By Antoine Jeanson, Finance Officer

Most of the money for the trip came from personal contributions but some 30% came from sponsorship. We would like to note and thank the Imperial College Exploration Board for their grant of £3000 and insurance for the entire group and SBC who donated £100.

The airfare from London and half the trekking agent’s fee were paid before leaving the UK. The rest was taken with us, $1000 in cash and the remainder in $ Traveller’s Cheques. There is no problem changing cash or TCs in Kathmandu and although rates do vary from place to place we found this did not amount to more than c. 1½ %. Pounds sterling are just as acceptable as US dollars and avoid one set of commission charges if you're British. Outside of Kathmandu we saw only one other Bureau de Change, in Namche Bazaar, but lodges in the main trekking areas will also sometimes change money.

We took $3500 worth of rupees with us on the trek which proved to be just about enough to cover our food and lodgings, the porters’ wages and incidentals.

The spreadsheet below gives a breakdown of how our money was spent. It is exhaustive and fairly self-explanatory. However, a few notes are in order. There is some uncertainty as to how the trekking agent’s portion (those items in italics) should be categorised as all figures apart from the internal flight and the trekking and peak fees are from an estimate given to us by Bikrum, our agent, some time before our departure. A few things stand out though:

• He made a fair amount of profit.
• The climbing equipment provided for the porters could probably be hired in Kathmandu for substantially less.

This said, employing a trekking agency to deal with the bureaucratic side of things and internal transport considerably reduces the stress and time needed for final organisation "out there". It is also a legal requirement for parties planning to climb any peak to hire their Sirdar through a registered trekking agent. However, it's very pleasant to be met at the airport by a cheery representative with a bus ready to drive you straight to a pre-booked hotel.

We were also surprised by the amount of money spent on food and lodgings during the actual trek. A large part of this was spent in Namche Bazaar however and once this is taken out of account the cost per person per day was just over £2. This is the absolute minimum that a stand alone trekker staying and eating in tea-houses would need (two meals of dal bhaat and a bed in a dormitory room) and our standard of living was far greater than this would provide so we have no grounds for complaint.

• Exchange rates used £1 = $1.65 = 110 Nepali Rupees
• Items in italics were organised and paid through our trekking agent, Bikrum Pandey.

We finished the expedition with some £1500 still unspent, £600 still in traveller's cheques, which we were looking forward to spending on our Christmas presents. Unfortunately, it was all stolen from our luggage while it was in transit in Karachi Airport. The cheques were refunded, but cash left in luggage in transit is not insured, so learn from our mistake and keep it with you at all times.

As a final note I would say that this is a very reasonable price for a 7½ week trip especially when compared to the many fully organised, commercial tours on offer which would cost upwards of twice this amount. The moderate amount of organisation needed may seem daunting but is financially very rewarding.