Hello MountainZone, this is the Alpine Ascents International Ama Dablam 2002 Expedition. We are all at Namche Bazaar in the Khumbu in Nepal. We got up here this afternoon, after a rather exciting flight into Lukla, through the clouds, and unfortunately (we) haven't had very good views of the mountains; it's been cloudy and foggy every day as we've walked. Sorry we didn't give you an update over the last couple of days, but we were unable to get a connection when we were walking up here, we were unable to get a clear signal. But we think we've worked that out and we're talking to you from Namche.

Our plan is to stay here for the next couple of days to acclimatize and then from there we will continue over to Tengboche, just underneath Ama Dablam and begin the climb, getting base camp organized and everything. It appears there were some 45 expeditions here before we got here, but there's nobody's there at the moment, so hopefully we'll have the mountain to ourselves. This is Jim Williams and the Alpine Ascents International Ama Dablam 2002 Expedition saying, see you tomorrow. Take care, bye.

— Jim Williams, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent