Casey Grom and team checked in from Everest Base Camp. They arrived there yesterday under stormy skies and cloudy conditions.
Today, the sun was shining and the team spent some time hiking around Base Camp and posing for photos in down suits. Everyone got to experience life at 17,575' complete with a shower at Base Camp.
Tomorrow the team will start their descent heading back down the Khumbu Valley.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from RMI's Everest Expedition. We left Deboche this morning.... The team is now up here at 13,800 feet in Pheriche. We walked through snow today, about four inches of new snow over night. It was a beautiful morning for strolling through the last of the forest that we would be walking in today. We walked over to Tengboche and had an audience with Lama Geshe. He gave us his blessings and greeted us as always very friendly, and had a nice seating with him. We proceeded on our way towards Pheriche, had lunch in Somare and got here, Pheriche, by about 2:30 this afternoon. Everybody's getting comfortable now in the Himalayan Hotel, and enjoying the nice dining room here, under the stars, looking up at Ama Dablam and beautiful mountains all around. We will check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, this is Dave Hahn phoning in from the RMI Everest Climb. We are in Deboche still. Last night I couldn't get through it was snowing fairly hard and I couldn't get a phone signal. This morning, it's looking a little bit better. A little sunshine coming through; there is still some high clouds. But right now we're at a green light to go up to Pheriche. Our intention is to go up through Pangboche, see Lama Geshe, and head up to Pheriche this evening. Yesterday was a nice quiet day for us. We just went up to Tengboche Monastery in the morning and then kinda hunkered down in our tea house here in Deboche to wait out the snowstorm. But nice afternoon taking it easy. Bye now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Yesterday I flew into Annapurna Base Camp. As the pilot and I made our way through the deep valleys from Tatopani, Annapurna I appeared, rising some 12,800ft above. Yikes! A beautiful jumble of rock and ice. I leaned over to the pilot and nervously asked him if he could return me to Kathmandu. He just laughed, assuming sarcasm...
After arriving in base camp and setting up my camp, I went for a slow jog in the evening toward the glacier (see picture) and got my first glimpse of the way to Camp 1. The route looks to follow an ascending traverse across a cliff face of rock and snow which has the advantage of bypassing a 2,500’ glacial ice fall. It does seem like the slightly better of two bad options - although the cliff still holds many things above you that could become hazards.
Tomorrow I’ll attend a Puja (a ceremony in which meditational prayers are offered to the Buddhas and holy beings to request their blessings or help), after which I’ll start pushing uphill. Currently it’s snowing here in base camp with consistent thunder. The weather forecast is predicting unstable conditions until April 4th. However, there seems to be an afternoon trend to the wet weather, which if it holds shouldn’t affect my acclimatization climbs to C1/C2.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now!
RMI Guide Alex Barber
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the RMI Everest Climb calling in from Deboche. We set out this morning about 8:30 from Namche. A beautiful morning, blue sky, sunshine and everybody feeling good. It took us about 5 hours or so to go across the hillside down to the river and back across the hill at Pangboche, the big hill, and down the other side to Deboche. At our lodge tonight but figured we'd just checking with you. Great views of Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam today. Looking up there is a bunch of new snow on Everest and Lhotse. It clouded up a little bit this afternoon, but not a big deal. We are enjoying having the trails to our selves, I think we are a few days ahead of many of the climbers. [connection lost]
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from Deboche with an update on the progress of the Everest team.
Hi Hans and all together,
it´s phantastic to follow you on your trek higher and higher…stay in a good mood with sunny weather and keep you warm…
Lot of love to you, Hans - Ute
Posted by: Ute Novak on 3/30/2015 at 2:04 pm
Uncle Larry,
be careful and congratulations on getting to climb the highest mountain in the world. maybe after this you want to hop to train with me. Lol be safe up there. I agree with mom your beard hopefull keep u worm.
Walk a week or fly an hour? A very popular phrase with the bush pilots in Alaska. Here in Nepal, I will take the walk a week option.
If I were going to climb the tallest mountain in North America, "Denali", I would opt for the hour flight into the mountain, which drops you at about 8,000' to begin the ascent to 20,320 ft.
Here in the High Himalaya, with that hour flight they could drop us at Everest Base Camp, it sits around 17,300', you would be in a world of hurt, that is a bit too much of an altitude jump for 99.9% of all humans. So here I sit in a nice Tea house at 13,000', half way through my eight day trek to Base Camp. Kind of a long commute to work, but traffic has not been to bad. Yep another season of life on the Glacier for this Himalayan Veteran.
Excited for RMI 2015 Everest Expedition? I sure am.
No wonder RMI was voted #1 Outfitter,with the return of the finest Guides, for the climb and trek.
The reason I continue these wild adventures is the RMI solid commitment, time and again, to provide the best available resources and infrastructure.
The team is looking forward to sharing this Expedition with you as best we can over the next couple of months.
I wish you could be here. I know the challenges you will face in everyday life may not be as unusual as ours but in there own way just as impressive. Climb your own Everest. Get out when you can!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Special shout out to -
MOM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love, Mark
Tuckie Wonder: glad to hear that you and the team are safe. Was due to volunteer at CIWEC in Pokhara later this year (we will see if that’s helpful or just another mouth to feed as the weeks unfold). Cheering for the enduring Nepalese spirit from afar for now. Travel safely, old pal. Cheers, Sara
Posted by: Sara Whitner on 5/6/2015 at 9:44 pm
Hi Mark-this is Philip-part of the BBC film crew for Everest ER in 2006/2007-has been way too long. My thoughts are with you all in Nepal and am glad to hear that you are safe. I also heard Dave is good too and I hope all your team. Thank goodness. We are all devastated with the crisis that has hit Nepal and will do what we can to help in some way. I just wanted to catch up with you again and wish you well and safe journey home. keep in touch and hopefully one day we can grab a beer or two together or go climb a mountain or something. All the best Philip
Posted by: Philip North-Coombes on 4/30/2015 at 1:41 am
Namaste Everyone
All is well here on the trek!
Yesterday we left Pheriche and hiked further up valley to Lobuche, we slowly made our way along the winding path that we share with other trekkers, porters heavily laden with loads bound for Base Camp, and yaks who aren't as keen to share the trail. We made good time and enjoyed the astounding views before reaching our lodge for the night. In the afternoon we took a short walk to a overlook of the Khumbu glacier where we could just make out base camp far in the distance.
Today we hit the trail around 8:30 and reached our last and final camp, called Gorak Shep, before we head into Base Camp tomorrow. After arriving we had a light lunch and the headed up to Kala Patar which is the high point on this trek at 18,300'. At the top of Kala Patar we could easily see Everest Base Camp and had amazing views of Everest as the weather was relatively nice.
Everyone is currently relaxing in our tea house enjoying the warmth of the fire. There's been lots of cribbage and plenty of good conversation with our team and other trekkers on the same journey as us.
Looking forward to Base camp.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Very excited for you to get into Base Camp. Casey Grom, leave some chocolate cake for the rest of the team, and watch out for the probiotics!
All my love and warmth.
Posted by: Sydney on 3/30/2015 at 8:22 am
All so us following from home are so excited for the team to reach base camp! Those of us at sea level are living vicariously through you all so absorb everything so you can tell us about it. Be safe. Special thoughts to my sweetheart Tom.
Donna
Posted by: Donna Mann Belt on 3/29/2015 at 6:19 pm
Our last day in Namche dawned surprisingly clear and sunny. That was a little unexpected given how persistent the rain was yesterday afternoon and evening. We took full advantage after breakfast, trooping up to the Hilltop National Park Headquarters to see if the mountains were out. Indeed they were, and those of the team that hadn't yet gotten a look at the world's highest mountain were predictably in awe. Those of us that had seen it a few times were also in awe. New snow made the peaks radiant and sparkling in the strong sunshine. Conditions were so calm and pleasant where we stood that we were tempted to gaze for hours. But there was plenty to get done on our final day in the "Sherpa Capital". Our team enjoyed the museum exhibits at the Park Visitor Center and the nearby Sherpa Culture Museum. They shopped the climbing stores, markets, galleries and book stores along the small and winding avenues of Namche. They caught up on the web and friended each other on Facebook. They rested, drank water and got ready for going higher into the mountains in the coming days.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Annapurna Expedition
March 27 - Update
Enjoying the hotsprings of Tatopani while the helicopter does all the heavy lifting... sort of a ridiculous way to start an expedition.
March 26 - Update
In Tatopani tonight, we made several attempts to fly into Annapurna Base Camp today through low visibility and heavy rain. The low visibility prevented us from touching down though. Flying with less than 1,000 m visibility is quite hazardous with cliffs rising high above all around you. Hopefully with the more stable weather in the morning we will be able to fly into Base Camp tomorrow. For now our Helicopter is parked in a rudimentary soccer field in the small village of Tatopani. Pretty comical and has created quite the stir among the local population.
RMI Guide Alex Barber
It's snowing up here!
Today was a rest day here in Pheriche, and we went on a short acclimatization hike to 15,500' to take in the views. We set a new altitude record for some and even managed to see Island Peak down the neighboring valley.
The weather started clear once again but quickly turned to clouds and even began snowing a little bit right after we made it back and had lunch. At 3 pm the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA), which is a very small and seasonal hospital had a talk on Acclimatizing which we sat in on.
We wrapped up the evening with another wonderful meal here at the Himalayan Lodge in Pheriche and a few more games of Cribbage.
All is well and everyone is feeling well and in good spirits.
RMI Guide CaseyGrom and crew
Go William Wiley !!! The Himalayas look beautiful.
Posted by: Peter Mellini on 4/3/2015 at 4:47 pm
Please send my love to Bonny and Peter Rogers!! I am so happy to hear that you are all safe and hope that you are staying warm!
Posted by: Chelsea Hall on 4/1/2015 at 12:16 pm
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