Hi,On the 28th November, all member of Himalayan Ascent 3 peaks group summited Lobuche east. Troy and Carolina turned around from first summit which is 6090m and rest of the group with our team of guide went on to true summit which is another 100m higher.
Everyone is well and now focusing on Nirekha, which is just around the corner from Lobuche east. The news should be coming in in next couple of days on how they go on Nirekha. Until then good bye.
Sumit
From Kathmandu
Greetings!
The Himalayan Ascent blog is up and running again after a slight absence! What’s happened since the last entry on May 5th? Well, all four clients summitted Everest for starters! Trips to Cho Oyu and Mera Peak have also run in 2011.
Tonight we’re coming to you from Namche, on the third night of Himalayan Ascent’s Triple Peaks of the Khumbu expedition. It was a bit of a mission to get here, due to bad weather which has prevented flights to and from Lukla for the past week. Fortunately Lakpa has some pretty good contacts in the airport and we jumped into two choppers and flew to Surke (the choppers are better at negotiating bad weather), which is about 400m below Lukla. We got in quite late so spent the first night at a nearby tea house and then the second night at Monjo. It felt like the monsoon was still in play, with low cloud and rain and snow down to 3,000m, but we awoke this morning to clear skies and the sounds of planes. As we climbed up to Namche, we had some great views of Everest.
We’ll stay in Namche for two nights, spending tomorrow going for a quick stroll up to the Everest View Hotel and over to Khumjung. The night after that we aim to be in Phortse.
Everyone in the group is going well (based on their appetites) and enjoying themselves. The only problem is that at the moment we’re missing part of our group – Angkaji, Chirring and Passing are walking up from Jiri, and we hope to see them catch us up in the next few days!
That’s it for now but we’ll update again in a few days, and I’ll see if I can get some individual messages from the team (I can’t now because it’s 8pm and they’re all in bed!).
Pat
Life down the valley at Pangboche. Sumit, Raul, Allan, Sharon and Chris (me)(accompanied by Rabin, our trusted cook) are today finishing our rest down the valley at Pangboche, a village not far from the base of the beloved Ama Dablam (6,812m).As we look out our windows of the lodge each morning, Ama Dablam greets us, with open arms.The team has been in Pangboche for 4 nights / 5 days and with the increased oxygenation at this altitude (3,850m) we have noticed our appetites increase dramatically and sleep has come with ease. This is important preparation for the work ahead. Carbohydrates have been consumed aplenty and apple ?felters? (fritters) have been a big hit with the team.The weather here in Pangboche has been changeable, somewhat wet and cold at times, so the team has taken advantage of the lodgings and spent time listening to music, watching DVDs and drinking beverages and eating ? a lot. Rabin walked to Namche Bazaar yesterday to collect some supplies and returned in the evening with some extra treats ? chocolate from Namche and cake from Tengboche Bakery!With the weather being changeable and us being somewhat confined to the lodge, we have all been a bit ?hyper?. Raul, however, is ?Mr Laidback? and is happy watching DVDs.
Nothing fazes Raul. Allan has been also watching DVDs, and after many tries there is still hope he will get to watch Babel before we leave Pangboche. Sharon is ?Little Miss Chatterbox? and she entertains trekkers who come into the lodge with her wit and really ?good? jokes (honest). As for Chris (me), I?ve been watching DVDs but also playing on my Nintendo DS each day doing brain training and Sudoku (if I don?t do it daily, Dr Kawashima tells me off).Sharon and Chris have at times gone down to the Internet café together to check emails and the news around the world. Not sure why but yesterday we found ourselves walking back howling Justin Beiber?s ?Baby? song. For the record, Sharon knew MANY words and Chris knew about seven? and they were all ?Baby?.Last night, Sharon and Allan practiced a few 70?s and 80?s disco moves in the lodge, in readiness for our end of trip party. Lucky for Sumit, Raul and Rabin, they did not have to witness the moves as they had already retired to bed. With the passing of days, the original Raul is emerging from behind the sunburn he experienced in the Western CWM.Early this morning, the sun came out thankfully and the team set off up the hill to the Pangboche Monastery for a ?puja? ceremony with the local lama, Lama Chirring Dorje, who is a reincarnated lama. He is part of the family at whose lodge we are staying in Pangboche and we were fortunate today to receive further blessings for our climb. We also attended with Lama Geshi, the most senior local lama, and he blessed us all, and from both lamas we left with the traditional ?khatas? around our necks.
Our afternoon will likely be spent with music, more DVDs, resting, and packing our duffels ready to head back up the valley to Everest Base Camp tomorrow morning (6th), stopping first at Lobuche overnight and then heading onward to EBC (7th).Whilst we have been down the valley, the Sherpa guides have been working between Everest Base Camp (EBC) and South Col (Camp 4) ferrying loads of supplies to higher camps in readiness for our summit push. Their working days have also been peppered with important rest days. These guys and their counterparts in other teams are the true heroes of the mountain. Their strength is incredible and their commitment to the task before them cannot be described in words alone.
We are in awe of them. We are all one big team together, and nothing is lost on us as to how much the Sherpa guides do for the expedition and us generally. We are looking forward to returning to Everest Base Camp (EBC) to see them.Once we return to Everest Base Camp (EBC), we anticipate we will have a minimum of 1-2 rest days and on these days we will also be checking our gear and readying any other supplies that need to be taken up the mountain. We will also be watching the weather and looking for the weather window that works for our team (stable weather and a reduction in the jetstream winds up high) to start making our way up the mountain for our summit push. Our team is healthy, we are feeling strong, we are in good spirits and we all hope that the weather and conditions ahead are good to us. Most of all, we offer total respect to Chomolungma and trust that she will be good to us. Hello to all family and friends of the team.
We are thinking of you.
Regards,Chris
After spending 7 days up in the mountain, we have enjoyed the last two days relaxing here at our base camp and enjoying the great meals prepared by Rabin. Our trip up to camp 2 and 3 was very successful. We left our base camp on the 23rd and spent the night at camp 1. Next day we had a great day walk to Camp 2. I had an opportunity to show my group, what to do if you fall off 5 ladders crossing in one of the biggest crevasses between camp 1 and 2.Our camp 2 is located on the top section and sits on a bit of height compare to most other camps. We have a great view down the western Cwm and also get to watch everyone that passes through on their way to Camp 3.
We made a small platform between our kitchen and our mess tent, which we named Cafe C2 and has the best view of Everest south face, Lhotse, Nuptse and western Cwm. After a day of rest and acclimatisation we went and made a quick acclimatisation trip to base of Lhotse face, which is roughly at 6700 meters. That night we were greeted with almost 12 inches of snow, but the morning was beautiful with clear blue sky and it was great day for us to enjoy Caf’ C2 all day on the sun.On the 28th we decided to go and sleep at camp 3, which is right on the middle of Lhotse face.
We were one of the only first three groups to do so this season. It was long and hard day but the condition on the face this year is really good with fresh snow making climbing lot more easier as we did not had to keep driving our front point on hard blue ice like last year. Everyone made it up to camp 3 in great time. Mingma, Mikma and Thsiring went back all the way down to base camp after helping us set up camp. 4 climbers and us 6 guides spent very windy and very happy night at camp 3. It is very impressive to see how everyone coped with sleeping at over 7000m. Nobody needed any medical assistance to sleep everyone enjoyed the great view and great sunset from camp 3.
We decided to leave next morning and come back down all the way to base camp in one single push. After windy morning descending Lhotse face, we had a good couple of hour at Camp 2 packing and having lunch. Descending through icefall in the evening with no one around was just great. We have had two days of quite relaxing days here at base camp and planning our next week or so. Will let you know what our plans will be for our rest period before the summit push.
Speak soon.
Sumit
Last day in Kathmandu. It’s been hectic few days in Kathmandu. Raul, Allan and I am enjoying our evening coffee at the gargen of Hotel Tibet.
We have finalised our permit yesterday, did a Top Out oxygen training with Ted Atkins yesterday. Today we delt with our Liason officer. I think everything is on track except for few little things, Raul has managed to break his headcam already, which can’t be fixed in Kathmandu and Allan manage to break his headlamp. Apart from that we are all set to go to the airport and wait for our flight early tomorrow morning. If all goes well we should be Lukla around 9.00 am and start our trek to Monjo around 11. We will be in Namche in two days where I will try to write another blog. Speak soon. Sumit
Welcome to Himalayan Ascent Everest 2011 blog page. Once again Himalayan Ascent will be guiding on Mt. Everest second time after successful season in 2010.
Sumit Joshi together with Lakpa Sherpa will lead 6-member team of 3-4 different Nationality and 10 Nepali Sherpa Guides.
List of the members
Allan Cohrs Australia
Sharon Cohrs Australia
http://www.climbingforacause.com.au/blog
Christine Burke Australia/New Zealand
Raul Helander Sweden
Soren Ledet Denmark
Matthew Carlin Australia
We will be flying to Lukla on the 31st March and hope to make a regular posting to this blog. Two of the expedition member Sharon Cohrs and Soren Ledet will also be posting blog on their personal site. Sharon is also trying to be first Breast Cancer survivor to summit Mt. Everest, if you like to learn more about her challenge and support her cause. Please visit her site.
Thank you all for your support and hopefully we can keep you interested for next 9 weeks or so.
Namaste from Kathmandu
Sumit
