This is from KING 5 News special coverage about United Way's Climb for the Community up Mount Rainier, which took place July 5-8, 2009. The climb team, which was lead by mountaineering legend Ed Viesturs, included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Seattle Seahawks coach Jim Mora and United Way CEO Jon Fine.
Jambo!
The Safari Team is back at the Dik Dik! We've had a great couple of weeks but our trip is just about over. Last night we stayed at Kikoti Camp, an amazing safari camp that has tons of wildlife literally right in the middle of it. We went on a great little hike to a rock outcropping where we had drinks delivered while we enjoyed the sunset. It made for a great finish to an outstanding trip. Now everyone is busy getting ready for their respective flights home.
Thanks for a great trip guys!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
We had a short day getting to our camp at Lake Ann on Tuesday. The Fisher Chimneys were too wet for us to ascend any higher. So we woke up early to make our attempt at the summit. Starting in the dark and ending in the dark meant we had a very long and very hard but successful summit day yesterday. Today we will descend to the trail head and complete our program.
The most famous RMI guide that ever lived was also a profoundly humble man in an arena not known for fostering humility. Nawang Gombu Sherpa was a man of many such contrasts.
My memories of working with Gombu aren’t unique or privileged. I wasn’t seeing some side of him that others weren’t privy to. But because of his unassuming nature, casual acquaintances might have mistaken his stature in the world. Certainly not, if they’d studied mountaineering and 20th century world history. Gombu was the first man to summit Mount Everest twice. He was the longtime director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and he was nephew to Tenzing Norgay. He was the youngest Sherpa on the successful 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition and was one of the last surviving climbing Sherpas of that heroic era.
Nawang Gombu had met the queen of England on several occasions. You can find a picture of him in a 1963 National Geographic magazine placing a silk scarf of friendship around John F. Kennedy’s neck in the Rose Garden. But if you worked and lived with Gombu around Mount Rainier in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s… you probably don’t remember him doing a whole lot of explaining as to why he was so special. More likely you remember him working very hard. And as he got a bit older and less capable on the mountain, some may remember that he also worked hard down around the guide shop, pushing a broom or helping with rental gear.
Despite his unfailingly open and friendly personality, it wasn’t the easiest thing for a young guide to get to know Gombu. He was from a different generation and a vastly different culture and so he talked and acted a little differently… and often times he was a bit needy since he was somewhat isolated in Ashford without a car. So, while everybody called him a friend… that was pretty easy with Gombu, it took a little extra effort for someone to actually be his friend and include him in activities and routines. But for that Gombu was always profoundly grateful. I’m embarrassed now to remember how many times he cooked me dinner and then didn’t allow me to wash dishes afterward. There wasn’t even any question on that… he’d just push you out of the way (and he never lost that particular strength). We did have some fun together… but not enough to justify all of that dishwashing on his part. I’d take him into the suburbs for haircuts and shopping trips to the malls. We’d go into downtown Seattle so I could obsess over shiny climbing gear in the stores. We went rock climbing out at Leavenworth (Gombu was better than I was, not surprisingly) and we even went to the soldout Kingdome to watch Ken Griffey Jr. hit a homerun (his ninth in nine games… it was a big deal). I recall how amused the people in the stands around us were to hear me trying to explain baseball to a Cricket fan… if only they’d known who he was. But I thought that a lot back then, since, as I say, Gombu didn’t go out of his way to let people know he was famous.
Which brings me back to the guide shop and a typical start to a day on Mount Rainier in which I’d meet a bunch of new climbing enthusiasts. They’d introduce themselves and detail their previous successes and immediately I’d find out about the banks and corporations they headed, and I’d hear about their ambitions for high places and their admiration for those that had already been to those places. And amidst all the introductory chest thumping (not just theirs… my chest got worked as well) I’d look over to see Gombu sweeping dust off the rental counter and I’d pause to consider that those captains of industry - and I - might not ever meet a greater mountain climber than the small, friendly, quiet legend who’d just fitted them for boots.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn, June 17, 2011
The Mt. Shuksan - Sulphide Glacier Climb led by RMI Guide James Bealer were unable to make a summit attempt on Mt. Shuskan due to rain and wind. While not the mountain experience the team hoped for, the team's time on the mountain was a true mountain experience. The team is back in town and preparing to warm up over burgers and beers.
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
My thoughts are with all affected by the tragedy. I can only imagine the impact it has had on you all personally. I have no doubt that you, JJ, and all the team members will make the right decision, whether that means retreating or pressing on to the summit, that most honors those lost and respects the memory and wishes of the Sherpa community. Stay strong and climb safe.
On this glorious morning, we awoke to partly sunny skies and light snow showers (for those who don't know, this means mostly cloudy.) As temperatures warmed, we all gathered in the posh for another round of pancake Hibachi. Yours truly went for broke and landed a double pancake flip (that is one pancake flipping twice). Unfortunately, the blast wave of this extreme maneuver broke our big strong Andy's fork.
To make the most of our relatively mild weather and rest day, we headed out of camp and practiced fixed line travel and clipping pickets. The team did great and is ready for whatever gloves the mountain throws at them.
Famished, we made our way back to camp to gorge on snacks, mainly cheese. This helped quell our toilet paper crisis for the near future.
After dinner and a sweet treat of Jack's cheesecake the team retired to hopefully sleep deep and oxygen rich.
It has been a very satisfying past two days as we have descended from high camp with our sights set on Lukla and the flight ready to take us back to Kathmandu.
On Monday we left our beautiful camp situated at 17,200 feet on the western flanks of Lobuche peak and began our descent towards Pangboche, where we would spend the night. We passed many other camps of expeditions who will use this mountain as a warmup for Everest in the coming months; acclimatizing enough to hopefully skip a rotation through the dreaded Khumbu ice fall which looks quite treacherous this season compared to years past. After getting through the valley and back onto the main trail, we were astonished by how much the river had risen due the warming temperatures compared to crossing it just a week previous. The weather and temperatures are definitely concerning because of the impacts on the glaciers and the volatility it creates in the mountains. We are glad to have climbed when we did and be finished before things get too melted.
Upon our arrival in Pheriche, we ate some lunch, repacked a few things then hit the dusty trail for a few more hours of walking down to Pangboche. Feeling happy about our climb and healthy from the thick oxygen of 13,000 feet, the team went out for beers before dinner and enjoyed a couple hours of well-deserved free time resulting in fun conversation and reflection of the trip. By 8:30, we were mostly in bed resting for yet another day of walking to Namche.
Come morning we put the ball in motion almost automatically by this point and headed off by 8:15 for our 10 miles to Namche. This team is now very accustomed to these distances, and we arrived in Camp de Base by 2:00 pm leaving us a solid few hours to shower, rest and shop before needing to eat more food, which is the general past time we all need to indulge in because three meals a day is no joke.
Now, at 9:00pm on Tuesday evening we are back in our rooms ready for 10 more hours of sleep before biting off the last leg to Lukla tomorrow. This place is almost indescribable in both beauty and hospitality, but nothing beats home after a long visit.
Stay tuned to see if we can fly when scheduled. It is often times the most unpredictable part of the trip.
The Five Day Climb June 3 - 7, 2021 is completing their climb today. The teams did training at Paradise on Friday with instruction on cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest. On Saturday they made the ascent from Paradise to Camp Muir. Yesterday, they enjoyed some additional time walking in crampons and working as a rope team by walking to Ingraham Flats at 11,200'. This allowed them to see abit of the route in the day light hours. They planned their summit attempt for today but unfortuaty the team was unable to make a summit attempt due to high winds. According to the Camp Muir Telemetry wind averages were 34 - 53 mph with gusts up to 68 mph.
The teams will descend from Camp Muir to Paradise and make the drive back to Ashford. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Like most good climbing plans, I was told that the idea for the Climb for Five was hatched in a pub a while back. Already involved in the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a volunteer charity that raises money for childhood cancer research, the three climbers came up with the idea of tackling serious mountaineering objectives in an effort to raise money and awareness for St. Baldrick's by using the metaphor of climbing to illustrate the challenges and trials children go through while battling cancer. Hence, on Sunday September 18th, Patrick, Eric, Jon and I gathered under a thick layer of grey and drizzly clouds hanging over Rainier BaseCamp to tackle Mt. Rainier over the course of a 5 day Expedition Skills Seminar - Camp Muir.
The days of near fifty degree temperatures and rain, coming down in sheets at times, did not do much to instill confidence in the conditions above. Yet within a half an hour of leaving the trail head at Paradise the clouds thinned and by the time we reached 7,600' on the Muir Snowfield we were standing in the sun above the low-lying maritime clouds. Above us Mt. Rainier stood proudly with a fresh layer of snow from the recent storm blanketing its' slopes. During the rest of the climb to Muir, Patrick further explained the concept for Climb for Five to me: St. Baldrick's chooses five Ambassador Kids every year, representing that for every 5 children that get childhood cancer only 4 survive. The Climb for Five honors those Ambassadors; each day of the climb is chosen to honor one of the kids and the climbers carried keepsakes from each of the kids with them throughout the climb.
After a full day of training, learning the fundamentals of safe climbing and glacier travel techniques, exploring the Cowlitz Glacier outside of Camp Muir, and preparing ourselves for the climbing above, we set off on our summit bid under a beautifully starry sky early Wednesday morning. The new snow on the mountain smoothed over the rocky sections of the mountain and we made good progress across Cowlitz and Ingraham Glaciers and onto Disappointment Cleaver. Just before sunrise, breathing hard from the exertion at those altitudes, we reached the top of the Cleaver and added more clothes to fight the biting predawn winds. Continuing above the Cleaver the sun finally began to break above the horizon of eastern Washington and gave way to one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen on the mountain. The unsettled layers of clouds filtered the light such that shades of pink, red, yellow, orange, green, and blue were simultaneously covering the mountain's glaciers and the surrounding landscape below. The array of colors around us contrasted sharply with the traditional monotones of high alpine environments of rock, ice, and snow. Unfortunately, those same unsettled clouds soon overtook the sun and by 13,500' we were enveloped in a cloud cap, covering us in a thick layer of rime ice and blowing just enough to add to the challenge of making the final 900' of climbing to the summit.
Standing on top, buffeted by the wind and precipitation, Eric and Patrick unfurled the St. Baldrick's Banner and then pulled out a few keepsakes in memory of Arden, the Ambassador Kid for whom we were climbing that day. We then turned back and set our sights on descending. Like children battling cancer, reaching the summit is only half of the battle - the road to recovery once defeating the cancer is as long and as challenging as retracing one's route back down the mountain. We carefully picked our way back down Mt. Rainier's flanks, weaving our way amongst the seracs and around the gaping late-season crevasses that cover the mountain back to camp.
The winds from higher on the mountain descended not long behind us and continued to blow for the next several days while we finished the rest of the Seminar: building snow anchors, practicing the rigging systems needed for crevasse rescue, and ice climbing on the Cowlitz Glacier before descending back to Ashford on Friday. Taking part in the Climb for Five was a special experience for me and I feel fortunate to be involved. Having lost a sister to cancer as a kid, I share the same with the climbers of the Climb for Five and the entire climb struck a chord with me and I look forward to future climbs with this team. Thanks to Patrick, Eric, Jon, and St. Baldrick's for pursuing this endeavor, RMI is proud to be a part of it.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Great read Linden, I feel that I was there with you. It was fantastic to meet you and the Climb For Five team. Seeing you guys leave for the climb and to see you come back was special. Thanks for looking after the guys.
cheers,
Holdeen
Posted by: Holdeen Cushing-murray on 9/27/2011 at 7:21 pm
As the team leader and founder of Climb For Five , I would like to thank Linden and all the staff at RMI for a well run course. The weather was taxing at times but the whole crew from RMI kept our spirits up and made sure that we were safe and enjoyed the whole experience.
Our experience while climbing Rainier has provided us with a new skill set that will allow us to move forward with our other planned climbs over the next few years. We will definitely be using RMI and hopefully Linden for our next climbs. So thank you RMI and Linden for all that you have taught us, we look forward to future climbs with you guys.
Patrick and all the kids from Climb For Five.
Posted by: Patrick Mc Carrick on 9/27/2011 at 11:13 am
My thoughts are with all affected by the tragedy. I can only imagine the impact it has had on you all personally. I have no doubt that you, JJ, and all the team members will make the right decision, whether that means retreating or pressing on to the summit, that most honors those lost and respects the memory and wishes of the Sherpa community. Stay strong and climb safe.
Posted by: Everett Moran on 4/22/2014 at 11:56 am
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