The team are settling back at base camp after spending the day hiking up close to Camp 1 (5600m). The glare off the snow has left everyone looking very tanned and feeling too warm climbing.
There is over 1m of snow at Camp 1 and still around 50cm at base camp. Tomorrow our guides will take a peek at Camp 2. Depending on how everyone is feeling this evening, the team may climb up to Camp 1 for the night tomorrow or take a rest day.
For the last 48 hr, more than 1.5m of snow has fallen at base camp leaving it looking like a winter wonderland in autumn. The team are hunkered down at camp, fueling up and enjoying a heated tent.
Today several members stepped out to break trail through the snow to make phone calls up a ridge. The weather seems to be clearing with some patches of blue sky and little snow falling.
Malcolm and Chirring are expected to make their appearance at base camp today. If the weather holds, a lama from Pangbouche will arrive tomorrow to conduct the expedition puja for the season.
The team started off early today, keen to hit the trails and the big hike up to Namche. About half way up, they were rewarded by clear views of Everest!! However, the views and great weather did not distract and slow them down… by 10.30am they were drinking Illy coffee at Cafe 8848 in Namche! Their cracking good 2.5 hr time to Namche is almost Sherpa time.
Noel and Thomas are enjoying Monjo now and will meet the guys at Namche tomorrow, after the team’s acclimatisation walk to Everest hotel.
The monsoon clouds are still amongst us here in Kathmandu as we wrap up the past weeks of summer climbing. It’s been a successful season on a few 8000m peaks.
Ang Kaji popped into the office today tanned and beaming from his double header on Shishapangma and Cho Oyu in Tibet. He was the first to summit Shishapangma as part of the rope fixing team to the central summit on the 25th September at 9.15am. He and his Mongolian client also topped out on Cho Oyu at 6.30am on the 2nd Oct as well!!! Amazing effort!!!
Lakpa, Mingma, Nima Gyalgen and Chris Burke are on their way back to Kathmandu after a successful expedition on Manaslu. The team summited on Oct 3rd.
Teams have already began to depart for our upcoming expedition on Ama dablam as well. Malcolm and Chirring, Steve and Jangbu are in Namche at the moment to get in some early acclimatisation climbs and treks before Ama dablam. In the coming days, a few good friends are expected to really kick start the autumn season on probably our favourite Khumbu mountain.
Lakpa and Sumit have both had productive summers. Lakpa led a group to the Karakoram range in Pakistan. The expedition was slightly delayed by the unfortunate and sad Nanga Parbat base camp attack, but despite being rattled by the incident the team focussed on their objective and successfully climbed both Gasherbrum I (8080m) and II (8035m).
That’s 3 8000m mountains for Lapka this year. Sumit was in Sydney over the low season meeting clients. The constant rain kept climbing ambitions low unfortunately!
Himalayan Ascent are currently preparing to depart for Manaslu in the next few weeks. This mountain is one of the favoured mountains to train for Everest. However, as we learnt last year, the mountain bears significant avalanche risk.
As the team are waiting for flights back to Kathmandu from Lukla, they’ve spent time reflecting back on their summit day. Margaret posts a more detailed account of the day below:
‘I reached Hillary Step about 7.45am. I was having a drink and we had decided to proceed for at least an hour to go for the summit when the sky turned black. We had no visibility and we chose the sensible option to go down. The storm did not look like it was going to lift and we were not sure how strong the winds were going to be on the top or if the storm was going to get worse. I am proud of my achievement and at only 50 vertical meters from the summit, I know in my heart that had the weather window been longer or more typical I would have summited.’
Margaret corrects that it was not the cold that made her turn so close to the summit. The unpredicted localised weather condition at the summit itself prevented Margaret from reaching the top. For Himalayan Ascent, Margaret’s achievement is one of a summiteer.
Chris Burke has also posted part of her summit experience on her blog. http://www.chrisjensenburke.com/lhotse-and-everest-summits-part-1-of-2/
Whilst teams are building on the Western Cwn and on the South Col (~35 climbers have delayed summit bids due to strong winds and are waiting out another day for an attempt tonight, hopefully with plenty of oxygen!), we are glad to be back in Lukla and away from those crowds. We took the more exciting option of a helicopter to cut the journey from base camp to Lukla.
Tonight we’re in Lukla and weather being good, we’ll be back in crazy Kathmandu tomorrow. We bid farewell to our Sherpa guides and support team to pack up base camp and camp 2.
They still have a significant job to take stock, clean, pack, store gear, and move garbage before considering their journey home back to loved ones. We’re looking forward to celebrating once we’re safely back in Kathmandu!
Our teams had a successful morning. Young Chirring picked up where the fixing team left off on Lhotse and fixed the last 300m of the summit blocks, and summited at 10.30am this morning. Chris summited at 11.30am with Lakpa and Pasang.
We’re proud of Chirring for the first summit of the 4th highest mountain this season! Previously a monk and now a young guide, Chirring has the luck of his uncle Lakpa’s climbing genes. Great news on Everest too. The group set off at 9pm last night under calm and cold conditions. Peter summited at 6.30am with Nima and Mingma.
Satisfied with their climbing success, Margaret and Warren gave the full summit a miss and turned around after the Hillary Step (8790m, ~5.50am) and after the South Summit (8770m, ~6.30am), respectively. A near summit indeed. Due to cloud cover, the sun was late arriving to warm up bodies.
After climbing ~9hr in cold conditions, our Sydney friends were missing warm Sydney beaches. Peter on the other hand is Irish (enough said). Margaret and Warren still climbed higher than any other mountain (K2 is 8611m)! Awesome effort. Both teams are heading back to Camp 4 to rest.
The team reached Camp 3 at 1PM today. As expected it’s a little windy but this should ease off by the evening. Tonight they’ll sleep with supplemental oxygen to prime them for the next stage, hopefully tomorrow if the weather holds, they’ll move to Camp 4 of Everest and Lhotse.
At the moment it looks like our Everest team will climb with may be a few independents, but not many. The route will mostly be theirs. Sumit reported that an Astrek client reached the summit today and one is expected tomorrow.
Lakpa and Chirring will continue where the fixing team reached on the Lhotse route, and will fix the last 300m of the summit blocks during their summit bid with Pasang and Chris following behind. Sumit is manning operations from Camp 2.
We left Camp 3 early this morning and we enjoyed the delights of Anil’s cooking (at 6600m!) back in Camp 2. After breakfast, we climbed back down and now everyone is back at base camp. That’s it, the final rotation is DONE! And now we rest and wait.
Wait for the Sherpas to fix the lines from Camp 3 to Camp 4 (South Col for Everest, and further up the Lhotse face for Lhotse), wait for our good Sherpa guides to set up camp with oxygen, and then we wait for the weather window.
Lately, the weather has been good. It’s been clear skies, little snow and the wind has been mostly moderate to low. The wait may be another week.
In the meantime, we’ll head down to lower altitudes ~Pangboche to rest and rest, with excited anticipation.
