Tag: Everest South Face

At Everest Base Camp 11AM

The team arrived at Everest base camp yesterday and everyone is super excited. This afternoon they will take a tour of the season’s circus and will take a peek at the ice fall.

Tomorrow morning the non Everest climbers will head back out to climb Kala Pattar, whilst our Everest climbers will sit in on a puja ceremony. After the puja, Carlos and Cid will head down towards Island peak base camp. This season they will do their early acclimatisation rounds on this trekking peak to limit their rotations through the ice fall.

Our Sherpa guides will begin rotations to establish higher camps from Friday. The guys are itching to get moving after spending the last week setting up Everest base camp in the snow.

Snowing in Lobuche 7PM

The Grade 6 team arrived into Lobuche just in time to miss an afternoon of snowfall. Fortunately the weather broke for a lovely sunset by evening. The team will head straight to Everest base camp tomorrow for one of Rabin’s special lunches.

Yas (UK), William (Australia) and Canadians, Jane and Daniel, left for the Khumbu today and are in Monjo with Galden and Sonam. Yas and William are heading to Camp 3 of Everest, whilst Jane and Daniel are out to climb Island Peak.

Lakpa leading the Makalu team are resting in Khongma tonight. From tomorrow they will enter the more remote Barun valley.

Blessed in Pangboche 6PM

It was an exciting day for everyone be it the folks with Everest, Island Peak or Everest base camp ambitions. This morning everyone and our guides were blessed by the Khumbu respected and revered Pangboche lama of the Pangboche monastery (oldest in the region).

After the puja ceremony and lunch, the team hiked to Pheriche where they will continue their acclimatisation schedule for the next two days.

Over in the Makalu-Barun park, Lakpa, Chris, Vance, Ngima and Galden are resting the night at Seduwa. It was a hot hike down to the Arun khola and up the over side…all good training and acclimatisation for Makalu.

Enroute to Everest and Makalu 4PM

Spring season is well underway despite some early minor setbacks due to flights…our teams are on the trail!

Sumit, Chhirring and Wangda are in the Khumbu with Brazilian outfit Grade 6 and their guides, Everest client, Island peak climbers and merry EBC trekkers (stinky clothes and bodies –due to delayed luggage– haven’t dented this mob’s enthusiasm). They are currently in Tengboche where it is lightly snowing. In a few days they will join up with Angkaji, Rabin and others who arrived a week earlier to establish the home away from home at Everest base camp.

Jangbu is also trekking in with Sumit & co. He’s feeling fresh after just completing a circuit of the Khumbu with climbs on Lobuche and Island Peak with Robert Savoye and Laurelyn Sayah (USA). Special cheers to techie Robert for sorting out our solar set up and radios!! Deepak is touring with Wayne and his niece (NZ) at the moment also in the Khumbu. He guided Clay and Katie (Australia) earlier this season, and has another trip booked with Allan and Bobby soon…fortunately he does not tire of the Khumbu.

Although Makalu is just around the corner from Everest, the trek to base camp follows a separate route through the Makalu-Barun national park. The Makalu team of Lakpa, Christine Burke (Australia/NZ) and Vance Cook (USA) left just today beginning with a flight to Tumlingtar and drive/trek to Khadbari. Base camp for them is also a few days away with lots of hilly ups and downs.

Summit day by Margaret 8AM

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/

Heading home 1PM

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!

Watching the crowds develop from base camp 3PM

The team arrived back at base camp at lunchtime. As they rest, eat, wash and think about packing, the crowds are starting to develop above. Groups are beginning to prepare for a summit push over the next few days.

This includes about 120 climbers planning for a May 19th push for a May 20th summit!

Resting at Camp 2 4PM

Everyone is resting at Camp 2, except Chris who has already headed back to BC with Chirring. We certainly had a tough team this year. Margaret, Peter, Warren and Chris, all experienced climbers, impressed our guides throughout the rotations with their strong fitness, positive attitudes and good adaptability to high altitude. Here’s a message that Steve (Margaret’s husband) asked to be posted:

Congratulations on everyone’s success! I think that Himalayan Ascent could get used to this. Get some warm tea into you, and get down safely.

I send special love to my wife Margaret with whom I am enormously proud.

A significant part of mountaineering is knowing when to turn back, and acting on it. The mountains are littered with those that did not. There is enormous emotional pressure to continue when the summit is so apparently close, and at a time when the body and mind are exhausted. So much sacrifice and preparation seems to be at stake. It takes bold character to make the hard decisions in the face of such resistance. In fact, the sacrifice and preparation is there to return safely. The mountain will still be there in the morning.

I wish to pay my respects to the Sherpas who have passed away, and their families who now go without. The new mountain skills school cannot bring people back, but will assist in reducing accidents in the future.

Thanks to Sumit, Lakpa, Ankaji, Dendi, and the rest of the Himalayan Ascent team for turning dreams into reality. Thanks also to the amazing rope doctors, porters, and the generous villagers along the way.

Thanks to Chris Burke for recognizing Margaret’s capability and potential. Thanks for encouraging her to join this trip.

Stephen St. Hill
13 May 2013

First summits on Lhotse, summits on Everest and near summits! 1PM

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.

Set to launch from Camp 4 5PM

t’s just a matter of waiting a few more hours now. The Lhotse team of Lakpa, Chris, Chirring and Pasang arrived at Camp 4 ~7800m around 2pm today. They split from the Everest group after the Yellow Band and continued right up the Lhotse face.

Lakpa and Chirring have the task of completing the rope fixing to the summit early tomorrow morning. The Everest party of Warren, Jangbu, Margaret, Angkaji, Dendi, Peter, Mingma and Nima arrived into Camp 4 ~7925m at the South Col about 3.30pm. All team members are feeling strong and healthy.

They will rest a few more hours, drink water and will try to stomach some food before moving for the summit push. The Everest group will depart around 8pm. There’s another independent group at Camp 4 going for the summit tonight as well.

The Lhotse team are aiming to depart at 1am. The plan is to bring all climbers back to Camp 2 tomorrow 13th after the summit. This is weather dependent, which at the moment is not too bad. The winds are easing and the sky is clear. Go team!!!