Entries from Expedition Dispatches
With 80 mph winds and a blinding snowstorm at
Camp Muir, it is a perfect day to conduct training inside. Our bunkhouse serves a cozy atmosphere in the storm allowing us to learn essential
expedition skills. If we were in tents all we would be doing is hanging on!
Our team is in great spirits and we are waiting out the storm until we venture outside. In the meantime, we're going to continue to sip coffee, lecture and do some rope work.
Stay tuned!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The day begins with blue skies and cold temperatures. We are up and at 'em, with the stoves firing and the team sorting out the most important thing we will do today...breakfast!
Our plan is to move up to
Camp Muir at 10,000 feet. Will we make it? Stay tuned.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
This morning, feeling rested, refreshed and blessed by our Puja... We set out for a "hike" in the lower reaches of the
Khumbu Icefall. Each of us felt excited to finally be geared up and clawing our way over minor ice obstacles, not to mention stepping over crevasses once again. Seems like we've been on a lot of pretty trails lately, but today it was good to be climbing, even if for just a warm up. We went up about an hour, the consensus was that we'd reached close to 18,000 ft, but we stopped just before the "popcorn" section of the
Icefall where the risk ramps up a bit. Back down to camp we came, stopping off for a cyber break, of course, in a safe place where we were finding the all-important 3G signal out of
Gorak Shep for our smartphones.
Lunch was perfect as usual, but the afternoon weather had us mostly hiding in tents, reading and napping. We can hear big wind above and the sky is now fully clouded and turbulent.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We are in
Mount Rainier National Park and on the mountain! The weather has been finicky this past week with a good accumulation of snow. So much snow that we were worried that the park wouldn't have the road to Paradise open.
At 11 AM the park opened the gates and we made it up. With all the fresh snow it was slow going but the team trudged on and we are busy making camp...
Denali style! We are definitely having the true feel of what the mountains can dish out. It's currently snowing hard and we are working fast on the kitchen and dining tent.
I need a hot drink!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
This day had auspicious written all over it. Our Sirdar Lam Babu consulted the Tibetan calendar and made a few calls. This was the day for our Puja ceremony. A lama was brought up from
Pangboche and our Puja alter was made ready. Today was the day for the entire team to get together for a Buddhist ceremony asking the gods to look favorably on our
expedition. The Pangboche lama was actually pretty busy as several other teams were similarly in need of blessing. The drums started beating and the cymbals started clashing for ours just after lunch on another big blue sky day. A number of Sherpas from neighboring teams joined us in our celebration. There were chants and prayers and various offerings of juniper smoke, food and drink. There were a number of things tossed into the sky and onto each other, principally rice and tsampa (barley flour) and a little chiang -a lightly fermented homemade rice wine with bits of orange. The climax of the ceremony begins with the Puja mast going up with strings of brightly colored prayer flags going out in all directions from it. Finally we all stand and toast each other, shake hands and ask each other to be careful on this climbing trip.
The birds certainly enjoy the day as a whole flock of black Himalayan Chuffs (a little smaller than a crow) descend to get the spare offerings. We also enjoyed watching smaller sparrow and finch types joining in the festivities.
Most retired to the tents for a post puja nap for the remainder of the afternoon. Tomorrow we will put the spikes on and go for a walk on the glacier. Slowly but surely, out bodies are catching up to this altitude and soon we'll be ready for some hard climbing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Hello Everyone.
We were foot soldiers today, we marched our way into
Lukla in great style. The last hour is all up hill,a nice pump to finish the day. Doctor Scholl's was our best friend. A bit of overcast kept the temperature just right for this lowland trek, 10,000 ft. After about three weeks in this land of giant mountains, for some, it's time to hit the beach. I could call this one heck of a fishing trip. We all received a license, no poachers, played by the rules. We casted our lines, used every trick in the book. Caught some big ones and a trophy for a few. We all leave with more experience and respect for this type of event in our lives. The Dudh river, a constant companion on the hike out,loads of blooming rhododendron a nice farewell. Always a pleasure to work with High Altitude Dreams our local outfitter. The team from the states way to go! Hope to have another chance to play with you all in my office soon.
Thank you all out in cyber land for following this trip, get out while you can. I will start working my way back to the Big E and blog ya later.
RMI Guide Mark T
ucker
On The Map
Our second night at the extreme altitude of
Everest Basecamp went well. We are getting used to the thunder of avalanches off the surrounding peaks and the intense cold of morning before the sun finds us in the bottom of this deep valley. We worked a bit in the morning on getting our gear dialed for climbing. The afternoon was spent in taking a mellow hike out on the glacier close to basecamp. At one point we spotted three intrepid white geese cruising North at about 25,000 ft. We were also keeping our eyes peeled for artifacts on the ice. Yesterday James and Seth each found crampons from 1962 (as evidenced by the 1962 Indian newspaper I found with them) More teams are arriving each day now, but we are still enjoying having basecamp a little quieter than normal.
We look forward to our Puja ceremony tomorrow morning wherein we ask the blessing of the mountain gods before taking on the big hill.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide
Dave Hahn
Kathmandu!
It's been quite the adventure the last few weeks. Today the team left the beautiful and peaceful Khumbu and caught our morning flight back to the busy city of Kathmandu. The team spent the day lounging by the pool, resting in our rooms and catching up with emails and news.
Everyone is doing well and excited about returning home to family and friends. We finished the day off with pizzas and long fresh salads.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
A nice 10 mile plus or minus hike from Chu Kung today. Not quite sure how there can be so much uphill on a descent, who built these trails anyway? Happy to be back here in Namche at the Campo de Base tea house. If you ever are in the area, this is the place to stay. Very friendly staff, comfortable rooms and Hot Hot showers!
We saw a couple of Everest teams on the way today. We had a nice chat with some old friends and made plans for future meetings at Basecamp. We will check out of the park in the morning and finalize our permits regarding the Island Peak climb. The infrastructure is a bit crude but it is so important to keep trying to have an eye on this truly amazing part of the world.
The sky was a bit hazy today but a nice temperature for the trek out. A few of the hillsides had a large number of rhododendron trees flowering, it is so nice to be back in the living zone of the Earth's dirt.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
Yesterday we walked without any great difficulty from Lobuche to
Everest Basecamp. Conditions were perfect, with sunshine, blue sky and no wind whatsoever. We stopped for a brief rest in Gorak Shep where we were all grateful for 3G cell coverage again (Lobuche is lacking in this respect which is why we took a couple of nights off from blogging). But we didn't linger for very long in Gorak Shep because by then we were just a short distance from our home for the next seven weeks and we were excited to finish the trek. We walked a bit more along the lateral moraine before dropping onto the actual Khumbu Glacier. By then, the only thing difficult about the travel (apart from being over 17,000 ft) was walking while looking up at a couple dozen hanging glaciers and giant peaks. We were into our basecamp by midday and eating a great lunch in our dining tent 30 minutes later. It was great to catch up with our Sherpa team and mind boggling to see the work they've accomplished in two weeks. Kumar is our incomparable chef once again, assisted by Raju, Jetta and Tikaram. Our expert team of Sherpa guides is of course led by Lam Babu who did such a great job accompanying us on the trek. In the meantime, Chhering, Kaji and Geljen were moving a lot of rock around to build camp. We just had to move into well built and anchored tents, which was pretty easy. We were excited to watch a big avalanche off the Lho La -the pass above us which is the border with Tibet. And we were happy to spend an easy afternoon and evening getting settled. The night went well, with all seeming to be adjusting well to the altitude. Morning in such a place was just as awe inspiring as you'd expect.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
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JJ…Think that scene will hold until I get there for the 5 day climb in June :)...Enjoy…Godspeed…Waltero (Aconcagua Jan 12)
Posted by: waltero glover on 4/10/2013 at 6:18 am
Now that is the way to ascend to Muir! This picture makes me wish I was up there and not at work this week!! Have a great climb!
Posted by: Larry Schultz on 4/9/2013 at 10:01 pm
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