Entries from Everest

Dear friends, family and colleagues: we are happy to get back in touch with you. Before all, we would like to apologize for the lack of communication of the last 10 days, but unfortunately, we were the most frustrated with that issue. Our satellite phone decided not to cooperate with our solar panel, and recharging the battery was an impossible task. Being the last team this season on the mountain, we could not borrow any other means of communication and we understand the worries this might have caused. But this is what being in the Himalayas brings to all of us... That said, we are eager to announce that entire team is back safe in Kathmandu after having reached the SUMMIT ON THE CENTRAL SUMMIT OF SHISHAPANGMA at 8013metres!!!! On Oct.11th, Bridget, Jake, Geoff and Elias reached the central summit in the mid afternoon, on a warm and cloudless day, after having followed the NW ridge for several hours from C3 (Elias and Bridget) at 7450m and from C2.5 (Geoff and Jake) at 7100m. The next day, Oct 12th, Eric and Leon, who had made shelter in C3 the previous day, started strong towards the summit. Leon reached the summit hours later, having Eric turning around well above 7600m in a wise and mature decision that honors this young, strong and smart climber, since his cold toes were not warming up in those early hours and up there you are the mercy of the temperatures. Two days later, the entire team was reunited at Base Camp, from were we would proceed to do several back-carries to clear our gear and trash from anywhere below C1 at 6400m. After another day of rest and packing, we initiated our descent towards the trail head, also called Chinese Base Camp, were we arrived yesterday, the 16th. We were picked up by our truck (who learned about our arrival by a paper note sent down 2 days earlier with a yak shepherd) which would take us to the town of Nyalam, just a few Kilometers away from the Tibetan-Nepali border, to spend the night. This morning (Oct 17th) we made it into Nepal not without a couple small issues at the border and multiple traffic stops en-route to our hotel in Kathmandu, due to the heavy tourist season in the area. Is close to midnight here, so I will stop writing, but we will send you a good recap of the entire expedition soon. Again, thanks to all of you for your support, your interest and the good vibrations sent. Best regards. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Hey All, This is a dispatch from the Shishapangma Team. We are all back to Advanced Basecamp and everyone is doing very well. Jake, Elias, Bridget and myself reached the summit on the 11th, Leon reached the summit on the 12th. We are all back at ABC packing up and heading to Kathmandu on Monday the 17th. We will update you again soon. RMI Guide Geoff Schellens

We wanted to give everyone a quick update from the Shishapangma crew. We have not received any new information directly from the team, but we did learn that the Liaison officer received a note from the team requesting their yaks to arrive at Advanced Basecamp on the 15th and vehicles to arrive at Basecamp the following day. They will spend the night of October 16th either at Nyalam or Zhangmu, depending on what time they get back to Basecamp. We will post again as soon as we hear any additional information.

It has been a busy few days here on Shishapangma. Yesterday a number of teams reached the summit and we are very happy for them. Our team is back at Base camp after a solid rotation up high. Our team carried, put in and spent a few nights at Camp 2, roughly the same height as the summit of Aconcagua. On this last round were able to get in a pretty windy carry to Camp 3, somewhere around 24,500’ above the ocean. Now we're resting and recouping here at Advance Base Camp. If weather holds we will launch this weekend for shot at the top. RMI Guide Jake Beren

Hello, This is the Shishapanga team with a new update. Camp 2 (22,965') has been established and the team is starting today to do some rotations and the weather forecast for the next few days is good. We will try to push it a little further to Camp 3 (24,278') with some carries and get acclimatized. Everybody is doing pretty well and we are excited and in very good spirits. The team is working well together and despite the hardness of Himalayan climbing we are having a really good time. So that is it for now and we’ll be calling soon with a new update. Take care and hello to everyone. RMI Guide Elias De Andres Martos

Hello this is the Shishapangma Team calling from our advance base camp. This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground here at 18,400' and it seems as though the storm left a few feet on the upper mountain. Part of the team is finishing their first rotation through camp one up near 21,000’ and will be descending either tonight or tomorrow. It seems as though we will be sitting here at our advanced base camp for a few days resting and then hoping for clear weather to go up on our next rotation. Everyone is doing well and climbing strong. We will call back in a few days and check in then. Bye! RMI Guide Eric Frank

Hey guys, this is the Shishapangma team. We are just calling to check in. Everybody is well. We did feel the big earthquake the other day. Both our team up at Camp 1 and our team at BC are just fine. We are going to send another team up in the direction of Camp 1 later this afternoon. We are going to start our rotations a little higher up. All is well here. We are waiting for a weather window and just hanging out. So, we hope all is well back in Ashford. We’ll be giving you a shout when we have a little more to say. That is all from Tibet. RMI Guide Jake Beren

The Shishapangma team left a voice mail message with the RMI office yesterday saying everything was going well. It was a little hard to decipher which is understandable coming from half way around the world via satellite. Here is what we were able to understand: “Hey guys it is the Shishapangma crew. All doing well here at Basecamp after carries from/to Camp 1. Heading up to Camp 1 again in a few days. Wanted to let you know we are well. We will be heading up again soon.”

Hello, this is the Shishapangma team calling from 17,000’ in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau on the way to Advanced Base Camp (ABC). We have spent three days at Chinese Base Camp at 16,000’. The team is doing really well. We actually went for a nice, leisurely one-hour run, which was a record for everybody, yesterday. And we are really excited and having a good time. We hope to call in the next few days after we have set up camp at Advanced Base Camp. That is all for now. Hello everyone from Tibet. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

We are in Nyalam, our last stop before the Chinese Base Camp. The drive through Nepal to the border with Tibet went pretty well and the border crossing itself was smooth. We bypassed the town of Zangmu straight to Nyalam. This afternoon we will head for a hike to stretch the legs after the trip and start the acclimatization process. We have a scheduled departure for Chinese Base Camp for tomorrow around noon. The team is in really good spirits and looking forward to putting a foot on the mountain. Regards from Tibet, RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos