Nawang Sherpa is recovering in Kathmandu!

Apparently, all vital signs are excellent and it looks as though he's going to pull through. Jim Leach, a doctor from Seattle, was one of the first to actually treat Nawang. Jim has summitted Mount Everest, and works extensively with high altitude sicknesses. He and his fiancée, Laura, now work in Pheriche, Nepal, at the hospital. I spent an evening with them and checked out the "hospital." It is a rather small stone house with no electricity, telephone, plumbing, etc. However, Jim, a great doctor, lives there and he was able to stabilize Nawang and keep him alive.

Neal Beidleman and Lene Gammelgaard

As one experienced Sherpa put it, "Nawang's good karma that Jim was there." Very close call. Stuff like this happens, but it wrenches everyone involved to the core.

As of last night (Sunday), weather has broken a bit and the climbers are moving up to Camp III on Monday morning. They will stay at Camp III for one night then return to base camp.

Charlotte Fox had to move to a lower altitude as she had fluid in her lungs. She is either in Pheriche or Tengboche with her climbing buddy, Tim Madsen. She may return and attempt to make it to Camp III.

The remainder of the group is in good spirits and feeling physically pretty good. Scott Fischer is feeling good with no health problems. Other teams are heading forward, but no one is zooming out ahead.

Bottom line, according to Scott: "Team is hanging in there and doing well."

Brent Bishop reached base camp a few days ago. He is coordinating the 1996 Sagarmatha cleanup project. Brent climbed Mount Everest with Scott Fischer in 1994. Together they developed the first "environmental" Everest climb. Since conception of the Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition (SEE) project, Everest has become a cleaner mountain. So far the SEE '96 project has collected approximately 1,500 pounds of garbage, which has been hauled out of base camp and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Brent oversees the Everest cleanup project with the assistance of the base camp managers, sirdars, and Sherpas.

-- Jane Bromet