The Scene Is Set:

The People

Nicky, Chris, Lee, Paul, and Andy

Lee is 17, enthusiastic and gregarious, loves Mars Bars, MacDonalds and anything to do with his hometown of Stoke on Trent. He works in an Outdoor shop in Stoke and as a result has brought just about every bit of climbing kit known to man.

Chris is a craggy individual in his early fifties who is 'something in the City'. He had just returned from a Terra Firma trek to Tibet.

Paul, a good team man, always positive in outlook, is a farmer from Suffolk who has done lots of climbing in different countries. He would have his forty-second birthday on trek.

Nicky, like Paul, has climbed Kilimanjaro. She is a businesswoman (some connection to publishing). She looked - and was - tough and resilient.

Scott, 22, has a job taking parties of convicted/disadvantaged teenagers out on a variety of outdoor activities, including hillwalking and climbing. He is knowledgeable and sensible, a great aid to the party.

Scott, Colin and me and some of the porters

My friend, and former trekking colleague Colin, completed the party. Last week he had a nasty accident. While stepping out of a taxi in Kathmandu, he was distracted by someone shouting. His put foot went straight into a large and deep drainage hole. He suffered severe bruising to his legs and it's touch and go whether he will fully recover in time.

Andy, the trek leader (and Joint MD of Terra Firma) gave us our trek briefing. We will fly to Lukla, cross into the Hinku valley, then travel up it. This assumes that they will have constructed new paths, and a new bridge across the Hinku River after last year's disaster, when the big lake at the top of the valley burst its banks and gouged out a path of destruction all the way down the valley, killing hundreds of grazing yaks, but by some miracle, no humans.

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