See also International Mountain Guides,  GreatOutdoors.com, and EverestNews.com

Final Wrap-up

Ang Jangbu reports that it rained hard in Kathmandu yesterday and that he thinks the monsoon has started. Good timing!! All team member have now returned to Kathmandu in the last 24 hours via flights from Lukla or Shyangboche. Much of the expedition equipment has been left in our IMG storeroom in Pangboche for the Ama Dablam expedition this autumn. All that is left in Khumbu is some additional expedition equipment still in Shyangboche and Lukla waiting to be flown down to Kathmandu. Hopefully the weather will cooperate to allow these flights today. Yesterday, Expedition Leader Mark Tucker did the final briefing at the Nepal Ministry of Tourism with the Liaison Officer. Now Ang Jangbu and Ang Pasang are working to turn in the final accounting of all the garbage that was removed from the mountain, including the human waste from Base Camp to Gorak Shep ($1.00 per kilo!), the burnable garbage to the incinerator in Namche, the cans, bottles and batteries to Kathmandu, and the re-export of the oxygen cylinders—so we can get our $8000 in garbage deposits back.

I always say that what makes Everest interesting is that no two expeditions are ever the same, and this past season has been no exception. Despite the unusual weather IMG successfully supported sixteen successful summit climbers between the IMG and National University of Singapore teams. Congrats to all of them, and thanks to everyone who followed the expedition through our reports. This expedition is now officially over!

Eric

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 27 – More Summit, More Heading Down

Dear Friends and Family:

Update – we’ve just heard from Base Camp about some exciting news on the National University of Singapore team which that has now almost put some climbers on top of Everest this morning, they’re really close. The Singapore team was also supported by IMG logistics and the two teams worked and lived side by side during much of the expedition. Meanwhile, a few more IMG team members have chosen to depart their home-away-from-home (Base Camp) and start the trek down to Lukla. Mike Hamill, Jeff Strite, Wayne Morris and Jose Rionda are all walking downhill now on their trek home.

We’ll update you when we get more news….

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 26 – Heading Home, Heli Down

Dear Friends and Family:

Just a quick update on the status of IMG’s team in various stages of heading home. Doug Brockmeyer and Jim Waldron were understandably ready to leave Base Camp, so they chartered a helicopter to pick them up at Base Camp and transport them (and guide Dave Hahn) down to Lukla where they next caught a short flight to Kathmandu, where they are now taking a shower in their hotel before heading out for breakfast. In a complete close call, the helicopter then returned to Base Camp to pick up the next charter group from a different expedition, and we’ve received reports from Base Camp that the helicopter augered into the helipad and is a total wreck. Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred, but it highlights the vulnerability of air transport into and out of Base Camp and also gives rise to the potential need to conduct a salvage expedition to remove the crashed helicopters that are starting to accumulate there.

Meanwhile, Peter, Ed and Rex are due to arrive at Base Camp this morning after overnighting at Camp 2, and the sherpas will continue to pull down the camps in the next day or two. Everyone else is relaxing in the relative luxury of the thick air of Base Camp and some of the team members will begin their trek downhill tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, a few expedition teams are trying to summit right now, including the National University of Singapore team. We wish all those still up high a safe and speedy descent, we’ll let you know as others leave Base Camp heading for Kathmandu.

Erin Simonson

Everyone coming down

Everyone is coming down

Mark Tucker confirms that the team is now in the process of pulling off the hill. Peter, Rex, and Ed made it safely down from the Col to Camp 2. The Sherpas have already pulled most of the gear from C3 and C4 and everyone is heading for Base Camp. With the end-of-the-season warm-up the conditions with the ladders and crevasses starts to deteriorate, so it is definitely more dicey now than it was a month or two ago. Keep your fingers crossed that the Icefall continues to be kind to the team for another day or two!

Eric

Team Update

We should have final word from Mark Tucker in the next few hours, but it is starting to look like the IMG Everest expedition is about ready to enter into the final stage…getting everyone and everything off the mountain safely. Last night Peter Ford, Mingma Ongel, and Ang Passang were unable to leave the Col due to strong winds. The forecast for the next several days does not look to be any better…the winds are apparently back again, marking a pretty small “window”….what a strange season this has been! At least we got in a couple good summit bids, which is more than a lot of teams have been able to do this year. We will confirm all of this in the next few hours, but it is starting to look like Peter will probably descend from the South Col this morning with Rex and Ed. Once they start down, the Sherpas will start pulling down the camps. All the tents, oxygen, garbage, fuel canisters, personal gear…everything…needs to come down over the next few days. It is a big job, and the Sherpas will be carrying some heavy loads! We’ll keep you posted.

Eric Simonson

Back to the Col

Tucker reports that Ed and Rex are back to the Col, and that everyone else, except for Pete, is now on their way down to either Camp 3 or (preferably) Camp 2. Pete is staying at the Col to try again tonight along with Mingma Ongel and Ang Pasang. It sounds like everyone is doing OK.

Eric

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 25 – IMG Climbers on Top Again!

Dear Friends and Family:

We are pleased to announce that Rex Pemberton, age 20, became the youngest Australian to summit Mt. Everest at 8:45am on May 31, 2005. He was joined on the summit by fellow IMG climber Ed Diffendal and Da Sona Sherpa (his sixth summit of Everest) and Pasang Sherpa. We’re psyched for these 4 climbers and wish them a speedy and safe return to the South Col!

Erin Simonson

Team two update

IMG second team going for the top

It has been a difficult climb, with quite a bit of cold and wind today. Several more of the IMG climbers have now had to turn back, for various reasons. Walter, Renate, and Jose turned from near the Balcony and Mike, Jeff, and Wayne turned from between the Balcony and South Summit. Ed and Rex have pushed on and are now reported to be climbing the Hillary Step. The weather is “OK”, but not great. They are making good time, so hopefully they will be able to tag the summit soon and start back down. We’ll keep you posted!

Eric Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 24 – A little cold and windy up high

Dear Family and Friends:

IMG expedition leader Mark Tucker called us just a few minutes ago to give us the update. It is Tuesday pre-dawn on Everest and conditions are less than perfect for a summit day with cold and wind at play, but still looking like it’s possible to summit. Walter Laserer, Renate Schachinger and Jose Rionda have decided to turn around near the Balcony and are now en route back down to the South Col. If they arrive there early enough and still have some energy left, Mark will encourage them to try to continue to descend so they can rest at the lowest altitude possible. The rest of the IMG climbers continue upward toward the summit, including Mike Hamill, Wayne Morris, Jeff Strite, Ed Diffendal and Rex Pemberton. We’ll continue to update you all as news comes in.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 23 – More going up now!

Dear Friends and Family:

Following up on our earlier dispatch, the second wave of IMG climbers has now left the high camp heading for the summit with much of the cloud cap that built up earlier dissipated and winds in the category of ‘breezy’ at the Col. With conditions looking OK for the time being and tomorrow’s weather looking more uncertain, they’ve decided to take their shot now. Walter Laserer, Renate Schachinger, Ed Diffendal and Rex Pemberton pulled out of Camp 4 first, and then Mike Hamill, Wayne Morris, Jeff Strite and Jose Rionda left a little while later. Peter Ford elected not to leave Camp 4 and remains there at this time. Ang Jangbu and Mark Tucker are on deck for another all-nighter from Base Camp. We’ll keep you posted.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 22 – The Next Wave Going Up Now!

Dear Friends and Family:

Despite the snow squall and wind that came through during the Everest summit region on Monday afternoon and evening (Nepal time), the second wave of IMG climbers has decided to start climbing. Walter Laserer, Renate Schachinger, Rex Pemberton and Ed Diffendal have already left Camp 4 and begun to move up, with the others at Camp 4 brewing and preparing now to leave camp soon. We’ll let you know when Mark confirms those that have also definitely started climbing.

These climbers’ decision to go ahead and climb now was prompted in part by the updated weather forecast, which predicts a possible new disturbance forming 1,000 miles to the west and moving toward Mt. Everest. This might cause the winds to start increasing again over the next couple days. From what Mark tells us, it sounds like everyone considered their options (to climb now or wait 24 hours for hoped-for improvement in the conditions) and ultimately decided that it was not likely to improve much after waiting another day, could in fact get worse, and that made more sense to go now, especially with the route already kicked in by yesterday’s summit climbers.

We’ll keep you posted as the events of the evening of Monday, May 30 and morning of Tuesday, May 31 (Nepal time) unfold.

Eric Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 21 – Everyone on the Col

Dear Friends and Family:

We’ve just heard from Mark Tucker at Everest Base Camp. Dave Hahn, after successfully reaching the summit of Everest for the 6th time, has returned to Camp 4 at the South Col with fellow summiter Doug Brockmeyer. (See the official team report submitted to the Nepal Ministry of Tourism pasted in below.) Jim Waldron has also made it back to the Col, as did Da Nuru (after making his 6th visit to the top), Mingma (after his first summit), and Phu Nuru (after his second summit of Everest.)

The weather has deteriorated with some precipitation and winds coming into play this afternoon, all of which made the going slow and precluded their ability to descend farther down the mountain. We understand that some climbers who attempted the summit today have not made it back to their high camps yet and are still struggling down through these marginal conditions.

The rest of the IMG team pulled into the South Col as well, these people on their way uphill. Right now they are resting in preparation to begin a possible summit attempt in a few hours, but all eyes are on the weather and we won’t know until then whether or not any of them will continue up given the snow and wind outside right now. Included in this group are Rex Pemberton, Ed Diffendal, Peter Ford, Mike Hamill, Jose Rionda, Jeff Strite, Wayne Morris, Walter Laserer and Renate Schachinger.

We’ll let you know what they decide when we can….here’s the official report filed by our team’s liason officer after today’s summit success:

Everest Base Camp Monday, 30 May 2005

09:30 am

His Majesty’s Government

Ministry Of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation

Tourism Industry Division

Mountaineering Section

Brikuti Mandap

Kathmandu, Nepal

Please to be informed that the following team members of 2005 IMG EVEREST EXPEDITION has successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest on 30 May 2005:

1. Mr. David A. Hahn (USA) REACHED at 09:34 for the 6th time

2. Mr. Douglas L. Brockmeyer (USA) REACHED 09:34

3. Mr. Da Nuru Sherpa (Khumjung 9, Phortse Solukhumbu) 6th time Everest summit REACHED 09:34 for the 6th time

4. Mr. Mingma Tenzing Sherpa (Khumjung 9, Phortse Solukhumbu) first time summit REACHED 09:34 for the first time

5. Mr. Phu Nuru Sherpa Khumjung 9, Phortse Solukhumbu) 2 time summit REACHED 09:15 AM for the second time

Prabodh Sagar Dhakal

Liaison Officer

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 20 – IMG on the Summit!

Dear Friends and Family:

Mark Tucker just called to report that after some slow going following the group putting in the ropes on the last portion of the route, IMG team members Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer, Mingma Sherpa, Danuru Sherpa and Phunuru Sherpa reached the summit of Mt. Everest at 9:34am. The weather is still holding OK with a few clouds around, but there are quite a few people on the route below them and things seemed a bit “backed up.” Jim Waldron, an experienced Himalayan climber and Cho Oyu summiter, was caught behind much of this back up and turned around near the South Summit. We’ll keep you updated as we hear more from the mountain….

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest Update

Dear Friends and Family:

Mark Tucker phoned in at about 7am Nepal time. The progress of the advance team of Sherpas fixing the route to the summit has been slower than hoped due to the depth of the snow and their desire to do a good job with it, but they are making OK progress and have now reached the base of the Hillary Step. Dave Hahn and Doug Brockmeyer are waiting at the South Summit, with Jim Waldron below them, and there are about 40-50 climbers backed up along the route between the Balcony and the South Summit. The weather is holding and Mark thinks we’ll see some summits by about 9 or 10am Nepal time. The climbers will be monitoring their O2 supply closely given that the progress to this point has been slower than normal and the amount of O2 they’ve consumed is more than usual. All said, right now we hope to see some climbers on the summit in the next few hours via the South Col route (for the first time this season!) While this summit day has not gone as quickly as we all hoped, this is the lot of the first group up every year. Word is that there are many, many climbers now in route to the Col from Camp 3, so tomorrow looks to be an even busier day on the summit segment of the route as long as the weather continues to hold. More updates when we hear from the mountain…..

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest Update

Dear Friends and Family:

Mark Tucker phoned in at about 5am Nepal time to let us know that progress up high is going much slower than the climbers had hoped. The team out in front fixing the route was moving slow and things were getting backed up with the route almost in to the South Summit. While they were not too far behind schedule to make summits a reality today, all are hoping the progress can move ahead better so that the delays don’t end up causing climbers to wait too long and get too cold waiting for forward progress. We’ll update you all as more news comes in.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest Update

Dear Friends and Family:

We just heard from Mark Tucker. He said that he and Ang Jangbu just finished moving the space heaters into the comms tent. That means that he and Ang Jangbu are preparing for an all-night vigil by the radio base station and sat phone, and they want some supplemental heat to help make the long night as warm for them as possible.

Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer and Jim Waldron arrived safely at the South Col, settled in for a rest, and are expected to begin their climb to the summit any minute now. The winds at the South Col were reported as calm, the wee hours of the morning look good for them. Mark plans to update us as they reach certain milestones on the ascent, including the Balcony, the South Summit, and hopefully the top.

A team of seven Sherpas representing several different expeditions will lead the charge and fix the remaining route to the summit. Mark appreciated the spirit of cooperation among the various expedition leaders that enabled this final collaboration to occur.

The rest of the IMG climbers pulled safely into Camp 3 and Mark reports that all are feeling OK and plan to get some sleep and then move up to the high camp early in the morning. If all goes well, they will be 24 hours behind the first wave and should start their final push uphill to the summit at about this time tomorrow.

Erin Simonson

Heading for the Col

Everyone is rolling now

Expedition Leader Mark Tucker reports on Sunday morning (Nepal time) that the entire IMG team are now moving uphill. Dave, Doug, Jim and the lead Sherpas are heading for the Col, after a reasonable night at Camp 3. Everyone else is now en route to Camp 3. The weather is still a bit blustery, but signs point to gradual improvement. Hopefully everyone will reach camp, either C3 or C4, early in the afternoon with plenty of time to rest, eat, and hydrate. Tomorrow is going to come early. We expect that the lead team will wake up at about 9pm and be leaving the Col well before midnight, and the C3 team will wake up about 3am and try to be climbing by about 5am or so…just after first light. Needless to say, it is very cold up high…just think about the temperature at your cruising altitude the last time you were flying in a commercial jet. We have known several climbers that have suffered frozen corneas in the early morning hours up high….good reason to wear some sort of eye protection, even in the dark. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the weather remains reasonable and that everyone keeps a clear head!

Eric Simonson

Climb Update

Good news!

We finally have climbers heading up for summit bids. The first wave, composed of Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer, and Jim Waldron (climbing with Dawa Nuru) are headed for Camp 3 today (Nepal time, the 28th). The plan is to go to the Col on the 29th, with a summit bid on the 30th. Joining them on the summit bid will be a number of IMG sherpas in support to help fix ropes. This initial bid will be in conjunction with the rope fixing. It would have been nice to have gotten more fixing in ahead of the lead team, however with the window getting squeezed so close now to the very end of the permitted climbing period, the team has decided that it is better to send a strong lead team ahead to punch in the route and start making things happen! The weather is still windy up high, but the forecast is for continued improvement over the next few days, with the jet stream definitely starting to move to the north. By the 30th the jet core is supposed to be 1500 miles north of Everest at 12,000 meters. The rest of the IMG team is planning to move up one day behind the first team.

Eric

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 19 – Another change in the plan

Dear Friends and Family:

As promised in our last update, everything on Everest is subject to change. It is now the evening of May 27th Nepal time and the team has decided to delay a little longer before heading uphill. The weather forecast looks even more promising for a visit to the summit one or two days later than their projected May 29th summit date, so the team has chosen to hold back at Camp 2. They will review this decision more often than daily, but for now, it appears more likely that they will move up to Camp 3 tomorrow or the next day (May 28th or 29th), then go to the high camp on either May 29th or 30th, and potentially push to the summit as early as May 30th or 31st. We might even see this schedule get stretched one day later with the team moving to Camp 3 on the 30th, to the South Col on the 31st, and summit bids on June 1st.

The good news is the jet stream definitely appears to be heading elsewhere, which is what they want. So, we’re all playing it one day at a time, any day now it is going to happen, stay tuned!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 18 – Wait one more day!

Dear Family and Friends:

We’ve just heard from the team on Everest and this is the way it looks at this point: (Remember, on Everest everything is subject to change!) As of Thursday morning, May 26 (Nepal time) the climbers have all decided to spend one more day at Camp 2 before beginning to stage up higher and push for the summit. The weather forecast shows great enough improvement likely for the 29th to make it worth the wait. So, on Friday morning, May 27th, they will all climb to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face, and then on Saturday morning, May 28th, they will push up to the high camp, Camp 4, on the South Col. There they will rest for a few hours, melt snow for water, eat, maybe try to sleep a little, and then in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, May 29th, they will attempt to reach the summit.

Since all of this is happening approximately 11 hours ahead of US Pacific time, we’ll be monitoring all this on Saturday afternoon and evening. So, if all goes according to plan in the next 24-48 hours and you want to know what is going on with summit bids while it happens, check your email on Saturday and Sunday!

The main drawback to the current scenario is that everyone else on the mountain is planning to go for it at about the same time. The weather patterns have basically forced everyone looking for a nice day to climb to wait until now, and with permits expiring soon and the season about to close, it’s “now or next year” for just about everyone on the hill. We should see an interesting few days with hundreds of climbers moving to the summit in unison.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 17 – Moving Up Now

Dear Family and Friends:

It is Tuesday, May 23rd, in the evening here in the Western US, but it is already Wednesday morning, May 24th in Nepal. All members of the IMG group either moved up to Advance Base Camp (Camp 2) on Tuesday, or are in the process of doing so right now. By nightfall Wednesday (Nepal time) the entire climbing team will be poised and ready to move quickly when the predicted weather improvement (now forecast to improve gradually starting on the 27th or 28th and looking even better on the 29th and 30th) starts to materialize. From Camp 2, the climbers are only 2 days away from the high camp, so they are right where they want to be when the green light appears. Mark Tucker and Ang Jangbu Sherpa remain at Base Camp in position to man the central communications system and coordinate the movement and location of the entire 32-person expedition team now heading uphill. Now’s the time they’ve all planned and prepared and waited for, and it looks like the next few days will become the culmination of that enormous investment on everyone’s part. Once summit bids actually start occuring, we’ll plan to send several dispatches each day through both day and night to keep you informed of their status.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 16 – A Route Map

Dear Family and Friends:

Several of you have recently asked for more details on the climbing route and number of camps between Base Camp and the summit on Everest’s South Col route in Nepal. You can check out this nice graphic on the www.GreatOutdoors.com website where our team is also directly posting brief daily sat phone calls. The nice route map is at:

www.greatoutdoors.com

Hope this helps give you a better visual image of the layout of the route and the camps.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 15 – Some New News

Dear Friends and Family:

Finally some news to report! After a week of waiting for conditions to improve, Expedition Leader Mark Tucker reports that while the forecast is still unclear for the future, most of the climbers are preparing to start their summit bids in the next few days. The first group, including Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer, Rex Pemberton, Ed Diffendal and Jim Waldron moved up to Camp 2 yesterday to get in position. The rest of the climbers are expected to move up in the next day or two. Current plans have the Sherpas going high to fix ropes above the South Sol on the 27th, with possible summit attempts by the first wave as early as the 27th or 28th. All of this continues to be dependent on the weather, which is still not exhibiting a clearly defined “window”. The jet stream continues to fluctuate in the Everest area, alternately providing for some reasonable conditions over the last few days coupled with some high winds. The optimal solution would be for the jet stream to move to the north, as it typically does when the monsoon regime begins to form, and then stay there for awhile. Let’s hope that pattern shows up soon in the forecasts.

Eric Simonson

17/5/05 Update

Hey all, today is 17th May and I’m feeling well. Sorry about the lack of updates from me personally but the laptop I’ve bought along had a hard disk failure after 2 days in basecamp – the altitude doesn’t go well with technology! Hopefully the updates from International Mountain Guides are OK and keeping you all up to date on what’s going on here – don’t forget to also check out www.greatoutdoors.com and www.everestnews.com

The highest we have been so far is up the Lhotse Face to camp 3 at just over 24,000′ / 7100m and slept which was great for the acclimatization, and since then we have been up to camp 2 and just managed to dodge the avalanche that you’ve no doubt heard about which completely wiped out our camp 1 site – luckily we had no one in that camp at the time and there were only 5 injuries, none too serious! Since the camp 2 stay we have been back at basecamp for 13 days now waiting for good summit weather which is extremely boring – we can only play cards, scrabble, watch movies and visit the next nearest village for different food and drink (even a sneaky couple of beers!!) so much and can’t wait to get back up this mountain to kicked it’s ass!

The weather at BC is fantastic with blue skies almost every day but 3 days away up the mountain it’s blowing like crazy as the Jetstream is sitting over the summit. The weather update we received today from our source in Seattle basically says that through the 25th / 26th it will be blowing hard and that towards the end of the month things should improve!! That means we won’t even be back in BC until around June 1st, and Kathmandu about the 5th!! Hopefully the daily weather updates will change for the better giving us an earlier summit window.

It’s over and out from me here at basecamp and the next email I send will hopefully be after I’ve stood at over 29,000′ on top of the world. Wayne

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 14 – A Crack in the Window?

Dear Friends and Family:

We’ve been talking to the folks at Base Camp every day and the story is generally about the same: weather forecasts show crummy conditions up high (a lot of wind) so the team has continued to mull around and bide their time hoping for forecast improvement. This ‘down time’ gets pretty frustrating after so much activity for several weeks at the beginning of the expedition, and sometimes the patience to keep waiting can be in short supply. People just want to climb! Anyway, yesterday’s forecast did show some improving trends, but sadly not enough improvement to get everyone completely exciting about suiting up and heading toward the summit.

Summit bids are fairly committing and timing is a huge part of the success formula. Once up to high camp (Camp 4) at the South Col, climbers are generally on supplemental O2 while resting and sleeping and there is only a certain amount of time that can be spent there before the body deteriorates to the point that the final leg of the journey to the summit becomes unwise or undoable. There is also a finite amount of O2 at the high camp to be consumed waiting and sleeping there. The challenge in mounting a summit bid is to time it right and wait at Base Camp until a good window of weather looks likely about 4 or 5 days out in the future. When climbers see that window, they start climbing, hoping that their trip up through Camps 2, 3 and 4 while things are less than perfect will put them in a position to enjoy a summit day in good conditions. If they move up too early and then have to delay at the South Col, they can deplete themselves and their O2 resources before they get a chance to try for the summit. If they move up too late, any opening in the weather can come and go before they make the 3-day climb to the high camp to position themselves for a summit day. Once they commit to that summit day and start their climb above the Col in the pre-dawn darkness, they really start to deplete their energy and O2. Few climbers are strong enough to mount a summit attempt from the Col but then do a turn-around due to poor weather, return to the high camp and try it again a day later. Most climbers only have enough strength to take one shot at the top from the high camp, so they try to save themselves for that one good day and time it so they get that day shortly upon arrival at Camp 4.

With only about 2 weeks left in the climbing calendar, the season is starting to get a little more compressed. If things seem likely to improve soon, we’ll probably see a LOT of climbers moving uphill at the same time. We’ll keep you posted!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 13 – Weathering the Waiting Game

Dear Friends and Family:

Mark Tucker just phoned in from Everest and there’s no other way to frame it, the Everest community is in the seemingly torturous Waiting Game mode now with respect to the weather. Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer, Walter Laserer and Renate Schachinger spent the night at Camp 3 and got fairly blistered by the wind up there, but Dave and Doug got some good practice ‘in the rough’ and did a test drive on the O2 system above Camp 3 before they all got back down to ABC last night, headed for Base Camp now. Everyone else is already at Base Camp, which is good, things are pretty windy up high.

Meanwhile, IMG hosted a grand council meeting of the clans to discuss a collective effort at putting in the route above the South Col to the summit. By Mark’s count, 30 reps from various teams assembled to discuss timing, with each team agreeing to contribute some combination of rope, sherpa manpower and/or oxygen for the sherpas to use while putting in the route. Just as they established a tentative game plan and timing, new and conflicting weather reports extended the horizon of high winds and the whole schedule was pushed back by at least one day. Right now, the community hopes to deploy sherpas into the South Col on the 13th of May in order to put them in position to move up and fix ropes above the Col on the 14th.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast that we just got here stateside is fairly lousy. We go through all of this and end up summarizing with “this all tabulates to high winds, bad conditions, hope it gets better soon ’cause most reasonable folks will NOT be climbing in this stuff and instead will hole up at Base Camp and hope this stuff goes away before the end of May.” Just so you know what one looks like, I’m copying a segment as an example:

Estimated Real Time Summit Weather on Tuesday May 10 (12z)
Winds listed here are for near Everest: 50 knot (25 m/s) at 18,000 feet (5500 meters), 66 knots (33 m/s) at 25,080 feet (7600 meters), 80 knots (40 m/s) at 33,000 feet (10,000 meters)
Forecasted Temperatures
Night summit temperatures of -24 C (-11 F) dropping to -28C (-18F) by Saturday May 14.

Yuk! Maybe they’ll have a party at Base Camp to help pass the time and since we’ve got some time, let’s spotlight another climber:

Spotlight – Ed Diffendal

Ed Diffendal was very near Camp 1 when the avalanche occurred last week and he was one of the first climbers on the scene. He was very helpful in radioing down to Base Camp to inform others of the status of things at Camp 1 and helping in the ensuing efforts to locate and assist victims. Ed’s mother Rachel and older sister Debbie have filled us in on Ed, here’s some of their tidbits about him: “First and foremost Ed is a strong Christian – his faith governs his life in all areas. He’s lived in San Francisco for the past several years, has a brother and sister. His Dad died last August leaving a terrible void in his heart. Ed graduated from Stanford in ’91 and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in ’00, where he learned to ice climb. He started rock climbing in the mid 90’s, his first big wall was Zion’s Touchstone Wall in ’96. did the Nose at Yosemite in ’97, Zion’s Moonlight Buttress in ’98, and Zodiac, El Capitan in ’99. He’s also climbed Kilimanjaro, Rainier, Denali, soloed Aconcagua’s Polish Glacier, Whitney etc. His enthusiasm and sense of humor are contagious and his two nephews and niece think he is awesome. He inspires them to overachieve in all things. We may not be as objective as some, but he is very special.”

OK, so again, not much happening any time soon with the weather holding the pack back for the most part. That Base Camp library becomes more valuable at times like this, the paperbacks all get pretty dogeared after everyone in camp has read them and the folks in Kathmandu get more and more requests to porter up a regular supply of new magazines to keep people’s minds occupied as much as possible. You can all take the rest of this week off in terms of fretting about the team on Everest, it looks like no one’s going up any time soon. We’ll let you know when change is in the wind, literally.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 12 – Avalanche Photo

Dear Friends and Family:

Many have asked about photos of this morning’s avalanche at Camp 1 on Everest. Scott Kanter and Mark Tucker were near the top of the Khumbu Icefall and Scott shot some cool photos. Back at Base Camp, Dave Hahn helped Scott download the photos and email them to us. Check it out: http://www.mountainguides.com/photos/simo/everest05-updates.html

Many have also asked “What’s next, when do summit bids happen?” The short answer is: the weather is now the master of ceremonies. Camp 4 at the Col is “in” and the climbers are ready. At that point, we’re just waiting on Mother Nature to put a reasonable weather window in front of the team. IMG subscribes to a custom weather forecast which helps us and the team at Base Camp review the weather horizon for the coming days. Mark will try to deploy the climbers for their final push to the South Col and the summit when we see a trend that moves the jet stream somewhere other than the summit of Everest and keeps it there for a while. Right now, a strong jet stream looks to be parked right on top of the region through next Tuesday with winds in the 80-100 knots category at the summit elevations. Not great for climbing. so the climbers will probably be able to enjoy some rest at Base Camp, tell stories around the dinner table, and wait for an improved forecast.

Stay tuned…..

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 11 – Avalanche Report: ALL IMG CLIMBERS OK

Dear Friends and Family:

The primary purpose of this update is to reconfirm the OK status of all IMG team members and IMG Singapore team climbers as well. The news has gone out now on most of the climbing websites recapping the extent of the damage at Camp 1 in today’s avalanche, which occurred early this morning (around 5:15am Nepal time) and our phones have already started ringing in earnest.

It is now the end of the day in Nepal, but before retiring for the night, Mark Tucker called just a short while ago with this additional report: The avalanche consisted primarily of rock and ice debris, some snow and a lot of air blast and essentially flattened the tents of the entire climbing community there (dozens and dozens of tents) with only a handful spared from damage. A quote from Mark went like this: “The Everest climbing community did not dodge a bullet today, it dodged a bomb.” In what might be seen as a timing miracle, very few climbers on any teams were actually sleeping at Camp 1 last night so most of the tents were unoccupied when the avalanche occurred and there are no known deaths. There were several injuries sustained by climbers on other teams, although most were able to descend to Base Camp through the Icefall under their own steam. One climber with a back injury required some assistance.

A few of the IMG team members were climbing near Camp 1 when the avalanche occurred. Ed Diffendal was one of the first climbers on the scene and worked with others to assist with inspections and ascertain the condition of the camp and the climbers sleeping there. Scott Kanter, who recently joined our expedition with plans to take a tour through the Icefall to Advance Base Camp, had taken a day trip part way up the Icefall with Mark Tucker to hone his ladder-crossing technique before taking the full climb through the Icefall tomorrow. He captured a few photos of the avalanche as it occurred, and we may be able to share some of those later at some point.

The IMG sherpa team has been working hard for the last 3 days and descended to Advance Base Camp today after several consecutive carries into Camp 4 at over 26,000ft. on the South Col. They all need a break and will descend to Base Camp tomorrow, bringing some of the tents and provisions from Camp 2 down to Camp 1 so that site can be restored for future use. Scott Kanter plans to head up to Camp 1 tomorrow with Kami Sherpa, they may arrive in time to help with the Camp 1 reconstruction project. Everyone else is pretty much sticking to their game plan, we’ll report back to you again in the next day or two.

That’s it for now………

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 10 – Camp 1 avalanche, IMG team OK

Dear Friends and Family:

We just received a call from Mark Tucker at Everest Base Camp with some disturbing news of a huge avalanche that has reportedly hit Camp 1 in the Western Cwm. We do not yet know the extent of injuries or damage at that camp, we do know everyone on the IMG roster is OK, none were at Camp 1 when this avalanche occurred. We will let you know more when Mark gets a more complete understanding of the situation, but again, all IMG team members are reportedly OK, status of climbers on other teams is unknown, we hope for the best for all teams on the mountain at times like this.

Time for another update anyway, and real soon here, the updates will start coming in more frequently as summit bids become a reality. In the meantime, here is a quick summary of everyone’s status:

Mike Hamill, Wayne Morris, Jose Rionda, Jeff Strite, Jim Waldron, and Ed Diffendal plan to spend the night at Camp 2, with Rex Pemberton planning a trip from Camp 2 up to the Yellow Band to extend his acclimatization before returning to Camp 2 to overnight with the others. Walter Laserer and Renate Schachinger were planning to overnight at Camp 1, but their plans for the day may change. Dave Hahn, Doug Brockmeyer and Peter Ford will spend the day resting at Base Camp.

The IMG sherpas made their 3rd carry into the high camp on the South Col. This reflects the final upward movement of the vast majority of the oxygen supplies and gear needed to support summit bids. What that means is simply this: when the climbers are ready and the weather looks OK, the logistics are in place now to support their summit bids. With that in mind, we can look forward to some movement into high camp and on to the summit soon, and we’ll start sending out these dispatches as often as we can to keep you all in the loop.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 9 – Secret Agents Embedded in the Roster

Dear Friends and Family:

Time for an update on the status of our teams on Everest. The real news in the past week was IMG’s ability to get out in front of the curve, fix ropes up the route to Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face, and establish our tent positions there. This may not sound too exciting, but it was a strong strategic move given the scarcity of decent campsites on the Lhotse face. Plus, reports from the mountain indicate the route conditions this year are fairly icy compared to normal, which makes the whole formula on the Lhotse face even trickier. Good idea of Tucker’s to take care of business early and get the route and that camp in place.

This in turn opened the door for various team members to push up to Camp 3 to build their acclimatization and try to sleep one night at that altitude. The entire team has been rotating up and down, with Tucker busy keeping track of “who’s on first, who’s on second, who’s on third.” Tucker admits he rests a lot easier when everyone is accounted for in the relative luxury and safety of Base Camp. So, in short, the team members are now climbing in earnest, the challenge gets greater as they push ever higher, and from here on out, it will be “all business” as they get ready to think about summit bids in the coming weeks.

As promised, time to reveal the true identity of the secret agents embedded in the IMG team ranks this year. 3 members of our climbing team are professional guides working directly with some of the other climbers on the roster. We thought it would be fun to share a little bit about each of these pro climbers forming a key component of our overall group:

Spotlight: Dave Hahn

Dave Hahn has been a key figure in the annals of IMG Everest history, what else can we say? Dave Hahn began guiding big mountains in 1986, initially on Rainier and McKinley. As of Spring 2005, he’d completed 223 ascents of Rainier and 21 attempts at Denali (with 15 summits.) Experience on these two challenging mountains led Dave to begin climbing the world’s 8000 meter peaks — leading, guiding and documenting IMG expeditions in the Himalaya. Dave has guided Cho Oyu’s summit twice and has been to the top of Everest five times. He guided Gary Johnson (former governor of Dave’s home state, New Mexico) to Everest’s top in 2003 and played a prominent role in three “search” expeditions attempting to unravel the 1920’s mysteries of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine on Everest. Dave has also guided for IMG in Antarctica, where he has been to the summit of Vinson 23 times (far and away the record for ascents for Antarctica’s highest point.) He has also made a specialty of guiding climbing trips by ship to Antarctic shorelines like the first successful guided crossing of the “Shackleton Traverse” on the Island of South Georgia led by Dave. His home is in Taos, New Mexico where he still ski patrols and maintains his status as an avalanche professional and EMT. In 2001 Dave was awarded the Denali Pro Mountaineer of the Year by the National Park Service and the David A. Sowles award by the American Alpine Club, both recognizing Dave’s heroic actions in mountain rescues. This year on the mountain, Dave is working directly with Doug Brockmeyer.

Spotlight: Walter Laserer

Walter Laserer, age 43, has been a UIAGM guide for 20 years. Walter lives in Graz, Austria, and is married with 2 daughters. His climbing resume reads like a world mountain atlas, with some interesting seasonal and adventure flair thrown in from time to time as well: Eiger northface winter, Eiger westface ski descent, El Capitan Nose, westface Husacaran and Jirishanca first flight with paraglider, Cerro Torre, McKinley winter (and many times in summer, of course), Vinson, Carstenz Pyramid, Aconcagua, Elbrus ski descent, and so the list goes on. Walter’s favorite mountain area is Chamonix / Mt. Blanc, and his hobbies include swimming, mountain biking, skiing, and reading. Walter met IMG’s Eric Simonson on Vinson a few years ago and has stayed in touch with IMG since then. Walter is working directly with Renate Schachinger this year on the mountain.

Spotlight: Mike Hamill

Rounding out the secret agent roster, Mike Hamill began guiding over seven years ago and has traveled and climbed on five continents. When not guiding on Rainier (where he has well over 40 summits) he can be found leading expeditions in Alaska, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, the Himalaya (including IMG expeditions to Cho Oyu) and areas beyond. Many clients have remarked that Mike’s love for the mountains is contagious. He is a former Division 1 collegiate ski racer and when not guiding, Mike is usually climbing, ski mountaineering, biking, and fly fishing his way around the globe. This year Mike arrived on Everest to work directly with climbers Wayne Morris, Jeff Strite and Jose Rionda, with an assist by Panuru Sherpa. Panuru has been on many IMG expeditions, several times as sirdar, and has summited Everest four times, Cho Oyu five times and Shishapangma one time. He has also been on expeditions to Manaslu, Makalu & Lhotse. Panuru is married and owns a lodge in Phortse.

OK, expedition leader Mark Tucker is submitting quick daily dispatches to GreatOutdoors.com in case you want to check there for the up-to-the-minute news, and we’ll continue these updates and send info more frequently when it looks like things really are going to start heating up on the Everest scene.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 8 – Ups and Downs

Dear Friends and Family:

It’s time for another update from Everest. In the past few days, the climbers have all done a great job of working together and laying the foundation for the hard part yet to come. Mark Tucker and Mike Dunne spent a few nice days touring up through the Icefall to check out Camp 1 and Camp 2 before returning to Base Camp. In doing so, Mike accomplished what he set out to do and will now head down the valley and back to his home in southern CA. Mark enjoyed his climbing with Mike and wished him well, sounds like they spent a lot of time day dreaming about catching good waves in the sun. It always helps to “think warm” even when you aren’t!

Meanwhile, two of the summit climbers, Walter Laserer and Renate Schachinger, have been on a slightly different schedule. They arrived in Kathmandu a few days later than the rest of the summit team and have been taking things more slowly since then. They actually trekked in to Base Camp on their own and then decided to take a few days and go down to climb Lobuje Peak. They have now returned to Base Camp and will begin their cycles up the Icefall to sleep in Camps 1 and 2.

The remaining summit team members have all made a complete cycle up through the Icefall and slept at either Camp 1 or at both Camps 1 and 2. The sherpa team has been busy getting advance base camp (ABC) buffed out to become the second nerve center of the expedition during the later stages of the climb, complete with full-time cook staff and plenty of supplies for climbers staging up and down the hill, and also beginning the endless task of ferrying the O2 cylinders up from Base Camp. Base Camp itself is “almost there” now in terms of build-up for the season, although an emergency helicopter landing (big MI-17 chopper stretching absolutely to the limits of doability trying to land and take off in the thin air at BC, but fortunately the weather was as perfect as it gets and the evac was successful) yesterday demonstrated the necessity to expand the heli-pad already built by whole community using the rocks and gravel found on the Khumbu Glacier’s moraine.

Conditions higher up the mountain are less than perfect right now. The Lhotse Face hosts the route from Camp 2 to Camp 3 and on to the South Col and high camp, and as of the most recent reports, conditions there are much more icy than normal, with less snowpack available for use in creating tent platforms, etc. Camp 3 on the Lhotse Face is always tight, even in the best of conditions, so it sounds like this year there may be a premium associated with decent ledges on which to perch sleeping tents.

In my next dispatch, I will spotlight some of the professional guides who are embedded in our summit team roster – with guys like Dave Hahn, Mike Hamill and Walter Laserer working within our team, we’ve got a lot of great experience and advice at the disposal of our climbers. We’ll tell you more about them next time!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 7 – The Climb is On!

Dear Friends and Family

Just a quick update for now. Mark Tucker has arrived safely back at Base Camp with Michael Dunne, after completing their adventure on Island Peak and saying goodbye to Mark Wippich, Kristy Kleedehn, and Carole Shiffman, who headed downhill to make their way back to Kathmandu. Mark praised the entire Island Peak team on their stellar performance in some tough climbing conditions in the Himalaya!

Meanwhile, the climb is on for the summit team. Guide Mike Hamill has made a safe trip up to Camp 1 with Jose Rionda, Jeff Strite, Wayne Morris, Rex Pemberton, Ed Diffendal, Panuru Sherpa and Dasona Sherpa. They completed their first full climb up through the Icefall, slept at Camp 1, then made a day trip up to ABC at Camp 2 before returning to Camp 1 for another night’s sleep, then back down to Base Camp to rest. The rest of the team is on a rotation to do the same thing one day later. This gradual process of moving up, sleeping for a night or two, then returning to Base Camp, will be repeated several more times by the entire summit team, each time moving up a little higher before returning to Base Camp. The repeated cycles, each time reaching a higher camp, will build their acclimatization and ready them for the eventual summit bid itself. This process requires a lot of work and patience but results in the ability to ultimately climb to the high camp, Camp 4 at the South Col, and then make a summit bid when the timing is right, the climbers feel good (relatively speaking) and the weather gods signal a green light.

Meanwhile, the climbing sherpas are making round trips each day from Base Camp to ABC and back, each time ferrying loads of gear and O2 cylinders that will be finally carried to the high camps and beyond to support the climbers up high. That’s the way it works on Everest. We’ll update you as the expedition builds its way up the mountain!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 6 – Jet Stream Came to Town

Dear Friends and Family:

Time for another update from Mt. Everest! There’s been a lot of progress since the sunny days and happy Puja, but the current state of the union, in two words or less, is: Jet Stream. We’ll come to that again, but here’s what’s been happening:

Trekkers Michelle Mongey and Debbie Brockmeyer headed down the valley to Pheriche, then on to Namche and Lukla, and are now back in Kathmandu, heading home. They were great members of the early team and will be missed by the expedition climbers!

Meanwhile, IMG leader Mark Tucker headed downhill to Lobuche with the Island Peak team, including Kristy Kleedehn, Carole Shiffman, Michael Dunne, Mark Wippich. Jonathan Calvert hiked downhill with them, although his plans called for a departure from the IMG team the next day when they headed up to Island Peak Base Camp and he intended to start a side trip into the Gokyo valley on his own. Mark and the group headed to Island Peak base camp (via Chukkung) to be greeted by some pretty foul weather (snow, high winds, COLD temperatures.) They hunkered down in the tents at Island Peak base camp and then pushed up to the high camp the next day, with the weather conditions still fairly unpleasant but winds calming a bit during the night and the skies clearing, giving them a tentative green light to go for a 4am start toward the summit. By the time they reached the summit ridge at well over 20,000ft. they were getting knocked around pretty hard in the wind and Mark summarized it this way: “The easy thing would have been to keep going but this sport is a bit foolish already and it seemed like we were moving toward being stupid.” So, with wisdom getting the best of them, they returned to Island Peak base camp and all were very satisfied with their climb and the decision to skip the summit in favor of a better day sometime in the future.

Now, little did they know that the Jet Stream has decided to park itself right on top of the Everest region and that winds are in excess of 75 knots at the 23,000ft. level, in excess of 100 knots at the 28,000ft. level, and the only smart thing for anyone to do right now is hunker down in tents and wait it out, with winds literally ready blow you off your feet (off the whole ridge, actually) and wind chill factors well into the -30F to -85F range, depending on how high you are on the hill. Unfortunately, the forecasts don’t show anything brewing up on the horizon that might serve to knock the Jet Stream off its current pedestal, so the waiting game begins. This is when the mental preparedness becomes critical; part of the success equation is to be able to stay psyched up and focused when weather conditions require you to spend multiple days holed up in small tents.

OK, so while Tucker and the Island Peak team were personally verifying the weather forecasts the hard way, the summit team and climbing sherpas at base camp were busy, too. Some community development was in order, and a large team of sherpas representing several expeditions gathered to construct a huge heli platform in the rocks in case an emergency airlift from Base Camp becomes necessary. Hard enough just to try to land and take off at that altitude, even worse if there’s no place decent to set down a chopper. The Icefall Doctors (an ace team of sherpas hired to put in the route through the Icefall and then maintain it for the entire climbing community for the duration of the season) finally got the route in place all the way up into the Western Cwm. This opened the door for Ang Jangbu to deploy sherpas into the Camp 1 area to begin getting that site ready for use, and then send Phinjo, Mingma Tenzing and Karma Rita on up to nail down a good location for Camp 2. This will become the summit team’s Advance Base Camp (we just call it ABC) for the rest of the season.

While the upper camps were being established, the summit team members took a morning spin into the Icefall last Friday to get a first hand glimpse of the route they’ll follow several more times in the coming weeks. (A typical Everest summiter will usually take at least 4 or 5 round trips through the Icefall during a season.) On this first foray, some of them made it over half way up, some up to the “Popcorn Field” (about one third of the way up, it looks like a bowl of popcorn from a distance and is full of smaller blocks of ice that have broken off), and some made it over a few ladders and decided to wait for a calmer day. All had a good ‘Intro to Icefall’ session.

With another day or two or rest, some of the climbers had planned on heading up to sleep at Camp 1 today. But with the winds blowing as they are, everyone has now reconsidered their options and decided to stay in the relatively balmy confines of Base Camp. There’s plenty of calendar left in this season, better to wait for the better day they know will come.

Spotlight: Michelle Mongey – Everest Base Camp Trekker

Michelle’s sister Denice sends us this great introduction to Michelle: “Michelle lives in Morris Plains and has taught special education for 20 years at West Morris Central High School in NJ. Our Irish-born parents instilled in her a love for travel at a very early age. Michelle loves adventures, and has had plenty of them – following Lewis and Clark’s expedition route, roughing it in the Amazon, running with the bulls in Spain, and organizing trips to Ireland for up to 30 people each year. She has travelled to all the continents except Antarctica and I am confident she will be there one day too. If Michelle has a day off you can be confident she is not sitting at home. Michelle has such a contagious energy; she is known for enticing/motivating others to join her. She’s an aunt (seven times over,) a sister, a friend and an inspiration to many!”

OK, that’s it for now, we’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out of the tents again.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Nepal Update 5 – Base Camp Puja!

Dear Friends and Family:

OK, so as promised, a little more detail about the life and times of IMG’s 2005 Everest Nepal expedition team. They emerged this morning from their personal sleeping tents and were treated to a sunny first morning at Base Camp. Team member and guide Dave Hahn (5-time Everest summiter) is remembering to hydrate! Now, which poor yak carried the soft drinks uphill is another question …..

The order of the day is …. Puja! This solemn ceremony is a memorable event and a pre-noon cocktail party, all rolled into one. It is a must-do part of any Everest expedition, and because we think it so special, we encourage our entire climbing and trekking team to witness it and participate in it, and we schedule our itineraries so everyone can. The sherpas consider it an extremely bad omen to climb above Base Camp without seeking the blessings of the mountain and making their offerings, we consider it bad form to not support them in this, and nowadays, Puja is just what you do at Base Camp when you are mounting an Everest expedition.

The first step is getting one of the monks from the region to come uphill to conduct the ceremony, and also to construct the stone altar or platform where the ceremony is held. This ends up looking something like a Western outdoor BBQ-pit-oven with a huge pole sticking out the top. The cooking space is filled with juniper to be burned during the ceremony (and actually each time thereafter when the climbers leave BC to head up the hill; the juniper is always lit and the climbers circle the Puja altar, reinforcing the hope for a good outcome on the upper mountain. The juniper smoke is believed to purify the environs and carry upward a gesture of goodwill toward all.

After construction, the entire stone structure is adorned with various foods and items to be blessed in some way during the ceremony, including the Puja cake (baked in somewhat of a cylindrical shape and decorated with icing) and the ice axes and other climbing tools to be used by the sherpas and climbers, as well as the beverages and bowl of tsampa (barley flour) to become part of the festive occasion. This becomes the focal point of the prayer flags that will dominate the Base Camp scenery and are erected by each team over their camp area during their Pujas. With the juniper lit, the prayer flags in place, the cake and tsampa and beverages carefully laid around the stones, and the monks and team members in place, a series of Tibetan chants and invocations are read by the monk and typically repeated by many of the sherpas, for whom this is a very serious spiritual occasion. After the ceremonial chanting is complete, the tsamp bowl is passed from person to person, with each taking a small handful.

In the classic Tibetan manner, each person throws a pinch of tsampa into the air simultaneously, symbolizing an expression of good wishes for their own and others’ happiness and last but not least, suggests all receive any and all divine help available in the overcoming of all obstacles, which becomes very important in the coming months! Rice that has been blessed may also be thrown. Now the mounds of food and drinks blessed during the ritual are quickly distributed and two things generally occur. First, the remaining unthrown tsampa is affectionately sprinkled or rubbed into the faces and hair of most participants, casting a ghost-like quality to their appearance even though the acts are purely friendly and playful in nature. Then, the beer starts getting consumed, and given the team’s recent arrival at this altitude and the pre-lunch hour of the event, one fourth of a can of PBR is usually all it takes to feel fairly merry!

Usually a mid-day nap is in order right after this. Good news is, a few important chores were accomplised before the festivities took place. Ang Jangbu inspected all the O2 cylinders after their arrival at BC. One or two had lost some pressure, so those will be set aside for use as ‘partial bottles’ when needed for medical purposes at Base Camp, etc. The rest of them are ‘good to go.’ The stronger sat phone and solar panels are up now, so we’re on a better comms platform and BC is powered with a daily dose of energy from Mother Nature that is stored in deep cell batteries (like car batteries) from which electricity flows for strings of lights, boom box music in the dining hall (hide all that avalanche and rock/icefall noise outside!) and for recharging walkie-talkie and camera batteries.

With the Puja pole in place, the prayer flags and juniper smoke in the air, everyone taking a little nap to promote their health, and the O2 inventory in great shape, it will soon be time to start thinking about climbing this mountain. Some of the team will head downhill in the next day or two to take on Island Peak, some will head downhill to return home, and some will look uphill and begin embracing their next obstacle, the Khumbu Icefall. We’ll keep you updated!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Update 4 – First Sunrise at Base Camp!

Dear Friends and Family:

We’re happy to announce that the team is enjoying their first Base Camp sunrise! After a quick hike in marginal conditions up to the top of Kala Pattar for four of the team members, the group trekked the last stretch of trail and arrived at Base Camp ready to hit the dining hall (tent) and enjoy warm drinks, thanks to the advance planning of Pemba, our trusty expedition head cook and ace in IMG’s Khumbu Kitchen. After resting, meeting the sherpa team and a great dinner together, everyone retired early to their sleeping tents to unpack and get sorted and layered up for the night. When the team finally settled into their bags, the not-so-distant but all too constant creaks and crashes of rock and icefall from the surrounding flanks of Everest, Pumori and Nuptse became the bedtime lullaby. Eventually everyone got some much-needed shuteye.

Temperatures continued to be pretty chilly and the team was dusted with snow during their journey to Base Camp, but the morning dawned clear and sunny for them and as Mark put it, one by one “heads poked out of the tents like groundhogs” to marvel at the early light at Base Camp. Mark’s call was brief, probably the smell of Pemba’s special Base Camp breakfast was a call to action! He promised to call in later with a longer description of the team’s status and plans for the next few days, including tomorrow’s Puja ceremony, which will bring the team together in spirit and clear the way for the lead climbers to begin making their way up from Base Camp through the Icefall to begin establishing the upper camps. No one climbs until the Puja happens, though, so that’s on the immediate agenda. We’ll include a longer dispatch tomorrow with a complete description of the festivities as they occur.

Erin Simonson

4/4/05 Update

Just a quick note before the laptop battery dies….

Arrived at Gorak Shep at lunchtime today where we are spending only 1 night before reaching Basecamp tomorrow – this will also be a short day and we can then unpack everything without having to bother about having to pack it away again for another 8 weeks! We planned on hiking up to Kala Patar today for the spectacular Everest views but the clouds crept in ruining those plans!

I really can’t wait to reach Basecamp and meet the other teams on the mountain as there are some famous mountaineers from numerous countries this year. We have a lot of plans and events lined up for BC if we don’t feel too bad – should be fun!!

Just trying to complete my journal this afternoon as I’m about a week behind. Also want to get the digital pictures from the camera and reduce them with the plan of emailling a couple with these updates. May not be possible due to the cost of the Sat phone and it’s speed but we’ll see so watch this space….

Tomorrow we’ll be at 17’600 and then the action begins – hope you keep watching the updates you should be recieving from International Mountain Guides and look on www.greatoutdoors.com for information.

Wayne, and the Green Gibbon team over and out from Gorak Shep in the Nepalese Himalaya

2/4/05 Update

Well, arrived here we are at Lobuche yesterday at an altitude of 16’200′, with only another 13’000 to go! Feeling really good right now with no headache although we can really tell how high we are with the lack of oxygen. Last night was the coldest night with everyone huddled in the mess tent with down parkas on, and even when getting into a -40 sleeping bag it was a bit fresh!

Three days ago I thought everything was going wrong as I started to feel really crappy, then one night had a fever with shivers and sweating like crazy, followed by the next night of trying to sweat this thing out of my system – lack of appetite was obvious and the color of my face gave the way I felt away to everyone. You really have to beware when getting sick at altitude as you tend not to get over illness very easily and the higher you go the more difficult it becomes – I was getting slightly concerned! On the second day of feeling like this, which was luckily a rest day I had slept for many hours so in the afternoon decided to join our guide, Jose & Jeff on a hike up to Tengboche monastery which made me feel much better, followed by fruit cake and coffee at the bakery. You wouldn’t believe they build bakeries up at these altitudes and they’re damn good! I couldn’t believe that that night I felt much better and over the next day or so got back up to 100% – everybody at altitude has some sort of problem so hopefully that is mine out of the way and I’ll be good to go for the summit of the world in a couple of months time.

During the past few days we have made it up to the Everest View hotel which during the morning does have the most amazing views of Everest, Ama Dablam and many more surrounding giants – built and owned by Japanese this place is relative luxury and at $175 a night you should hope so! After leaving Namche Bazar we headed off to Tengboche, which is renowned in the Khumbu region for it’s amazing monastery, and it doesn’t dis-please – we visited the monastery during a quiet time as a lot of the monks were elsewhere, although we did get to see the place open and a young monk reading prayer scripts and chanting away. It was spellbinding. Our first night in Tengboche we had about 6 people have their shoes stolen from under the canopy of their tent which was a bit disappointing – the thieves were very quiet as nobody heard or saw anything. It was believed that they were from outside of the region and the local Sherpa’s would not want to hurt their economy by stealing from the hand that feeds them.

This trek in to Everest BC is full of Sherpa’s, porters, yaks, mules, etc… ferrying everything to and from the villages en route and obviously to Everest BC. Today we passed about 50 yaks coming down the valley which had just dropped off our supplies and high altitude equipment – it was awesome to see them come trotting past. I was pretty stupid and stood in the middle of them snapping away with the digital camera! We have half of our gear with us which we have needed throughout the trek and the other half which was more cold weather and climbing gear left Kathmandu and was flown into Syangboche airport (located above Namche) and ferried to BC by yak.

Today we have a rest day before leaving for Gorak Shep, where we spend one night before the final hike to BC on 4/4. Maybe we’ll go for a further acclimitazion hike tomorrow then after leaving Gorak Shep we’ll probably head off to Kala Patar which has the best views of Everest in the entire region. We will then spend 4 to 5 days in BC before heading off up through the Icefall towards camp 1. Doing nothing is a great feeling, just hydrating, listening to music under a blue sky, and acclimatizing ready for the tough days ahead.

The Sherpa’s and the entire staff we have with us in support are fantastic, always smiling and happy. They totally lack Western items and often you see them in flip flops carrying huge loads. One day Jeff picked up what a tiny young kid had been carrying, 3 bags of hay for animal feed – when he put the band around his forehead and tried standing with the load on his back his head wobbled from side to side and he about fell off the trail. The guys are kickass strong! Some of them look about 12 years old and other looks 60+, always smiling and laughing!

I think that’s all I have for now and will send another update when we arrive at BC.

Take care everyone, bye for now.

Over and out from Wayne and the Green Gibbon crew!

IMG Everest 2005 Update 3 – Rest day in Lobuche

Dear Friends and Family:

Mark Tucker has called in a few times in the last few days. The satellite phone connections have been fairly marginal, but we’ve gleaned that the group has generally progressed quite well. Leaving their campsite in Deboche (near Thyangboche village), the team headed uphill to Dingboche, where they spent two nights and enjoyed a sidetrip to the HRA clinic in Pheriche. Their arrival in Dingboche also brought them up out of the forests and into the high-alpine terrain of the upper Khumbu. They were greeted by falling snow and were reminded that while spring has come to Nepal, their current elevation puts them back in ‘winter mode’ most of the time. A Singapore University and Mountaineers team (on logistics support by none other than IMG!) had done a warm-up on Island Peak and said “hello” as they passed the IMG team near Dingboche while making their way up to Base Camp. The two teams will be operating separately on Everest this year but will be Base Camp neighbors.

The altitude is taking its inevitable toll. A few folks have developed the “Khumbu Cough,” a fairly normal annoyance. One of the team members decided to stay in the relatively luxurious air of Pheriche for an extra day and opted not to trek with the rest of the group as it moved up to Lobuche at nearly 16,000ft. He joined the team in Lobuche the next day feeling much better. The ascent to Lobuche is a “character builder” and the route includes a section of trail with stone tributes to many climbers who have gone to Everest but did not return home. For those on the team contemplating a summit bid, it is an emotionally charged experience to take a sobering walk through these memorials. News of the death of two climbers on nearby Pumori has also dampened the mood in camp, and all send their condolences and sympathy to the families and friends of those lost climbers.

Temperatures in Lobuche have reportedly been hovering around 15 degrees at night, so the evening air is quite nippy and the team has started sleeping with their water bottles tucked snugly inside their sleeping bags so they have something other than solid ice to drink in the early morning hours. During the day, the open, rocky terrain (on the terminal moraine of the Khumbu Glacier) usually warms up nicely with the morning sun and the down jackets are retired until just before sunset, when they are quickly donned again. Once the sun sets below the horizon, the air temp plummets quickly and the team members are doing a great job of “planning ahead” and getting layered up before their body loses the precious heat gathered in the daytime sun. In that setting, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay warm and very difficult to play ‘catch up’ if you get too cold before layering on the fleece and down.

While the team has been working its way uphill, back at home Great Escapes and IMG were scrambling to deal with another blockade of the roads in Kathmandu. All ground transportation in the country has been suspended for 10 days starting April 2nd, so we had to get the trek support squad for our Tibet trekking group loaded up and out of Kathmandu and to the Tibetan border before the blockade took effect. None of this will impact our teams up in the Khumbu as these transportation strikes and blockades have been called with fair regularity in the past with no impact in the mountains, but any climbing teams still in Kathmandu planning to head to the north side of Everest in Tibet via the roads are in a bit of a bind if they didn’t get out of town by April 2nd. It appears now that the roads will all be blockaded until April 11th, which could be a serious loss of critical days for a climbing team in its early launch stages. We hope other teams don’t get set too far back from this.

Despite the problems at hand, many of them very typical of an Everest season, Mark’s last call from Lobuche was quite upbeat. The team looked forward to rising in the morning and taking a hike to the top of Kala Pattar at over 18,000ft. Another “character builder,” the summit of this non-technical peak affords some spectacular views of Mt. Everest and Pumori and the photos from the top usually are enough reward for the effort. The team will descend and spend another night before making the final push up to Base Camp proper the next day. Mark was able to make radio contact with Base Camp and learned that the IMG yaks and loads had arrived in good time and the sherpa teams there were rapidly erecting the miniature city the teams will live in during the coming months.

So Base Camp is just a few days above and beyond them now, the team is doing great. When they get to Base Camp, they will fire up the stronger sat phone and hopefully we’ll get some photos from them. In closing, I’d like to remind everyone that these updates are posted on the International Mountain Guides website at www.MountainGuides.com and Mark Tucker is also calling in brief updates to the www.GreatOutdoors.com website. Between and among all this, we hope to keep you and others connected to the team’s progress.

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Update 2 – On to Thyangboche

Dear Friends and Family:

Expedition leader Mark Tucker called via satellite phone to let us know everyone is doing just fine. They’ve managed to get everything fairly dry (after the drenching rain of the hike to Phakding on the first day) and spirits are good. Our team’s camping place tonight will be near the village of Thyangboche. The vistas from this meadow setting include Ama Dablam and many of the other surrounding Himalayan peaks, making this a spectacular overnight location. During the day, visitors can elect to visit the classic local gompa (monastery) and observe the resident monks in traditional Buddhist ceremonies, or simply stroll within the native rhododendron forests usually in bloom by this time each year. The scenery from Thyangboche virtually guarantees that everyone will have their cameras at the ready. Many Himalayan veterans informally nominate Thyanboche as one of the “most beautiful village settings in the Khumbu.”

The trail between Namche and Thyangboche frequently hosts landmarks of Buddhist religion and Sherpa culture. Mani stones bear brightly painted, intricate inscriptions; prayer wheels invite passersby to spin them; stupas line the route, all reminding the Western visitors that Nepal’s Sherpa heritage is deeply rooted in the Buddhism of their Tibetan ancestors, with many rituals still practiced with devotion in everyday life in the Khumbu region. The team members will be invited to participate in a few of these ceremonies, including the Puja to be held at Base Camp (a reverent-turning-into-jubilant event we’ll showcase later!)

Spotlight: Mark Tucker, Expedition Leader

Mark Tucker lives in Seattle, WA, although if you’ve ever seen the inside of his van, you’d think that was his home. He carries a full inventory of clothes and sporting equipment with him at all times and must live by the “Be Prepared” Scouting motto. Mark has been guiding since 1985, with Mt. Rainier as his starting point. Since then, he has climbed and guided classic peaks on all seven continents, with the summit of Mt. Everest as his high point. This year’s expedition will be Mark’s sixth to Everest. Mark does not plan to make a summit bid this year but will instead oversee and coordinate the many moving pieces. He’ll probably take a few trips up through the Icefall to check out the scene at Advance Base Camp just for old time’s sake. When not in the hills, Mark leads a fun-filled Other Life. Passions by land include mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, motorcycle riding, and gardening (he’s still working on the golf game.) By water, he enjoys surfing, kayaking, wind surfing, scuba diving, water skiing, and fishing. Suffice it to say he knows the beaches of southern California and the north shore of Maui almost as well as the trail to Everest Base Camp …..

Q&A from Home: “What does ‘Sherpa’ mean? Is it an occupation or a title or a family or what?”

The term ‘Sherpa’ refers to an enire ethnic group of people descended from clans that fled eastern Tibet in the 1600’s due to famine or feudal wars, ultimately settling in the mountainous regions of Nepal. Today most Sherpas live in Nepal, with some also residing in India, Bhutan and Tibet. Experts estimate that the total Sherpa population only numbers about 35,000 worldwide. In recent years, with the popularization of mountaineering in broadcast and print media, the word has become associated with the members of this ethnicity that form the backbone of climbing strength for most Everest and other Himalayan climbing expeditions.

Spotlight: Ang Jangbu Sherpa, Assistant Expedition Leader

Jangbu is a partner and director of Great Escapes Trekking, a premier trekking and climbing agency and trusted, long-time IMG agent in Nepal. Jangbu will assist Mark in managing the overall conduct of the expedition and his fluency in English, Nepali, and the sherpa dialect help him interface easily with the various teams and characters on the mountain each year. Jangbu grew up in the village of Phortse where he attended the Hillary school until the age of 18. In 1981 he moved to Pokhara and lived there for seven years and trained under the legendary Colonel Jimmy Roberts, founder of Nepal’s first trekking company and the entire trekking industry in the Nepal Himalaya. Jangbu then moved to Kathmandu and started Great Escapes with his two other partners in the spring of 1993. Jangbu is married and has two children. He has been on dozens of expeditions, summitting Everest on the 1990 American Everest Expedition. Jangbu has climbed Europe’s Mt. Blanc and most of the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado, and has also served as assistant instructor for Colorado Outward Bound.

OK, that’s about it for now. We’ll keep you all posted as the progress continues!

Erin Simonson

IMG Everest 2005 Update 1 – Expedition Launched!

Dear Friends and Family:

Thanks for subscribing to updates from International Mountain Guides. We are happy to commence our coverage of IMG’s 2005 Everest Nepal expedition. We’ve got a great team on the mountain again this year. Some are going to Base Camp, some are layering on a climb of nearby Island Peak and others are even taking a foray up through the amazing Khumbu Icefall into the Western Cwm. And then, of course, the Summit Team has its sights set on the top of the world’s highest mountain. All are joined by the IMG staff and incredible support team of Sherpa climbers and base camp personnel. We’ll introduce everyone briefly now, and plan to include some additional spotlights on various team members as the season progresses. Hopefully, but the end of the expedition, you will come to know the team in some small measure the way they will all certainly get to know each other well in the close confines of expedition trekking and climbing. We hope everyone enjoys the journey together, whether from home or on the flanks of Everest herself!

To make the coming weeks even more interactive, feel free to submit questions that we can answer in the “Q&A From Home” section. We will only be able to answer a few of them in each dispatch, but it is fun and interesting to share your thoughts and comments with others witnessing this event from their homes. You may read jargon that makes no sense to you, point it out whenever you’d like clarification. If you would like to “spice up” the personal Spotlights on the team members you know, feel free to send in anecdotal notes or information about them to help us fill out their profiles. Also feel free to invite others to subscribe to our update service; they can submit an email request to be added to the distribution list.

Introductions:
Expedition Leadership: Expedition Director – Eric Simonson; Expedition Leader – Mark Tucker; Asst Expedition Leader – Ang Jangbu Sherpa; Climbing Sirdar – Ang Passang Sherpa

Summit Team: Ed Diffendal, Larry Legault, Doug Brockmeyer, Dave Hahn, Renate Schachinger, Walter Laserer, Mike Hamill, Wayne Morris, Jeff Strite, Jose Rionda, Peter Ford, Nacho Piedra, Jim Waldron, Rex Pemberton

Khumbu Icefall, Island Peak and Base Camp Trek Team: Deirdre Galbraith, Debra Brockmeyer, Michelle Mongey, Jonathan Calvert, Caroline Pemberton, Kristy Kleedehn, Carole Shiffman, Michael Dunne, Mark Wippich

Climbing Sherpa Team: Ang Passang, Danuru, Tashi Tshering, Phinjo, Lhakpa Nuru, Tenzing Phinjo, Mingma Tenzing, Passang Rinjing, Ramji, Ang Namgya, Kami Passang, Chebi Bhote, Nima Karma, Da Zhangbu, Samduk Dorje, Dawa Nuru, Panuru, Phunuru, Mingma Ongel, Da Sona

Base Camp / ABC Staff: Mingmar, Lhakpa Bhote, Pemba Tshering, Dan Sher Tamang, Shyam Prasad Pun, Thakur, Ramechap, Dhan Kumar, Phinjo Dorje, Tan Kumar, Tenzing Sherpa, Dolakha

Update 1:
The team formally convened in Kathmandu on March 22nd, with a big group dinner to set the stage for the final preparations. Before that, while the team members were frantically making final arrangements at home, IMG was shipping literally tons of gear to Kathmandu via air cargo. The most complex shipping arrangements involve transportation of the supplemental oxygen cylinders to be used by the summit climbers up high. We bring all empty cylinders back to the US each year for complete inspection, add new cylinders to the inventory, and then have all of them pressurized to 3000 psi using the highest quality control standards available to us in the US before returning them to Kathmandu. When pressurized, the cylinders represent “dangerous goods” in the eyes of the air cargo industry, and thus require special handling at every step of the way. IMG maintains “Known Shipper” status within the air cargo industry in order to be able to transport the pressurized bottles on commercial and cargo transport aircraft. All of this adds up to a lot of cost but enables us to know the bottles are in the best shape possible before use on the mountain.

A formal briefing with the Ministry of Toursim in Nepal is required of each expedition mounting an assault on Everest. The team leaders meet with government officials to discuss regulations associated with resource preservation, communications protocols and permit compliance. This has become somewhat of a formality for companies like IMG regularly organizing Everest expeditions, but remains a necessary step in the pre-departure process in Kathmandu. While the briefing occurred on March 23rd, the rest of the team was able to sightsee in Kathmandu and explore the city’s historic palaces, temples and tourist attractions. Then, on March 24th, the entire group flew from Kathmandu to a village at the base of the Khumbu region known as Lukla. The short rural mountain airstrip (pictured here) tentatively perches at the edge of a deep canyon; arrival and departure is always something of a nailbiter. Rains during the week had prevented many teams from making their scheduled flights to Lukla, but the morning of our team’s departure dawned bright and the flight went off without a hitch. The group then met the support Sherpas assigned to assist on the trek to Base Camp and hiked together to Phakding for their first overnight on the trail.

While preparations in Kathmandu were made, helicopter charters had simultaneously moved the tons of gear as high into the Khumbu Valley as possible, usually Shyangboche (pictured here), where equipment was then unloaded, repacked, and began its upward journey via yaks to Base Camp proper. An advance team of Sherpas had already been at Base Camp for over a week, nailing down a favored location and building the kitchen and tent platforms from rocks on the glacial moraine below the Icefall. They descended to Namche Bazaar at 11,300ft. on March 25th to meet the team on their second day of uphill hiking. Saturday is “market day” in Namche, a major trading center in the Khumbu region, and is a fun day to see the many Sherpa farmers congregate to exchange their weekly goods. Eggs, vegetables, cheese, meat, livestock and other products from the rural mountain villages are sold and bartered in classic fashion and the entire day provides a great insight into the everyday lives of the people populating this beautiful region. Tibetans often travel to Namche to join the exchange. The team will spend the 26th as a rest day intended to promote their acclimatization process and will enjoy the Namche Bazaar market day spectacle.

Eric Simonson joined the group’s trip to Namche and will meet with the climbing Sherpas there to oversee the final gear logistics and set the stage for assignments and protocols to be followed during the rest of the program. With everything in good hands, he’ll return to Kathmandu on one of the empty cargo choppers on the 26th and let Mark Tucker and Ang Jangbu Sherpa (pictured here looking down on Namche) take the leadership helm. So far, so good. Only one piece of checked baggage failed to make it to Kathmandu with the team, not bad considering by our count over 75 duffles were involved. Everyone is feeling OK, the gear is in place, prayer flags are fluttering in the light breeze, all systems are a go!

Erin Simonson

Final update from Namche Bazar

Hey everyone, this is the last update I’ll be sending before Basecamp, except for the ones coming directly from Mountain Guides. Tomorrow we leave here for Tengboche where we spend 2 days, then a further 4-5 day hike to BC.

Feeling a bit crap with slight headache and nausea! Still probably manage to go for a swift beer before heading back to our camp! Today we visited a beautiful monastery where the monks were in full chanting mode, and on to the Sir Edmund Hillary school in Syangboche.

We’ve only manage to reach 13’000 so far which is a far cry from the 29’000 of Everest summit! We had the best views today and she looked awesome – enormous even from where we are miles in the distance. There is a hotel called the Everest View Hotel which was built by the Japanese with the best views – we were fortunate to have blue skies and an inobstructed view!

Speak to you again from Everest BC. Over and out from Namche Bazar….
Wayne

This is an update from Jeff Strite who is on the Mountain with Wayne

Maoist rebel activity has reduced number of climbers on the south col route significantly this year. We anticipate about 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of activity in base camp as normal. Much higher activity on the Tibetan North side as expeditions were scared away by travel warnings.

Only group ahead of us on the trek in is a Japanese team funded by Mr Honda Motor Corporation’s desire to climb Everest. Should be a very interesting spectacle to see as massive amounts of cash will be supporting the team and the goal of getting the founder of Honda to the top. Hopefully I can get Mr. Honda in a Texas Hold-em game as well.

Met Panaru Sherpa yesterday our High Altitude climbing Sherpa. really nice and friendly and decent English. He is the oldest Sherpa on the Team, but has a lifetime of Mt experience. He was Mike Hamill’s first choice so we are looking good in the Sherpa dept. We gave him a gift of a Green Gibbon Expedition patch that we had 25 made in a Kathmandu sewing shop

Our team is feeling strong with no altitude effects so far. We had one man down all day yesterday. Irony is the guy is a bit of a pompous wanker. He is an ultra marathoner who was boasting 5% body fat and a resting heart rate of 45. The 11,200 ft altitude after two days was killing him yesterday, while the Green Gibbon team spent the afternoon in the pub here in Namche.

Last night was a fantastic 1 1/2 story telling session by Eric Simonson. In our dinner tent we have 3 of the most famous and respected Himalayan legends and they started a post dinner story telling session that was second to none. It reminded me of Quint and Hooper in Jaws telling ocean war stories waiting to hunt the shark. Having read most of the great early books on the himalayan expeditions, it is incredible to hear the stories from the guys that were there. Simonson has at least 3 first ascent expeditions that he saved his own tail while other climbers made the bad decision and dirt napped. discouraging part is that of the 3 great guides we have they totalled 11 attempts cumulative before they got their first summits. Our support is much better, but we are hardly world class climbers.

The first dispatch from IMG is out and the best websites to track expedition news is greatoutdoors.com and mountainguides.com Everestnews.com has lots of good general news on all the expeditions and weather reports as we near the summit windows.

I have two quotes to throw in that are funny and may add to the update. “Why is it that you need a license to go 60 feet under water and only need a checkbook to climb to the top of Mt. Everest” “I have an entire medical kit dedicated only to ringpiece management”

In closing everything is going on track and everybody is strong and healthy. Further dispatches will be by phone only.

– Jeff Strite

26/3/05 Update

Departed Kathmandu at 7am on a tiny plane en route to Lukla where we began our trip to Basecamp – fantastic flight through the mountains albeit an overcast day. Arriving in Lukla we could tell we were significantly higher as breathing was getting difficult! This place was amazing with mountains all around and prayer flags waving in the wind. We watched our baggage loaded on porters heads, eventually ending up on yaks to follow our route to BC – we had also sent baggage via yaks directly to BC with all of our high altitude equipment. Our bags were heavy and to watch these tiny porters load 2 of them onto a sling attached to their foreheads was amazing.

We trekked for a couple of hours to spend the night and as the weather was crap we spent that evening in a tea lodge, playing cards and drinking San Miguel! The next day was to be our hike up to Namche Bazaar with significant height gain – that was fun and we had our first glimpses of Everest miles in the distance – awesome! We passed porters heading to Namche Bazaar and finally on to Everest BC with packs so huge it defied belief. We arrived at Namche in little over 3 hours and settled into camp – 2 persons to each 3 man Nother Face tent so it felt comfortable.

The food has been fantastic. The weather has been so far good to us with blue skies and further views of Everest and Ama Dablam. We will be out of Namche in 2 days to the next village en route to BC.

Reporting from Namche Bazaar at 10.30am on March 26th…

More updates to follow

Wayne and the Green Gibbon team!

23/3/05 Update

Well, arrived here safely after a 20 hour flight through London, Abu Dhabi and eventually Kathmandu, albeit heavily charged for excess baggage!

Definitely been an eventful first few days – locked my Spanish room-mate out as I took the only key on a night out. He ended up moving into another room – think he was non too impressed! Then shattered a light in a team mates room playing basketball, and eventually totalled a bicycle rickshaw. That was risky, racing rickshaws through the streets of Kathmandu back to the hotel last night – we decided that we were losing so I took control and left the owner and my climbing friend behind, completely lost control and smashed into a metal railing fence. Luckily only cost $30 to the owner for the damage – over priced but he deserved it!!

Have visited many local sites around Kathmandu, with the temples, and villages being amazing. Today watched bodies burning on the banks of a river! Morbid!! The whole area is fantastic, although haven’t managed to see any mountains yet due to the haze over the city.

All the easy work is now out of the way, with all the logistics finalized and our high altitude equipment on it’s way to Basecamp. Got to finish packing today ready for the 5.15am start to the airport tomorrow – that will take us up to Lukla and our first part days hike towards Everest.

The entire expedition team is great, and our 5 man team are all up for the job in hand and fully prepared for the next 2+ months.

Will send another update in the next few days….

Farewell for now!

Wayne, reporting from a Kathmandu Cyber Cafe at 8pm on Wednesday 23rd March 2005