Entries By dave hahn
June 27, 2014 - 12:00 am PT
We were up and hustling to get ready this morning, anxious for the chance to get on
Mount McKinley. But it turned out, after breakfast and a walk in the rain to the airstrip, that there wasn't too great a chance for flying today. The word was that several feet of new snow had fallen overnight at Basecamp. The snow, cloud and wind were predicted to continue up there for the day, but we were put on standby just in case things broke. We made good use of the day in the
K2 Aviation hangar, reviewing rope techniques for glacier travel. The rain and low cloud persisted, but we stayed dry enough. We had one more "last" dinner in town and turned in to be ready for another day and another try.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
June 25, 2014 - 11:35pm PT
A rainy and grey morning in Talkeetna didn't stop our team from a seven o'clock breakfast meeting at Talkeetna's great Roadhouse. We were primed and ready for our important orientation at the
Talkeetna Ranger Station at 8:30. Our climbers were honored to have Roger Robinson himself give the presentation. Roger has been climbing Denali and rescuing Denali climbers for close to four decades now. Then it was out to the K2 Aviation hangar where we spread out our gear and got down to the nuts and bolts of figuring out exactly what to bring on the climb and what to leave behind. It took much of the afternoon to sort gear and to get it all weighed, inventoried and ready for flying. So it became an "indoors" day, which was just fine. Rain kept falling and there was precious little flying going on out at the normally bustling Talkeetna Airport. The team got together finally for what we hope will be our last dinner in town for some time. It was a fine feast, but we'd just as soon be on climbing rations when supper time rolls around tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide
Dave Hahn
June 25, 2014 - 12:26 am PT
And so it begins... The last
RMI Denali team of 2014 took shape today in the Anchorage airport. We assembled, seven climbers and four guides from around the world lugging about 23 or 24 giant duffel bags of cold weather gear. The team took a ride with Denali Overland, our shuttle service to Talkeetna. The three hour trip was broken by a stop for provisions in Wasilla, but then we powered on up the Parks highway to our Talkeetna turnoff. We had pretty good views of the Chugach Range as we left Anchorage but the Alaska Range stayed mostly hidden under cloud. There were some scattered rain showers to see, and a Bald Eagle or two, but no moose this time. We were in Talkeetna by 8:30 PM and getting settled into the comfortable Talkeetna Motel not much later. The big work of preparing to fly onto Denali begins in the morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
In Lukla, roughly eight thousand vertical feet below our
Everest Basecamp home of the past three weeks, we were pretty comfortable. But just for one night. The team was awake by five am yesterday, eating by 5:30 and walking over to the airport check-in at six. We watched -partly in awe, partly in horror- as Twin Otters, Dorniers and A-Stars roared in and out of the compact one acre loading and unloading zone, pirouetting into place, revving engines, disgorging trekkers, cases of beer and heavy bags of rice at a frenetic pace. When summoned by frantic hand gestures, we shouldered our packs, walked out onto the tarmac and took over the seats in a Twin.
A few minutes later, we were in the air, over a few craggy passes and cruising toward Kathmandu. Upon landing, we were no-longer climbers, or even would-be climbers, we were happily transformed to overdressed tourists. As such we took off a few layers and began showering, shaving and eating eating eating.
Although we are still far from home, the program is finished. We continue to enjoy each other's company, we still rely on one another to make sense of the sad events and unexpected turns our trip has taken. The team is grateful that so many have followed our journey on the blog and offered up kind words and support.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Billy Nugent led the way out of Namche, down the big hill and into the valley of a thousand farms and small villages. We made it in six hours to a comfy tea house next to the
airstrip in Lukla. The rain caught us for the last hour or so, but didn't actually bother anybody enough to make them put a raincoat on. We ate the afternoon away in our new low-altitude home. Mark Tucker made a surprise appearance for dinner, having finished up his duties at Basecamp today and figured out a way to heli-hike in minutes what had filled up three days for the rest of us. We are now poised for an early wake-up and some airport hustle that may or may not get us to Kathmandu by fixed-wing aircraft. All depends on the weather.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Today was a big walking day, up and down the hills of the Khumbu Valley from Pheriche to Namche. Right out of Pheriche, where we started hiking at 8 AM, we crossed the river, climbed a hill and turned into the inhabited portions of the Khumbu. We turned our backs on rocks and ice and walked down into rhododendrons, pine trees and villages.
JJ led the way as we rolled through Shomare, Pangboche, Deboche, Thyangboche, and Phunky Tonga. We got hot enough to sweat a bit, which was a novelty, we passed a million trekkers and heard about a million helicopter laps as the B2's and B3's flew over us on their way back and forth to
Everest Base. Finally, at midday, we got working our way up the giant dusty hill that would put us on level with Namche. It took us about six hours to reach Namche -still quite familiar to us since we spent three days acclimating in town on the way in. This time... no acclimatization needed... so fine to be below 12,000 ft for the first time in close to a month. The team enjoyed a fine evening at comfortable Camp De Base.
One more big day of hiking to go before Lukla International.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Our last night in base was made dramatic by a lightning storm rolling through. A few inches of snow fell thick and fast, making morning, bright, fresh and beautiful. At 11:15 AM we filed out of the ghost town that
Mount Everest Basecamp has become. The climbing team, accompanied by Lam Babu, made good time in losing three and a half thousand feet to reach Pheriche in four hours and forty-five minutes. We each paid Everest's summit a couple of last longing looks during the march, but then paid more attention to the task at hand; walking an uneven, slippery mountain trail while dodging trekkers, yaks and porters. The gang stuck together wonderfully, demonstrating what a close knit and fit climbing team we've become. With each village on the descent, through Gorak Shep, Lobuche and Thukla, we each noticed the thicker and easier air. We coughed less and walked faster. All enjoyed seeing the baby yaks trying out their legs on our homestretch into Pheriche. Tonight, we are indoors again... safe, enjoying each other's company, and quite comfortable. We hope things are going well for
Mark Tucker and the bulk of our Sherpa Team, back at EBC for a last couple of days to button things up properly.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
We began the day with hope that we might be getting closer to resuming climbing.
Billy and
JJ took the climbers hiking while
Mark Tucker and I met with a number of other climb leaders and Sherpa sirdars. Those meetings convinced us that the right course was to give up on
Mount Everest for Spring 2014. In future dispatches, we'll try to quantify the reasons for such a decision. But for now, suffice to say that the risks outweigh the possibility of success.
This week has been a roller coaster of emotion for many of us, from the horror that came with the avalanche of April 18, to the confusion that followed it regarding the right course to take for balancing respect for the dead, concern for team safety and summit ambitions. Following the accident, our list of serious obstacles to an
Everest summit was always significant, but we believed it worthwhile to continue looking for some way forward. Our climbers, Sherpas, guides, and outfitters had put too much into the planning and execution of this trip to let go of the goal with less than our best effort. We've given that now.
We'll start heading for home soon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The skies were sunny with warm temperatures today at
Everest Base Camp. Our climbers took a few short hikes around the lower glacier and then a bit of cards and board games to keep our minds busy. There is community gathering for a remembrance scheduled for tomorrow.
RMI Guide & Base Camp Manager Mark Tucker
On The Map
Still at
Everest Base. Still a very difficult situation for all involved.
JJ and
Billy led the climbing team on a hike to Pumori Camp One today, where they enjoyed awesome views of
Mount Everest (during our hike to the same point last week we had no views due to an ill-timed and swirling snowstorm). Mark Tucker and I attended a series of somewhat tense and serious meetings between team leaders, Sherpas, and the few government representatives present in camp. It is very difficult to say what will happen going forward but one cannot under emphasize the enormity of the tragedy to the Sherpa community. Each team, if it has not suffered death and loss directly, has lost relatives, close friends and neighbors to the icefall avalanche of April 18. In too many cases, survivors saw the friends perish before their eyes or else they dealt with the difficult aftermath of body recovery personally.
Our Sherpa partners love their jobs and love to climb, but nobody is climbing now and all are struggling to come to terms with how to proceed in a way that honors those lost and protects those left alive.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Good luck to all for a fabulous and safe climb. Only 3,994,000,000,000 nanometers to the top!
Posted by: Geoff Clark on 6/27/2014 at 9:02 am
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