The Logistics team leave for Nepal

Yesterday, the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Logistics team left from London Heathrow to fly to Kathmandu. They have set off earlier than the main team, in order to organise the 17 tonnes of equipment that was shipped earlier this week. They will spend a week based at the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu, arranging for much of this equipment to be flown to Namche Bazaar. From Namche, it will be moved up the Khumbu valley by yak or porter.

The logistics team, Mac Mackenney, Dr Paul Richards, Lee Rays and Rhys Bevan, will then fly to Lukla to start trekking up to Base Camp. On the way, they will unpack much of the equipment at the laboratories at Namche Bazaar, Pheriche, and finally Everest base Camp. This will allow the calibration team to start calibrating the moment they arrive at each laboratory.

Dr Paul Richards will be concentrating on setting up the power systems at each laboratory. Even at Kathmandu, the local power supply can be unreliable, so Dr Richards has been working closely with our sponsors at Honda, Victron and Exide to develop a reliable and safe source of power for each laboratory.

Story by Kay Mitchell