Dear friends and family,
I apologize for the message being cut. The power goes out every day several times a day here in Kathmandu and so the internet gets cut off when you least expect it.
As I was saying I feel extremely fortunate, grateful and moved by your generosity. Your donations are helping a lot at a time when I’m stuck in Kathmandu trying tout a plug to this money drain!! With your donations I will now be able to fly back home next week to start working and paying back the debt from this expedition. All your donations from the beginning of this campaign and continuing now are helping enormously to make this huge money investment I made more manageable. The more money raised the less years I will have to be working just to pay for this expedition where tragically many people died and no one got a chance to climb. The total cost of this expedition has been around $55,000 dollars. The almost $32,000 that you have contributed are a HUGE help to pay for that! You have given me a chance to come and try the biggest mountain in the world, unfortunately the biggest tragedy on Everest happened this time and a historical event has happened where no one gets to climb.
Some of you, have even more generously offered to donate again for me to try this again in the future.
I cannot describe how moved I feel about such noble gestures!
But I do not want to take anyone’s money for a future climb unless there is some assurance that this fiasco won’t happen again.
Many things have to be settled before we even think of embarking on another huge project like that. Things like; will the Nepal government actually honor their promise to not charge us the $10,000 permit if we come back to try Everest again in the next 5 years. That would of course make the climb $10,000 cheaper (or more since they are saying the permit will now cost $11,000 per person).
I would have to get on my feet financially too before I would even think of trying Everest again.
Anyway, just sharing my thoughts for those of you who have so generously offered to support me again!!
Above all this experience has shown me how kind and generous people can be and that will be a truly unforgettable part of this project. I will always be grateful with you all. I hope I get a chance to give back to you as much as you have given me!
For now I will try to visit a few more interesting sites in Kathmandu to share with you a trip report that is as interesting and stimulating as possible…to try to make te most out of your money!
Thank you all!!
