A Message From Michael

Greetings everyone

First of all apologies to those I have not written individual messages to in a while. My day to day has been hectic and frantic getting ready for one of the biggest trips of my life. So for those I have not contacted recently, this is to let you know I am off to Everest on Thursday morning.

This of course is something I have been dreaming of, training for and planning for a very long time. Am I ready? Who knows. That question will be answered around mid May when all going well, I will be on the summit attempt. What I do know is that I can’t see any other time in my life that will be better suited to giving this mountain some sort of reasonable challenge.

The basic itinerary is as follows:

• March 30 | Arrive Kathmandu. Begin gear checks. Team briefing.
• March 31 | Final gear checks
• April 1 | Fly to Lukla
• April 1 – 9 | Trek to Base Camp
• April 10 – May 4 | Establish camps and acclimitise.
• May 5 – 12 | Rest at Base Camp or lower down the valley
• May 13 – 25 | Summit Climb
• May 26 – 27 | Depart Base Camp
• May 27 – June 1 | Trek to Lukla

You can stay up to date with happenings on The Hill at this website, which will be updated a couple of times a week. It's hoped people will leave messages of support here as I'll be reading these regularly on The Hill. The other site to check is the climbing team site, which you can find here. This site will be particularly good on the summit push when it will be updated approximately every 15 minutes.

For the climbers out there, I finally made the decision to go with Adventure Consultants – a New Zealand team. It was a hard decision. My loyalties had lay with a British team Jagged Globe - that I had been with on three previous expeditions. But for Everest I felt the New Zealand team would suit me better. There are 9 climbers on the team. Five Americans, one New Zealander, an English girl, a Belgian and finally me the only Australian. The guides are all New Zealanders.

For everyone who has messaged me in the past month, I want to thank you very much for your support. I am just sorry I have not been able to get back to each of you individually.

One final big thank you to my awesome wife Aimee. She has been unbelievable with her patience and support of my pursuits. I look forward to seeing her and everybody else in approximately ten weeks.

Bye for now

Michael