Caudwell Xtreme Everest team arrrive in Kathmandu

The Caudwell Xtreme Everest team arrived in Kathmandu today. They are staying at the Summit hotel in the Patan region of Kathmandu. The team will spend almost a week at the hotel, before flying to Lukla to start the trek to Everest Base Camp.

On arrival at the hotel, the team took part in a blessing ceremony. Mike Grocott, the expedition leader, lit some candles to bring favour on the expedition, and each member of the team received a garland of marigolds, and had their foreheads marked with red dye.

The team will spend the next few days carrying out a barrage of tests on themselves. These will take place in the laboratory at the hotel, set up by the logistics team exclusively for this purpose. They are repeating many of the tests carried out at sea level in Archway, London, last month.

A few members of this group will remain at the Summit Hotel for the next two months to run the Kathmandu lab. The lab will be used to test more than 200 healthy volunteers that will be passing through Kathmandu on their way to Everest Base Camp. These healthy volunteers will be subjects in a unique medical research experiment carried out throughout their trek through the Khumbu valley.

Story by Kay Mitchell