A little after noon, all seven of us stood on the summit. My GPS called it 23,535 feet above sea level. It was a crystal clear day, and we could easily pick out 5 of the 6 highest mountains in the world all around us. My only complaint was that the wind was relentless, and although the ambient temperature was perhaps warmer than what might be expected in late November, it was just too cold to hang out on the summit. 
We are joined by Jiban, our coordinator in Kathmandu, who has been setting up meetings with manufacturers and suppliers of materials. We work on setting up our game plan for the next few before we retreat to our rooms to unload our gear. This, too, is short lived as after only about a half hour we return to the lobby to have coffee and meet with two of our material suppliers and fabricators. Tec is our man in charge of fabricating the trusses. We hope to get one full-size truss made while we are in Nepal. Mingma is our contact for aluminum storefronts. Both have had experience with transporting and installing materials in the Khumbu. Much of our discussion is about the minute specifics of materials and member sizing, as well as the capacity and history of transporting materials to the (remote) Khumbu.
Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest for Sacred Caves
Nepal has found its way into the list of top ten travel destinations in 2010 in the world. The Lonely Planet "Best in Travel 2010" has listed Nepal, along with El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Portugal, Suriname and the United States, as one of the top ten travel destinations, a statement from Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) said.
WASHINGTON, Nov 8:
It is high noon on Monday, Nepal time, when the phone rings. Jiban Ghimire, our expedition agent, [www.shangrilatrek.com] has the news we'd been waiting for since we landed in Kathmandu five days earlier. "Your ski bags have arrived."
our 
adventure company,
WWW.RICHARDSONARCHITECTS.COM
Greetings to friends and family following us on the Baruntse Traverse. We are now all in Kathmandu and getting ready to depart tomorrow. Please follow the dispatches ...always good to know ...
