MP - electrolytes - good idea! I'll be bringing my hammer electrolyte capsules along - I'll be sure to bring some on the plane.

And Jo, margaritas sound good! I might have a drink on the way over there because (a) I hate flying and (b) I have an overnight in Delhi before going on to Kathmandu, and (c) we don't even go up to altitude until Wednesday... But I'll drink lots of water too.

andtckrtoo - Thanks for all the advice - I will be taking my HRM. I've gotten very used to hiking with it, and checking to see when to stop and take a break. It's not so different from cycling - my HR gets up there, and I can stay pretty high for a while, and I'm breathing heavily for sure, but when I stop I recover within 30-60 seconds. I noticed at over 10k ft that it took another 30 seconds or so to come down, and when it came down, it wasn't as far down.

I really noticed a wall last weekend at about 10,600. I was fine (relatively speaking) schlepping up 1600 ft of steep rocky switchbacks, and when all the hard stuff was over, and it was just a very gentle grade between 10,600 and 10,800, I felt so bad, nauseous, legs of lead, totally down on myself, wondering how I could be so crazy as to think I could do something like this, etc... and that's when I lost focus and stumbled and turned my ankle. What was disconcerting was that I never considered that all that it could be altitude. (Part of it was not enough food too).

The leaders of this group have an excellent rep for carefully managing the group's capabilities and status, plus Mary and I have sworn that we will each check on the other and not hesitate to check and take action on any signs of serious altitude sickness.

Ack! 3.5 days!