April 17, 2012

IMG guide Liam O’Sullivan reports that the Ama Dablam team successfully flew to Lukla today, and had a nice trek to Phakding, down by the river.

Along the way they passed through the small village of Ghat, which is remembered by trekkers as the site of many chortens, mani stone walls, prayer wheels, and boulders painted with Tibetan mantras.  Quite the interesting place!

Eric Simonson

April 16, 2012

Kami and Liam at the Ministry, with the Ama Dablam permit.

IMG leaders Liam O’Sullivan and Ang Chirring (Kami) Sherpa report that they got the official permit yesterday at the Ministry of Tourism.

Today they will finish the gear checks and final packing, with departure for Lukla scheduled for early tomorrow morning.

So far so good!

Eric Simonson

November 10, 2011

Ama Dablam taken from Pumori Camp 1. (Photo by Eric Simonson)

This is Justin Merle writing from Kathmandu, where the Ama Dablam expedition is wrapping up.  Roger got on a plane last night, and Doug and Billy are headed home today.  Mark and Sierra have another day here, and Peter and I will stick around for a couple more days to tie up loose ends and do some organizing.

The last days of the trip went smoothly.  It was great to get back to our comfortable BC after the summit day. We were fairly tired, but the good cooking of Jor Bahudur Rai gave us some energy.  The next morning we finished up with some packing and had a short day walking down to Pangboche, the town where a some of our climbing Sherpas live.  That evening and the next morning, we were fortunate to spend some time visiting Ang Passang’s and Kami’s houses, and to meet some of their family.

We spent the next couple days walking to Namche Bazaar, then to Lukla.  Things went off without a hitch, and we were able to fly out to Kathmandu the following day.  I saw some folks flying out just before us who’d been stuck in Lukla with the bad weather, waiting to fly out for a week.  I guess we timed it right!

Personally, I had a wonderful time trekking again to Everest Basecamp and climbing on Lobuche and Ama Dablam.  Our group was fantastic, and it’s always a pleasure to work with our sherpa staff.  Thanks for a great one!

Justin Merle

November 8, 2011

Lukla Airport. (Photo by Eric Simonson)

The weather cleared yesterday and the Lukla flights have been going again, moving the backlog of trekkers after five days of bad weather.   Today Justin and the Ama Dablam team hiked down from Namche and they are hoping to fly tomorrow.  Mark and Sierra are scheduled to fly to Kathmandu on 3rd wave Tara Air flight and Justin and his crew are on 5th wave Sita Air flight. If the weather holds they should get back to Kathmandu mid day tomorrow.

Ang Jangbu

November 6, 2011

Ama Dablam rises above the village of Pangboche. (Photo by Eric Simonson)

Justin Merle reports that yesterday the climbers successfully descended to Base Camp and the Sherpas brought down the remaining loads.  Today the team descended to Pangboche, the home of our longtime IMG sirdar Ang Pasang, Kami, and a number of our IMG Sherpa team.  Tomorrow the team will hike to Namche.  The Lukla flights were cancelled again today (5 days in a row) so hopefully the weather down lower will clear out soon.

Eric Simonson

November 4, 2011

IMG leader Justin Merle called to report that the team had a good day today, with clear and cold weather.  Reaching the summit were Peter, Doug, Mark, Nima Karma, and Chewang Lendu.  Justin and Billy turned back just short of the summit due to Billy’s cold feet.  Billy got his feet warmed up on the descent and sustained no cold injury.  Good call, Billy!   On the descent the team dismantled Camp 2.7 and then Peter and the Sherpas went on down to Camp 1 with the gear and Mark continued all the way to Base Camp.  Justin, Doug, and Billy stopped at Camp 2 for tonight and will descend to BC tomorrow.  Tomorrow we have Kami, Ang Pasang, Chewang and Nima Karma heading back up to pull down the rest of the gear, and the whole team should be to Base Camp by tomorrow evening.

While the weather up high has stayed clear, down low in the valleys it is still socked in and the Lukla flights remained cancelled for the fourth consecutive day.  It is now estimated that there are 2000 trekkers stuck in Lukla waiting to fly out, and the helicopter charters also have long queues.  This is starting to look like a repeat of last year, when the flights were cancelled for a week!  Fortunately, our crew is not in a big rush and still have several more days of climbing and trekking before they are ready to start thinking about flights.  Walking out to Jiri (4 days from Lukla) or just hanging out in Namche is always a possibility if the weather remains bad down low.

Eric Simonson

November 3, 2011

Looking down the route from above Camp 3 (Photo by Justin Merle)

Justin Merle reports by sat phone that the Ama Dablam climbers all moved up higher today, and the weather is hanging in there.  Down lower it has been all socked in, with no Lukla flights for three days (the Lobuche climbers got out to KTM on the last flight before the weather set in).

Peter, Doug, Billy, Chewang, and Nima Karma are now at Camp 2.7 and Justin and Mark are at Camp 2.  The later will leave earlier, and meet the others higher up.  We are using Camp 2.7 now, instead of Camp 3, because there is less hazard from falling ice there.  We’ll be looking forward to hearing how it goes tomorrow!

Eric Simonson

November 2, 2011

Justin Merle reports by sat phone that Peter, Doug, Billy, Chewang, and Nima Karma moved up to Camp 2 today, while Justin and Mark moved up to Camp 1.  The route to Camp 2 is mainly rock climbing, along the ridge, punctuated but the “Yellow Tower” which requires a short near vertical pitch to get around it.   Camp 2 is a Classic, right on the ridge crest!  The plan for tomorrow is to move to Camp 2.7.

Eric Simonson

November 1, 2011

Camp 1 on top of the ridge. Note the climber in red just over halfway up the slope. (Photo by Justin Merle)

Justin Merle reports by sat phone that Peter, Doug, Roger, Billy, Chewang Lendu, Nima Karma, and Kami all made it up to Camp 1 today (19350 ft / 5900m).  They will see how they are feeling tomorrow—they may go to Camp 2 or take a rest day.

Justin is at BC with Mark and Sierra and they are hoping to move up tomorrow.  It sounds like Chewang Lendu and Nima Karma went to Camp 2 yesterday and set up 3 tents and also took some of the gear up for the high camp (Camp 2.7).

They said the route is looking good and everything is in place for the summit bids.

Eric Simonson