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