Hey this is Dave Hahn calling from Everest Base Camp. Today was another difficult day dealing with the tragedies from yesterday. The team members stayed in Base Camp today, it was cloudy, a little snowy, a little cold. Three of our Sherpa team, Tshering, Lam Babu and Pemba helicoptered up, with others, to the accident site to continue the difficult and dangerous work that some of us were engaged in yesterday of well, body retrieval at this point. There are still three missing, is my understanding, and they were not able to find those three. But they did a great job in going up and working hard and trying to make a difference and we are very proud of them.
The team is well, obviously, it is a difficult situation, everything is somewhat in limbo. There is word of a number of teams that are pulling the plug and are not going to climb. But we will see how these next couple of days play out. I told my climbers to be ready for anything.
We will keep you informed.
Bye now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from Everest Base Camp.
Good day, I learnt about the tragedy few days ago. Even though I have never been to Nepal, I have always interest in the Everest. Please stay strong. My thoughts and prayers with the sherpas and their families.
We had a long restful night of sleep at base camp and took our time in the morning as we eased into bacon and eggs while enjoying many cups of coffee and tea. In the afternoon we found a good crag near camp where we could work on more rope skills and set up rappel stations. The backdrop of the Ishinca valley and Tocllaraju made for a nice classroom setting. A quick but delicious dinner and early to bed for another alpine start as we put in our bids of Urus Este tomorrow morning.
A week ago, under the soft grey winter skies of Seattle, Jeff Martin and I hauled our 8 duffel bags from the loading curb at Sea Tac to the Korean Air check-in counter. Two window and one aisle seat, three oxygen masks safety demonstrations, about 5500 air miles, and one questionable airline fish meal later, we piled the duffels onto a rickety luggage cart and rolled them through the doors of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport into the turmoil of Kathmandu.
Since arrival our days are filled with preparations for RMI’s upcoming Everest Expedition. The array of moving parts that come together for a safe and successful Himalayan Expedition are at times overwhelming. It takes months of hard work by numerous people, both here in Kathmandu by our fantastic Nepali partners, High Altitude Dreams, to RMI’s preparations back in the States. While most of the minute to minute tasks are more of the mundane variety – from taking inventory of our lithium batteries supply (535) to the tetris challenge of packing the variety of medication and vitamin bottles into the tackle box of the Base Camp Medical Kit - the effect is invigorating. It is here in Kathmandu that the Everest Expedition morphs from the multiple separate components of focus that consumed our attention over the winter months to the cumulative creation of everyone’s efforts. It is here that the excitement builds and the climb begins to take shape. The Expedition becomes tangible and real: the tents and ropes are sorted and counted, the loads are packed and on their way by yak and porter to Base Camp, and the permit sits in front of us awaiting Dave Hahn’s signature as the Expedition Leader.
The preparations in Kathmandu also plunge us into the city’s daily chaos: dodging traffic rickshaws and speeding taxes in an almost desperate game of frogger to cross the street, navigating the narrow alley ways in order to track down a crucial item, finding relief in the living rooms of friends’ homes while sharing a cup of tea and catching up since the last visit.
On Saturday this teeming city of 1.4 million celebrated the Hindu Holi Festival, known as the Festival Of Colors – a holiday linked to several mythical tales in Hinduism and manifested in a messy, wild, and boisterous all day street party. Walking through the streets of Indra Chwok, a particularly narrow and busy neighborhood in Kathmandu’s heart, on Saturday, bands of people sang and danced in the streets, covering each other in red, yellow, black, and blue chalky powder as others dumped buckets of water from rooftops or lobbed water balloons from doorways. Amidst the frenzy of celebration, Jeff and I were greeted with shy hesitation at first –foreigners yet uncolored with powder amidst the festivities. Yet once a few brave souls rubbed our cheeks with powder we were marked: color came from every direction, buckets of water and water balloons launched our way. The hotel staff had more than a few chuckles when we walked in the door, grinning and covered in multiple colors.
This week our Island Peak and Base Camp Trek team heads into the Khumbu, followed days later by our Everest Team, and we are again immersed in the world of the mountains. The time spent with crampons on our feet is often the focus of our climbing pursuits but this time in Kathmandu is a reminder that this too is a part of the adventure - even when wearing flip flops. The months of hard work leading up to the mountain, the places we travel to, the sites we see, the people, the stories, and laughs we encounter along the way are all part of our mountaineering adventures.
- Linden Mallory
All the best to Jeff and Linden and climbers. Great to read the blogs…about as close as I’ll be getting to Everest for a while! Having been on an expedition with Jeff and Linden, this group is in good hands and will have a great adventure. Steve di Costanzo, Redding, CT
Posted by: Steve di Costanzo on 4/21/2011 at 3:00 am
You must be headed up the mountain by now, could not find anything online this morning. Will try later. Take care! Love, MA
Posted by: Mary Ann & Howard Latimer on 3/26/2011 at 9:11 am
Hey RMI, this is Casey calling in from Camp 1 on Cho Oyu.
We woke today to some pretty blustery skies and some snow whirling around so we decided to drag our feet a little to see if the weather would change a bit in our favor. Unfortunately, it did not. It seems like the jet stream is still a bit close to us here. It has made for some pretty miserable climbing conditions. Pretty high winds and snow blowing off of the surface which would make it challenging to see while climbing.
The team has been hunkered down here at Camp 1, or as we like to call it, "Camp Fun." We have been stuck in our tents for basically the last 24 hours and trying not to go stir crazy.
Everybody's in good spirits and we have our fingers crossed hoping that tomorrow proves to be a little nicer and allows us to sneak up to Camp 2. Everything else is going great and we'll try to touch base again tomorrow.
The Five Day Climb July 13 - 17 led by RMI Guides Nikki Champion and Jess Wedel chose today as their summit day. The teams reached the crater rim this morning with clear skies but windy conditions. The teams will return to Camp Muir for a well deserved rest and enjoy another night on the mountain. They will descend tomorrow to Paradise and return to Rainier BaseCamp.
The weather is beautiful today and our team is about 3 hours away from Basecamp. After we arrive, we’ll use the rest of the day for training and practice. We may try for the summit as early as tomorrow. Everyone is in good health, strong and excited for the summit attempt. We are presently in a valley where it’s difficult to get a signal but we will do our best to dispatch again soon.
RMI Guides Alex Van Steen & Mark Tucker
Another day of storm, as predicted and expected. But it seemed as though things were improving gradually and so we thought we might sneak up into position at Low Camp so as to be ready for the good weather. This plan worked well, at first. We packed up and got rolling from basecamp at 1:30 PM. At the big right-angle turn of the Branscomb Glacier we picked up our cache from yesterday and marched on. Travel was actually easier than it had been for the first Vinson team since much of the soft snow blew away. With a good path and calm and even occasionally sunny conditions, the miles flew by. We hit low camp at 9,300 ft right on five hours, at 6:30. That also happened to be the moment that the first big cold and random wave of wind played through. Sure enough, the storm had a sting in its tail. We got hammered by gusts as we carefully built our tents and lit stoves. It all certainly lent drama to our situation, but the team remained in good humor and coped well. Meals were served up in the sleeping tents instead of in the POSH, but that worked out just fine. By 10 PM the wind was behaving much better and it pretty much quit by midnight (although it can still be heard howling through high camp, 3,500 ft directly above us). Obviously we want our share of good and stable weather to begin tomorrow, but if necessary, we can wait right here for whenever the fine stuff shows up.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Here is the first dispatch from the third RMI Denali team! We are all packed up and ready to fly in the morning. Our team was efficient and prepared today as we organized all the necessary items for a Denali expedition. The weather is beautiful in Talkeetna and we are excited for the climb ahead.
*retraction* for Doug’s dad, yesterday was 15.5 miles per Doug’s phone. Some people had 14 miles…. it’s was a contentious dinner conversation.
Today we left Francis Domes after a windy night. The dome fabric was blowing in the wind, tired hikers snored, and the geodesic dome frames shook at times. We had some uphill, downhill, “matt approved” terrain and some dry riverbed for trail. Most of the hike was along Lago Nordenskjöd which was windy enough to have white caps and spray. 5-6 condors soared above and one below us which is rare for these large birds with a 6’/2m wing span….mas o menos. We enjoyed some great views of the Horns and got our first glimpse of the Torres as we rolled into our refugio.
The insatiable thirst returned, and we are looking forward to our last day up to the Torres tomorrow morning. It has been a great trip regardless of the heavily debated terrain and mileage discussions. This group has been one for the record books…in a good way!
La cumbre! We’re happy to report that 100% of our team stood on top of Cotopaxi at 6 am this morning! After two days of downpours, we slung our packs on just after midnight and stepped outside to see the lights of Quito glowing in the distance - the clouds had broken! Alas, it wasn’t long until a chilly wind decided to follow us as we climbed toward 17,000’ and the clouds came rushing back in. Fortunately it was short-lived when we got above the clouds at 19,000’ to see dawn on the horizon and a clear shot to the summit. After 5 hours and 45 minutes of climbing we stepped up onto the crater rim. We didn’t get the spectacular view of the crater we were hoping for (we did get the pungent smell of sulfur, though!), but a lot had gone right for us and we were psyched with our team’s effort to tag 19,348’! Mission accomplished. We said goodbye to our Ecuadorian friends and guides, Nacho and Jaime, this afternoon and will head back to Quito tomorrow morning for a final celebration before hopping on flights back to our hometowns.
RMI GuidesPeter Whittaker, Jess Matthews and Team
Happy Easter to all. bc
Posted by: bc on 4/20/2014 at 7:19 am
Hi
Good day, I learnt about the tragedy few days ago. Even though I have never been to Nepal, I have always interest in the Everest. Please stay strong. My thoughts and prayers with the sherpas and their families.
Best regards
Kok Wai
Singapore
Posted by: Kok Wai on 4/20/2014 at 6:25 am
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