6th April 2008 - Dawa Steven Sherpa

After months of preparation we are finally on the trail to Base Camp for Eco Everest Expedition 2008. It has been a cold and drizzly day and we were lucky to fly into Lukla in this weather. Our first night stop on this adventure is Phakding, at our own Asian Trekking lodge: "Jo's Garden."

It has been a tumultuous few months leading to the expedition. Most notably the Chinese side of Mount Everest is closed and the Nepalese government threatened to close Mt. Everest on the Nepal side as well. Whatever the official/public reason was for closing the mountain, we all know it's the fear that a free Tibet demonstration on the top could embarrass the Chinese in the Olympic preparation and disrupt their attempt to take the Olympic flame to the top!
Sleepless nights, endless meetings and work to convince the corrupt bureaucrats finally has meant that our expedition is underway. One of the biggest contributors in the process was Tashi Tenzing Sherpa, who worked so tirelessly to prepare documents and presentations to convince the "authorities" to permit expeditions to climb Mt. Everest.

On the Eco side, I have been traveling all over the world speaking and sharing about the ambitions of the expedition and also collecting ideas and information to make the expedition a success. One of the concrete ideas that has become a reality is the human waste management by using Clean Mountain Cans and Wilderness bags. Another is the collection of funds to make the garbage retrieval a success.

Some new ideas also emerged! At the presentation in Golden, Colorado, Bill Putnam, Past President of the American Alpine Club asked me a very difficult question: how does using fossil fuel for cooking at base camp fit in the whole Eco Everest concept of battling global warming? This was an excellent question. So far I had taken it for granted that we have to use fossil fuels like kerosene and liquid petroleum gas for cooking. Trying to figure out a solution was mind-bending. Finally, I came up with the possibility of using solar energy to boil water and to cook. Furthermore, this technology is available locally in Nepal. The parabolic solar cookers have been very kindly donated to the Eco Everest Expedition by the Center for Rural Technology in Kathmandu. When speaking to some people who had used this in the past, it turned out that these devices saved them up to 200 liters of kerosene per year. That would more than make up for the cost of purchasing one of these devices and transporting it to the remote corners of the mountains.

The information center we plan to set up at Everest Base Camp is something I am greatly looking forward to. Not only do we have our baker, Shera, providing all the sweet goodies but we will also be hosting a very special photo exhibition called "50 years of climate change and mountains."

Personally, I'm feeling strong and free of negative thoughts. I am happy! Being away from the office has once again made me realize the unique beauty of my work and how lucky I am. Sadly, the ICIMOD Research Team 1 didn't make it to Lukla as the weather turned progressively worse after our flight and their plane had to turn around midway and return to Kathmandu.