We've enjoyed a very leisurely day here in Deboche, taking full advantage of our rest and acclimatization day. The morning broke clear and calm. From the windows of the tea-house we could see the summit of Everest and the surrounding peaks and we gazed out at the panorama of mountains over a breakfast of apple pancakes. After breakfast we grabbed a water bottle and few warm layers and walked through the rhododendrons of Deboche to the Buddhist Nunnery tucked inconspicuously off the trail on the other side of the village. We spent some time exploring their Gompa, with it's large prayer wheel and room for meditation and prayer all housed in a small compound.
We then climbed the hill back up the ridge top village of Tengboche, which we passed through yesterday, and continued further up it's ridge to a view point. Following a small path that see little travel, we passed dozens of long strings of prayer flags strung along the ridge, the five colors of the flags fluttering in the wind blowing up the valley, until we reached a small chorten. Below us the Tengboche Monastery stood on the ridge, surrounded by the skyline of sharp mountains stretching off in every direction. We relaxed up there, enjoying the views and the warm late morning sun while also taking advantage of the higher altitude to give our bodies some exposure to the new elevations before dropping down again.
Upon returning to Tengboche, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the cafe and bakery in the village, resting and reading while we passed the time. While there a trekker from Germany came in with a large gash on his head - while he was climbing the hill to Tengboche a passing yak herder threw a stone at one of his yaks to urge it on, however his aim was off and the rock hit the man squarely in the back of the head. Luckily for him, the doctor in our group sprang into action, quickly fixing him up and sending him on his way - relief and gratitude written clearly across his face.
The clouds settled in by later afternoon, covering the village in a thick fog that was punctuated only by the sound of the horns blowing from the Monastery announcing the afternoon prayers. We followed the monks into the large and ornately decorated prayer room at the center of the Monastery, framed around a statue of a sitting Buddha two stories tall. The monks settled into their blankets and poured steaming cups of tea while we found a seat along the edge of the room. Then a deep hum filled the chamber as they began to chant their prayers, each one accentuating a different syllable but beginning and ending each mantra in perfect unison.
Leaving the monastery we descended the fifteen minutes back to our tea-house and settled in around the fire while the clouds blew through the trees outside. It was a restful and enjoyable day, the ideal break from the hiking we've been doing before we head further up the valley to the village of Pheriche at 14,000' tomorrow. We have appreciated all of the comments and send our best to everyone at home.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Team,
Congrats! Sounds like everyone is doing very well. Amazing pictures and impressed w/ the ability to communicate so effectively.
All well here. I won’t tell you how warm it is, but Spring is in full bloom. Should be a beautiful Easter and everyone will be here—including Cookie.
Posted by: john on 3/21/2012 at 6:38 am
Getting great reports. Amazing how well the communications seem to flow. Congrats to all and good luck on next phase.
All is well here. I won’t tell you how warm it is, but Spring is in full bloom. Should be a pretty Easter w/ everyone home.
This morning we woke up to clear skies and beautiful views. Unfortunately, as we sipped on our morning coffee the clouds began to grow and the wind picked up. Today was not our summit day, instead we got the team moving around and doing more home improvements. I can positively say that RMI Okita has the best looking camp at 17.
Today's renovations included lowering the floor of the posh ( or cook tent) and revamping the kitchen scene. After these improvements were made everyone enjoyed some reading and napping before a delicious dinner of tortellini served with a cream garlic sauce and sun dried tomatoes. The conversation was flowing over dinner, with stories of bike racing, pets, hunting and books.
Again we are optimistic about tomorrow's weather, which is calling for a high pressure system to move in.
Wishing the wind away,
RMI Guides Lindsay, Leon, Brent and team
Hello out there. Billy here checking in for the rest of the gang after another day deep in the Khumbu. Not much to report on another rest day here, other than the fact that the NCell tower began sporadically working today after nearly a ten-day outage. Our team was starting to go crazy... I mean it was like camping back in the 90's where you were in a deep black hole.
Anyway, clear skies this morning meant more helicopters buzzing basecamp as a film production crew has been ferrying tons of equipment up valley. The rumor is that they'll need more than fifty flights to get all of their gear in, we're all looking forward to it! Regardless, we're rested and ready for the next phase of our climb which involves an early wakeup dress rehearsal for tomorrow. It's the last step before we begin our first true rotation up the mountain.
All for now, will check in again tomorrow after another romp through the icefall...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Casey Grom - just checking in on you. Just read about the avalanche and of course I immediately thought of you. Be safe.
- Janel
Posted by: Janel Miller on 4/18/2014 at 5:43 am
Posted by: Janel Miller on 4/18/2014 at 7:04 am
Nicole & Team sending blessings and prayers up to the top of the world. Thinking of you all, all those who left families and friends behind. Praying you are all safe, warm, healthy, and in good strong spirits.
Greetings,
We had a good first night at Camp 1. Everyone is doing great and feeling strong.
We did sleep in a little this morning and woke up to a beautiful cloudless day. A welcome treat after the last few mornings of rain. After breakfast we headed downhill to pick up our cache that we left two days ago. It was a quick roundtrip and we were back in camp by lunch. Since it was a rest day, we fired up the stoves and had quesadillas for lunch and lounged around camp.
Starting tomorrow, we will be on the glacier for the rest of the climb. We wanted to get a little review in, so we went out on the glacier to practice some cramponing and ice ax arrest. We are all ready for tomorrow!
Now we are back at camp hydrating and trying to make a dent in our pile of snack food.
Dinner will come soon enough and we enjoying the late afternoon sun and the constantly changing colors on the upper mountain. What a view.
All the best,
RMI Guides Jeff Martin, Pete Van Deventer, and team
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from Mount Everest. We're still doing voice dispatches. We don't have internet connectivity yet. There is hope that we'll have it in the next couple of days if they fix the cell tower down valley.
Things are going well up here. Our Sherpa team and our guide team went through the Icefall yesterday. Some of the first to go through the Khumbu Icefall for this season. We went to Camp 1 and came back down yesterday morning. All was well. Today the climbing team, went to Pumori Camp 1. Pumori is one of the beautiful mountains around base camp. Of course we didn't go for the summit of that; it would be pretty technical. But going up to Camp 1 was good exercise and got us up to some altitude. It wasn't the best day for being out in the hills. It was kind of snowy and gray but we made a good outing out of it. And then had an easy afternoon back here at base camp, so everything's going well. The base camp is filling up. Lots of teams coming in now. So it's getting a little bit more like regular Everest season by now. All for today. We'll keep in touch.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Dave Hahn calls in after first time this season through the Khumbu Icefall.
Another day at 14,200 ft on Denali... waiting for the sun. For as ominous as things appeared when we turned in last night, things stayed relatively calm through morning. We enjoyed a few hours of sunshine and the team made good use by cutting snow blocks and fortifying our dining tent. Meanwhile, a couple of guides from each of three different teams (and three different guide companies) made forays onto the first hill en route to the fixed ropes. Each made assessments of the snowpack independently, but then we compared notes and found all were in agreement... there were positive signs that stabilizing processes were ongoing, but these were still definitely outweighed by the signs that unstable conditions prevailed. Too much chance of avalanche. No climbing the West Buttress today. Back together at 14 camp, Tim Hardin gave our assembled team a great lesson in snow science, explaining how a pit dug in suspect snow could reveal plenty about the layers within the pack and their ability to hold to one another... or slide. The day turned cloudy as usual and light snow fell again. There was some letup at dinner and we enjoyed views of the wind-sculpted cloud caps on Denali, Foraker and Hunter. We were each challenged again to stay tough, patient and focused as we said goodbye to three more of the guided groups we've shared the hill with. This once bustling and eager climbing camp is down to three guided teams and one small independent team. We're still getting good forecasts for the days ahead- of cloud and snow and more cloud, we are just hoping they turn out to be wrong.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hoping your patience will be rewarded with good conditions soon and that you are not bored to tears :)
Posted by: Monica on 7/14/2012 at 2:54 pm
Mark: I am following you from muggy AZ. Now wouldn’t you prefer Kilimanjaro’s warm 14,000ft weather to yours? Ha, ha. You are trooper and I am proud of you. The Wilson name of adventurers continues in you!
Love, Jan
June 14, 2017
Greetings from 17 Camp. Today high winds and low temps provided a combo that will keep us from climbing Denali for another day. But our fingers are crossed that tomorrow may have something better in store for us, so please do the same down in the south land. Hopefully we will be calling you with a little bit different news. For right now the team is doing 17,000' Camp, we are hunkered down, being patient, full bellies, happy, healthy and hoping to go for the summit soon. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Cheryl just got your text and hope you reach the summit tomorrow. Be careful and my prayers will be with you and your team. Love you.
Posted by: Jo on 6/15/2017 at 9:17 pm
Jim Walker—good luck on the climb to the summit. All of the Guff clan and all of Vineyard Lane is very proud of you. We look forward to hearing all about the climb in detail over some good burgundy at the Chanty. Be safe. Drew
Well hello, Mark Tucker here. On the top of Kilimanjaro one more time! Uhuru Peak looking all the way into Kenya, beautiful day! A big shout out to last week's team. Sorry to inform you, we had a pretty breezeless day. Hardly any wind. You guys had a tough day. You guys hung in there, fantastic. We have a colonel from the armed services with us on this trip and he brought out the Old Glory. A beautiful flag that he has had all over the world during his services. A real special moment for us all. The team is doing great. Everybody's doing well. We're going to go ahead and knock this one off and head on down here. All is well and thanks for checking in on us.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and team on the Kilimanjaro summit!
Mark Tucker here calling here from Island Peak Base Camp. We had a 3-hour hike up from Chukung to a nice lunch. Beautiful day. Nice and warm until the sun set and now a little bit of clouds and wind. Came out to a little ridge here to get a better signal. I'm in three layers, heavy down and it is chilly. I guess it could be worse. We've had a great day so far. Everybody's doing well. We have a fabulous staff assisting us so overall, as a mountaineer goes, we've got it pretty easy. It is still a tough environment to handle. We are all doing well. We are all looking forward to a late start tomorrow up to our high camp. Beautiful, beautiful day. Peaks surrounding us, just awesome to stare at. Had a nice dinner and it is into the sleeping bag with my favorite water bottle to get me through the night. All's well.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in from Island Peak Base Camp.
Team,
Congrats! Sounds like everyone is doing very well. Amazing pictures and impressed w/ the ability to communicate so effectively.
All well here. I won’t tell you how warm it is, but Spring is in full bloom. Should be a beautiful Easter and everyone will be here—including Cookie.
Posted by: john on 3/21/2012 at 6:38 am
Getting great reports. Amazing how well the communications seem to flow. Congrats to all and good luck on next phase.
All is well here. I won’t tell you how warm it is, but Spring is in full bloom. Should be a pretty Easter w/ everyone home.
Posted by: john on 3/21/2012 at 6:21 am
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