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Namche to Phakding to Lukla

Participatory Exploration: Climb Everest, Bring 10K People With You, Wired

"Last fall he performed an unplanned EVA to help repair a critical solar panel on the International Space Station, this month he is attempting to summit Mount Everest. For emergency room surgeon turned NASA Astronaut Scott Parazynski the only way to do summiting Everest right would be to make sure you include as many people in the experience as possible."

Ang Jangbu reports that Dave and Nicky are back down to BC now, after spending the night at C3 and then climbing a short way above. Also yesterday, 5 sherpas carried to South Col and now that camp is fully stocked and ready for the summit bids!! Eben and the trekkers had a nice visit to BC, including hiking up to the base of the Icefall yesterday, and today they are headed back down to Lukla, with several of them planning to climb Lobuche Peak on the way.

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This is Scott again. This'll be my last entry until I get back from the summit of the mountain, hopefully here in a few days. But just want to comment on the real expeditionary nature of being here in the wilds for now 54 days and counting.

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Hi again, this is Scott. Just wanted to make a few comments about the tools that are required to scale a mountain as it compared with going outside on a spacewalk. It's actually quite similar, in many regards... We're at great heights, of course gravity affects us in space a little bit differently as we're in a free fall around the earth but here on Mt. Everest if you're to slip and fall, it could mean a long ride, of several thousand feet...with a pretty bad outcome.

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This is Scott calling in from [garbled].

It's May 16th and I head out towards the summit.