We have been blessed to several consecutive days of sun here is Telluride. It seems a long time coming. Spring is here, the trees are budding, the grass is turning green and I put my chocos on. The snow is melting this year very quickly I believe it is do to the dust and dirt in the snow. The snow pack this year has been very dirty and that is speeding up the melt. I am not complaining how ever the faster the snow goes the sooner the rock around Telluride is safe to climb.

There is an other interview with Ben on CNN about the Baruntse trip. They seem to be doing well and getting ready to climb.Third interview with Ben on CNN

I had resinged my self to not hearing from Josh, then I heard my cell phone ring as I was droping a friend off sunday night I was about to not answer it then I saw the number it was the climbers satelite phone .  My heart jumped, Josh and I always say no news is good news, so that is in the back of my head every time I see that number will it be Josh or one of his climbing partners? 

Then I hear Josh’s voice and my anxiety rest, they are well and at base camp.  The peaks are in sight, the goals are in sight, I am so excited for him and that he is fallowing his dreams.  How do I ague with that.  This life we have cosen is not dull or repetivie, we live our dreams and that is of snow caped mountains and pushing the limits.  I can not imagine any other life.

So CNN did another interview of Ben over in Nepal. I was hopping to send good wishes to Josh and friends. CNN has been covering the trip and they are doing interviews with the guys every so often. It would be great if I could get as many people to e-mail CNN on their contact us page about the coverage and send good wishes. Thanks Tara

I just got home from some time in Fruita Colorado riding my  mountain bike. It has been to long sense I have been on a trail, recovering for Knee surgery has been a test of my patients.  I am sun burned ( I am to light to tan)  and feeling just rejuvenated.  While I was out camping and Biking Ben did another interview with CNN, it is still surreal to me some times to think of these guys as having any fame.  Ben and John are the guys I think of Josh hanging out with always talking about skiing climbing or doing something.  The early am text massages are usually from one of them seeing what we are up to….. 

I hope they get dry and up to the mountain soon I can all to imagine what is going through there brains.  I can feel my husbands anticipation from across the world, ” the mountains are calling and I must go”  John Muir that simple quote explains my husband’s need to climb. I love and support all he does….. Most of the time our life together seems like a dream and incredible dream.

This morning about 8 am Mountain time I got a call from an unknown number.  Pausing to decide if I should answer it just in case it was some prerecorded sales scheme, but to my coffee deprived state I was pleasantly surprised to hear my husbands voice from half way around the world.  They are doing well as they face to jungles and the back of beyond of Nepal.  They are not in Colorado any more or even on a popular trekking area, some of the ordeals sound to be frustrating not only Josh but the 3 other travelers.  This is not an area that is used to westerners, the goals of the porters does not seem to meet on the same level as the climbers.  Due to this difference in opinion there seems it may take them longer to get to the aspired base camp.  We will see if the guys are able to speed this up and do not use up all there time hiking.

This Article was published on the Alpinist sight about Josh and Ben’s adventures in China.

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/_print/ALP18/newswire-china-quonglai-clark-butson

Right now my husband Josh is on an expedition to Baruntse a peak that is located in same part of the vast Himalayan rang near Everest and Makalu.  The location and rout are articulated well on the sight www.skithehymilayas.com that is set up to receive there blogs and views on the climb.  

This is my view and experience of being a wife of a big mountain mountaineer.  Josh is drawn and compelled to ski, rock, and ice climb his way up any thing that has a summit.  Many woman joke about being a golf widow but I am a mountaineers wife a different story.  I share my life with dreams of 8000 meter peaks and the deaths of friends that just got unlucky.  I walked in to this marriage with the knowledge of what could happen but who at 23 really understands what it will be like to sit and wait to hear if you husband is alive week after week.  

Not many other marriages are like being married to a big mountain climber, the other reality is that the relationships do not last.  The altruistic view of living your dreams comes with a price.  My husband is gone some times up to 6 months a year and that is good compared to some of my friends that are away that long at a stretch.  I do not know how we have survived nearly 8 years of marriage but we have.  It helps that I to am a climber although I have no interest in 8000 meter peaks but I understand the drawn and need for them that my husband has.  My life is incredibly blessed and I live the kind of life that many dream of I have learned to in-brace my time alone and to regenerate my self and do every thing I would like.  It is like taking a break from the marriage with out all the pain and fighting.  I am planing my own fun and time……….

So I got this e-mail from Jon yesterday about his first experience in Katmandu. Thamel is the part of the city that they are staying in.  It is the touristy shopping area.  

These are Jon’s words……….

Thamel needs to be experienced more than explained.  It is one of the primary shopping/tourist districts of Katmandu, and it defies simple words to encompass all of it.  
 
After arrival at the Nirvana Garden Hotel Karma, the head of our trekking company and in country contact, took us to his little restaurant.  Amid beers, momos and chow mein we discussed our plans and approach to Baruntse.  It was classic to watch Ben describe what we wanted to do on the mountain using a plate of noodles and a bit of sauce as prop!
 
We took our leave of Karma and made our way back through the darkened streets of Thamel to the hotel.  Pedi-cabs and taxi drivers threaded through the scant stream of walkers, offering rides.  “You get in!”  Only a few lamps shone through the windows of closed shops, emitting pools of light onto the otherwise dark streets.  We are certainly not in Kansas any more!
 
Thamel during daylight is a clash of color, sights and smells.  Bright signage is overhead as I walked the dirty streets.  Shop keepers call out for you to enter their cramped stores filled with cloths, electronics, climbing gear, Buddhist artifacts and whatever else.  Some of it is real, some of it fake.  Beggars wander the streets, looking for alms.  It is a riot of foot traffic and cars beeping their horns, pushing their bulk thru the crowds.  The smell of sewage battles with incense and grilled meats for domination of your nose. 
 
We wandered the streets in the morning, Ben showing off the district to M’Lin and I, while Josh filled in with his experiences.  We found a better map of the Baruntse region in one shop while Ben found a new camera bag and designed a patch for his hat and jacket.  We took it in for a while, then ate some lunch before returning to the hotel for naps and reading.
 
We returned to the streets in the evening to find dinner at the Fire and Ice, one of Ben’s local favorites.  A Italian style pizzeria, its difference made it seem to fit in better with variety found in the district.  After gorging we returned once again to the hotel, dodging questions of “Hashish?  Marijuana?” before dropping into exhausted sleep.  Only in Thamel. . .

So the 4 travelers John, M’lin, Josh and Ben have all landed in Katmandu.  The flights have been good and they were able to hang out at a lounge for 11 hours in Hong Kong.  It sounds like they treated them selves to Massages, lots of food and some good down time.  Here is a Dispatch from Ben on how the trip is going.  

Sleep deprived but overjoyed, late last night I walked down a ramp in Los Angelos and wound up across the Pacific Ocean in Hong Kong.  One night has passed but we are now 2 calendar days ahead of ourselves; Josh Butson, Jon Miller and me. Where did April 13th go?  

Few things are worth giving up an entire day of your time.  We are on our way to the Himalaya…for 6 weeks. It is spring, this is what we do. This year’s expedition is conventionally unprecedented, an excursion into the unknown even for us. As climbers we have reduced the recession to recess. Despite a dovetailing economy, we continue to find an upside outside. 

In years past Josh Butson and I have negotiated our way through enough certain uncertainty to enlist a new addition to our team; Jon Miller.  No stranger to skiing, climbing or the mountains, Jon will be an asset to having fun along our path to the summit of 23,390′ Baruntse.  Baruntse is a world away from our home in Telluride, Co., it is in the Makalu Barun National Park in Nepal.

Our goal is to lay fresh tracks on an unexplored feature of Baruntse…a rib that runs down the Northeast face of the mountain like a lightning bolt.  Each jagged kink in this striking feature could surprise us with firm blue ice, cold grey granite and adventurous problem solving. No team has ever climbed this mountain this way. Over time we believe an objectively safe route and clear headed decision making will bring us to the summit of the mountain.  

Then we will ski.  Skiing is why we are returning to the Himalaya.

To climb in the world’s highest ranges a deeply committing and comprehensive skill set is a prerequisite.  To ski down the mountains, for us, makes it all worth it.  Expedition after expedition has proven that climbing to Himalayan summits is the substance of countless volumes of copy and discourse.  So little thought is provoked of having fun after the topout, carrying on as if the mountain could still be explored, the adventure sustained. Skiing not only provides that opportunity, it minimizes our exposure to risk and the challenging elements of high altitude.

We begin in the jungle of Nepal and will climb more than 18′000′ of elevation to Baruntse’s summit. Our route is mapped out on our new site: www.skithehimalayas.com  Please visit, click on the baruntse 2009 page and follow along over the next 6 weeks as we trek, climb and ski our way through the high Himalaya in Nepal.

The adventure will begin in a few short days as we prepare for the 9 day trek to basecamp and experience spots on a map rarely visited.  We will be sending photos, audio and text dispatches from jungle to summit and back to civilization.

Live the dream,

Ben Clark

CNN will be Following Josh, John and Ben’s trip this spring up Baruntse.  There will even be an interactive portion were you can ask them questions.  I encourage any readers to send them your best and ask questions, this will be really fun.  www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/04/08/dcl.clark.skiing.himalays.cnn?iref=videosearch