Hello from 6200'!
We spent the day in Ashford yesterday organizing gear and getting our ski kits dialed in.
The road to Paradise was delayed in opening due to the 13" of new snow overnight!
We kept ourselves busy this morning tour planning and exercising our map and compass skills, while enjoying coffee and patiently waiting for the plows to finish their job.
The late arrival was worth it, and we made good time to our campsite here in the Upper slopes of the Paradise Valley. After building a bomber camp we went out for a cocktail hour ski back down the valley a few hundred feet.
We are all cozy here in camp and looking forward to clear skies and more training tomorrow!
Cheers,
RMI Guides Solveig Waterfall, Bryan Hendrick, and the team!
This is Dave Hahn Calling in from the Mt. Everest Climb. We are spending our second night here Deboche tonight. We weren’t able to send out email from here, that’s why you haven’t heard from us, but all is well. Today was our rest day here. What did was we hiked over to Tengboche and got our blessing from Lama Geshi, a blessing for attempting the mountain. That was a great time; we went out lunch in Tengboche afterward and came back here in the afternoon. Everybody is going really well.
Tomorrow it is our intention is to move up to Pheriche. We hope we will have email communication then.
Take care for now, Bye.
RMI Guides Dave Hahn, JJ Justman, Billy Nugent & Team
Spencer: It all looks so awesome. The nature, mountains, people, culture. I’m jealous of the sights and other rewards, but grateful that I’m not facing the work you’ll be putting in. We’re all thinking of you and pulling for you. We head to Tahoe tomorrow. Baby hill hikes compared to your little trek. Think about you many times every day. Positive energy and love being sent to you and the team in abundance. Love, dad
Posted by: Chet Pipkin on 4/1/2014 at 6:21 pm
James and team
Thanks for the great blog and video. It was great getting an “action scene”. Glad things are going so well.
Hi,
It’s Mark Tucker here checking in with Rainier Mountaineering’s Everest Base Camp Trek, 17,500’ feet beautiful Mt. Everest. The Team did a bang’em up job and pulled in here in great shape. We are being treated well. We’ve got fine tents, and lots of luxuries. We are going to spend two nights here. Tomorrow will be a great day for investigating and poking around this historic site. We are just so psyched, this team took on a big challenge to get here and we are very thrilled.
YEE HA! We will be checking in later.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
Way to go Elizabeth!!! Guess the Lucky Charms watch did it’s magic!!! Enjoy the sights and safe travels on the Long & Winding Road home
PS Did You Know You’re My Hero? :)
Posted by: melissa mccarthy on 4/1/2014 at 4:38 pm
What an amazing trip - our hats off to you all! Love to Elizabeth, Nancy & Liz…Can’t wait to hear all about it in person!(PS: you missed a spectacular Tastevin!!!)
Hugs and kisses,
Janet and Larry
Posted by: Janet & Larry Mendez on 4/1/2014 at 3:25 pm
Hello everyone. We have finally made it back to the land of wifi!
It was a wonderful two days at Base Camp and thoroughly enjoyed by all. We bid farewell to everyone there and headed back down the valley to Pheriche. It was an incredibly busy day on the trail with hundreds of porters and yaks heavily burdened with their loads. The weather was pretty nice most of the way which was a treat after yesterday being so windy. We are relaxing in the dinning room here with dozens of climbers where it's actually hot because of the stove fueled by nothing more than dried yak dung.
Enjoying the thick warm air!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
Hello Matt, This is Jay Shah, Nisha’s uncle from Los Angeles. Being selfish, I envy what You all doing now,going to the base camp. I wish I could have done the same. I have gone to Mt. Kailas in Tibet few years ago, but
Base camp is something I have missed out. The group looks so happy!!!!! Wish You all good luck & thumb’s up to all.
Hope all of You have a refreshing, happy & purposeful trek
We moved up-valley to Deboche today. Morning in Namche was pleasant but we had places to go and things to see. We hit the trail by 8:30 and walked easily along the traverse trail leaving town. At first we were mixed in with a few trekking groups and strings of pack animals, but after a little while we had the trail to ourselves. We'd have loved to have been able to hang on to our hard-won altitude, but it was necessary to give plenty of it back as we needed to drop all the way down to the river to get across and take on the Thyangboche Hill. We worked slow-and-steady up the hillside trail, gaining about fifteen hundred vertical feet in an hour and a half. Along the way, we got great views of Kangtega with its giant walls of rock topped by hanging glaciers, but these views were surpassed when we reached the hilltop and saw Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse and Ama Dablam spread out before us and doing battle with the wind and clouds. Thyangboche Monastery sat like a palace at the ridge crest behind elaborate and ornate gates. We took our packs off for a few minutes and tried to take it all in, but we were only twenty minutes walk from Deboche at this point and lunch had taken on great importance to the team, so we shouldered packs once more and set off down through the rhododendron forests to our lodge at 12,200 ft above sea level.
The afternoon passed with food and naps and a break from the distractions of the internet, since WiFi was not readily available. We are not quite in the wilderness yet, but we can see it from here.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Mark Tucker checking in today from Gorak Shep, at about 17,000’ feet. We had a nice hike today with the wonderful weather holding on for us - feeling lucky! We pushed on after we had lunch and got the summit of Kala Patar just over 18,000’ feet, right around sunset. The big “E” popped it’s top out a couple of times, beautiful colors with an alpine glow, windy, and cold. I am standing outside right now and it is chilly up here! I am looking at about 500 million stars, just a beautiful night aside from cold.
Everybody is tucked in and we are going to get up and rock-n-roll for Base Camp tomorrow. That’s the plan, hope it all holds true.
All the best to everybody and we will be keeping you posted!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
Wonderful progress you’ve made. I hope you are treasuring every moment and can’t wait to hear all about it first hand from Nancy Harris. Have safe travels and thank you for sharing your experience with us through your posts.
Posted by: Maria Eichelberger on 3/31/2014 at 5:53 am
Hello Elizabeth Harris, Hope you are having an amazing time!
We are thinking of you!
stay warm & happy journey.
The Tamboli Family, Tampa
Hello Everybody,
This is Casey Grom checking in from Everest Base Camp. Our team actually arrived yesterday after making the summit of Kala Patar. Unfortunately we were not able to get a satellite call to let everyone know that we had safely arrived here. Everyone here is doing fantastic!
We woke up this morning to pretty blustery weather, but our wonderful cook Kumar actually got our hot shower up and running here. So it is nice for everyone to get a nice hot shower and just relax. This afternoon we went for a short walk from out camp down the start of the glacier where the route through the Kumbu Ice Fall starts. That was a nice treat for everybody to get to walk down there and try and get an idea of where the route will go in.
Everyone is doing great; we are currently sitting down for dinner. Our game plan is to head back down to Pheriche and we should have cell service Wi-Fi once we get back down there. We are looking forward to getting back down there and will hopefully send pictures then.
Good Night Everybody!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
This was our easy day in Namche. No big hikes, no packing, no training... this one was for resting, for catching up on personal business and for exploring the Sherpa capital at one's leisure. Above this point in the trek/climb, we won't have such ease of communication and certainly not the opportunity to shop for good climbing gear. There was some important business to attend to though as Chhering Dorje, Lam Babu and I went to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee office to review procedures and policies for getting garbage down the mountain. We signed our sincere intention to play by the rules.
Some of the team traveled several hundred feet up in altitude to the Namche suburbs in order to visit the fine Sherpa Culture Museum with its fascinating Everest history exhibit. Some went for massages and cheeseburgers downtown.
As the gang assembled for dinner in the early evening, we were pleased to find that Apa Sherpa was sharing our Tea House for the night. Apa, the all-time leader in Everest summits -with 21- is bringing a trek in to explore the Khumbu.
All of the RMI climbers and guides are healthy and well-rested. Tomorrow we'll hit the trail and go higher once again.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
Nicole, greetings from beautiful NJ.(Im lying weather sucks) I am very proud of what you have done so far and you are about to do. we all miss you and love you. be careful and safe. Take pictures when you can
See you soon
Elpidio
Posted by: Elpidio Cruz on 3/31/2014 at 6:07 am
Faitma, I know you’re enjoying all that hiking and beautiful scenery. Looks spectacular. You and the team are so lucky! Wish I was there with you all.
Peter
Posted by: Peter Williamson on 3/31/2014 at 3:42 am
Oh my goodness! We must be so far out there. No cell service, no internet, no wifi. How are we gonna get by? Just fine. That's what I can tell you. The team's doing well. We are up here at Lobuche. Had a nice walk up. Fine weather, a little overcast now. Chilly, chilly up here at 16,000'. We are happy to be here in good shape. We are checking in by satellite phone, so we can still be connected. We appreciate everyone following along. Hopefully tomorrow we will move up to Gorak Shep where I think we may have some connectivity, and I may be able to send some fabulous pictures from the jaunt up the hill today. We will check in again.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hello everyone.
We're still here. Just went through Loboche which is a little short on cell service, wifi and I even had trouble getting my sat phone to work.
The last couple of days have been really nice and strangely it seems to be getting warmer as we get higher. We hiked to Gorak Shep today and wanted to climb up Kala Patar but the evening swirling clouds have us waiting till tomorrow.
We are literarily a stones through from the Khumbu glacier and only about two hours from Mt. Everest Base Camp. Everyone seems to be doing well and we are so excite for Base camp!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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Great photos, Solveig. Looks like great fun: Maybe even for our age group. The snow season is about over here.
Cheers, Joe
Posted by: joe Griffith on 4/1/2014 at 7:06 am
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