers in our team and together with our Sherpas, cooks and guides we will have over 70 people on the mountain. There are some very special climbers this year. Some will be announced closer to departure (10th April), but for now I would like to introduce a very special man: Thomas Weber. Thomas will try to be the first climber that summits from Tibet while being visually impaired.