Hello to and once again thanks for all of your support.

This is Ryan Waters, Expedition Leader for the 2005 Summitclimb Mt. Everest Tibet Expedition, checking in from Kathmandu. Our expedition is now underway, as the Summitclimb and Parivar Trekking sherpa staff are busy doing the final packing and logistics for our expedition. We have been busy packing everything from tents to stoves to ice screws for the overland journey to the Nepal and Tibet border and eventually on to Basecamp. Some of our members are in Kathmandu now, including Bob Guthrie and Steve Poulsen, and we are expecting Neal Jing to arrive today. The rest of our members, Fredrick Hans Strang and Magnus Flock are in Nepal trekking and beginning their acclimatization, so they will meet us in Tibet along with Rikard Mansson who is travelling in from Hong Kong. We have a strong team of climbers and we are excited to be getting underway on our expedition. Things are peaceful here in kathmandu and we are enjoying some good food and rest before starting toward the mountain. We are especially excited to have a great staff for this expedition including all star climber Jangbu Sherpa and the one and only Kipa Sherpa cooking for us. Below is our expedition list.

Steve Poulsen, Climber, USA

Bob Guthrie, Climber, USA

Neal Jing, Climber, USA

Fredrick Strang, Climber, Sweden

Magnus Flock, Climber, Sweden

Rikard Mansson, Climber, Sweden

Ryan Waters, Expedition Leader, USA

 

Jangbu Sherpa, Climbing Sirdar

Dawa Sherpa

Pema Rinji Sherpa

Ang Babu Sherpa

Furtenji Sherpa

Kipa Sherpa, Head Cook

 

3 Tibetan Climbers

1 Tibetan Cook

2 Tibetan cookboys

(we will meet our Tibetan Staff in Tingri)

 

Thanks to all of our family, friends, sponsors, and everestnews.com

 

SummitClimb runs unguided Expeditions to many 8000 meter mountains including Everest..

 

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This is Ryan Waters checking in from Kathmandu. We are now in the final logistics preparation before traveling to Tibet. All of our climbing team members with the exception of Neal Jing, are now in Tibet traveling from Lhasa slowly towards basecamp. These members are enjoying the people, culture, and amazing scenery of Tibet while taking time to acclimatize slowly and work their way towards the mountain with some of our Summitclimb staff. Neal is here in Kathmandu and will be traveling with the rest of us tomorrow to Tibet. Unfortunately, there is a peaceful transportation strike here in the rural areas outside the capital, so we will most likely load all of our gear and people into a helicopter and fly to the Border town of Kodari in the morning.

We are looking forward to getting underway, as usual there has been a lot of preparation and loose ends to tie up before getting started and everyone has been working really hard to get things ready! The Summitclimb Everest South side expedition left this morning for the flight to Lukla and are making their way toward the mountain so we would like to wish them a safe and successful trip.

We will check in from Tibet in the following days. Thanks again for your support. This is Ryan signing out.

Below is our expedition list.

Steve Poulsen, Climber, USA

Bob Guthrie, Climber, USA

Neal Jing, Climber, USA

Fredrick Strang, Climber, Sweden

Magnus Flock, Climber, Sweden

Rikard Mansson, Climber, Sweden

Ryan Waters, Expedition Leader, USA

 

Jangbu Sherpa, Climbing Sirdar

Dawa Sherpa

Pema Rinji Sherpa

Ang Babu Sherpa

Furtenji Sherpa

Kipa Sherpa, Head Cook

 

3 Tibetan Climbers

1 Tibetan Cook

2 Tibetan cookboys

(we will meet our Tibetan Staff in Tingri)

 

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This is Ryan Waters checking in from Shigar Tibet. Our expedition team members are all reunited here and feeling good. Some of our staff is already setting up our basecamp so we are looking forward to getting up there soon. The weather is very windy here, but today it is sunny. Some of us enjoyed a nice helicopter ride to the border, bringing much of our gear from Nepal, before heading up to Shigar. The others came in from Lhasa and had a great experience visiting the Potala Palace and seeing the sights around that area. A few of our members will head up to basecamp in the morning and the others will stay an extra day here to acclimatize a bit more.

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This is Jon Otto, helping out with expedition planning. Rikard, Magnus, Fredrik, Bob, Steve, and I drove from Lhasa to Shigatse on April 7th. The next day we toured the Tashilhunpo Monastery, the largest functioning Monastery in Tibet belonging to the Yellow hat sect. We then took an acclimatization hike up the hill behind the monastery. The ridge was strung with countless prayer flags, some spanning over 100 meters long. There myriad of dizzying colors flapping in the wind above, around and below us, leaving us in awe. That evening we had a fabulous meal of Sichuan food.

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This is Fredrik Strang, member of the expedition. The best so far was the view of Everest once we flew over the Himalayan range from Kathmandu to Lhasa. You could almost touch the mountain, well that was the kind of feeling I got when I saw it a couple of hundred meters on the left wing. Remember to get a seat on the left wing of the plane!

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This is Magnus Flock also one of the Swedish member this is the biggest adventure and its gonna be so fantastic to see and to feel this amazing mountain. All the best.

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Hi! This is Rikard also a Swedish member of this expedition. Tomorrow we are going to base camp and our expedition will start for real.. Will be really fun and exciting!

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This is Neal Jing, the only Chinese American in the team. It’s been great so far, eating well and eating a lot, sleeping well. In fact, I had a wonderful dream last night, but I could not share it right now… Have been trying to call home, but did not have much success. I’d like to thank all the friends for the great send away party. I already miss you all!

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This is Steve Poulsen from Colorado. We had an amazing tour of Lhasa and Shigatse and are about to leave Shigar for Base Camp where the real fun will begin. After a month or so of going up and down the mountain to get used to the altitude, we will head for the summit sometime in May. Watch this spot for updates on our great adventure.

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Bob here – I hope all my friends and family are well, Communication has been catch as catch can, but want to let you all know that I am well and we are on our way to BC from Shigar. We met up with the rest of our ‘Nepal based’ team this afternoon – Neal Jing, Ryan Waters, the Sherpas and Tibetan support staff. We did hit our highest pass at 7.5K! The dirt roads were rough but new ones in the works. A big hello to Mom & Pops, my sisters and brother. Special thanks to Kevin, Jeff, Chris and my Pals at Cornice. Hi to Lyle and the 7th grade class at Sunset! Namaste.

Below is an updated list of our Tibetan staff: Special thanks to the Tibet

Guide School:

Tibetan Climbers:

Pasang

Penba

Wangdu

Luda

 

Tibetan Kitchen Staff:

Sange

Pubu Tseren

Danzeng Tsewang

Chamba

 

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Update: Hello, this is Ryan checking in for the SummitClimb Everest North Ridge Expedition. It's April 13, all of our members and all of our staff are in Base Camp. It's a beautiful afternoon today. We've been busy getting personal gear ready. Most of our members went down to visit the Rongbuk Monastery today to have a Puja ceremony with a Lama. The rest of us stayed and worked on arranging loads for our Yaks which are scheduled to arrive the morning of the 15th. We're planning on starting to head up towards ABC and initially going to an intermediate camp halfway probably the 16th. Everyone's feeling pretty good, there're the usual coughs and sore throats, but no problems that are anything serious. We'll give a call back in when we are starting off towards ABC. Thanks again for all your help. We'll talk to you later, goodbye.

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Hello, this is Ryan Waters calling from SummitClimb Everest North Ridge Expedition here in Tibet. It's April 24, I'm calling from Base Camp at approximately 17,000 feet. All of our members are down here at Base Camp now, down from ABC. We've come down to take a rest, to do a little bit of relaxing and enjoy the relative warmth of Base Camp and do a little bit of clothes washing and bathing and all that good stuff for a few days, kind of recharge everything.

 

 

My plan is to start heading back up towards ABC in about two to three days depending on which members are going to start on various schedules. The plan is to go back to ABC and then start climbing in the coming days to the high camps, Camp One then climbing up towards Camp Two, carrying loads, things like that, and further acclimatizing. Our Climbing Sirdar Jangbu, and our Tibetan staff Penba, Wangdu and Luda have been working very hard up on the mountain, carrying loads. We have Camp One established, and they have carried gear to Camp Two and will begin establishing Camp Two early this coming week. As well, our kitchen staff has been working hard here at Base Camp and at ABC.

 

 

We hope to send a team photo from our recent Puja ceremony very soon. We'll have some other members calling in soon to give you their account of what's been going on and how they're feeling. So far everything's good, people are healthy and looking forward to getting back up high on the mountain. Thank you for all your support, and hello to all my friends, family and sponsors. We'll check in later, goodbye.

 

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Update: Ryan Waters: Hello this is Ryan calling from the SummitClimb Everest North Ridge Team. It's April 30, and here's Neal to help catch up on with going on with our members.

Neal Jing: Hi. On April 22, the team completed the first phase of climbing up to ABC and stayed here for five nights. After a wonderful Puja ceremony the team descended to Base Camp and after several days of rest we are here at ABC. For the second phase we're trying to reach C2 at 7900 meters. Due to the bad weather in the last two days, people are staying here at ABC waiting for the weather to get better. According to the forecast for tomorrow it should be a good one. Tomorrow we will go to C1, we'll camp and sleep there and then go to C2 and come back. After that we are ready to go to the BC and then ready for the final push. Most team members are very healthy and looking forward to the challenge ahead. For the family and the relatives, I'm feeling fine except for missing my friends and family. It has felt like a year since I last saw them. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Thank you. Bye.

 

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Update: Hi, this is Ryan Waters calling from the SummitClimb Everest North Ridge Expedition from Tibet. I'm calling from Advance Base Camp, about 21,000 feet elevation. I wanted to give everyone back there an update on all of our individual climbers. Steve Poulsen is here at ABC, he's going to go down today to get some rest. He's developed a dry cough that he can't get rid of so we're going to try to get down to a lower elevation and see if he can knock that for an attempt later this month. Fredrick and Magnus are up climbing towards Camp 2 today. They slept at Camp 1 last night and they are trying to reach Camp 2 for acclimatization, as well as Mr. Neal Jing. He slept at Camp 1 last night and is climbing up towards Camp 2 today with some of our staff.

Some of our other Sherpa staff are putting in Camp 2 today. We are looking forward to that being put up completely. We've got oxygen going up, almost all of it is at Camp One as of today or tomorrow. Bob Guthrie is going to climb today up the North Col and sleep at Camp One tonight with Dawa Sherpa. He's looking forward to getting up there and getting some climbing done and getting some acclimatization in. I am staying at ABC today. I'll climb tomorrow to the North Col, and hopefully up to Camp Two the following day to check on everything there. After that we'll all probably head down to Base Camp and join Rikard Mansson, who's down there already. He's already been up high on the mountain. He's getting some rest at Base Camp for a potential early summit bid. The rest of our members, we'll go down and maybe get some rest for a long week or so before thinking of a summit push, and we'll just take a good look at the weather. I just wanted to give everyone, friends and family, the update on individual members. Everyone's safe and feeling good and climbing or resting. We'll give you an update as soon as we have more information. Hello to everyone back there at home. We'll talk to you later. Goodbye.

 

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Update: This is Ryan Waters calling for the SummitClimb North Ridge Everest Expedition, the Tibetan side, checking in after a few days. I'm at Base Camp right now, just returned with a couple other our staff from a town called Shigar, where we spent one night and did a re-supply for some new food at Base Camp. We all had a good rest there. The rest of our members are all up today to take a ride in the 4 wheel drive land cruisers down to Shirgar. They plan on spending three days in Shigar at the lower elevation resting, eating good food. We're looking forward to have everyone get a mental break from Base Camp and the higher camps.

The rest of us are back here at Base, enjoying a beautiful day. It's about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit at Base Camp today. We're starting to look at weather reports to see what's going on. There's a mean game of horseshoes going on about a 100 yards from me, the English versus the Indian team. So that's pretty exciting, a big crowd is gathering there. Pretty fun, and also some good photo opportunities there.

 

 

Things are good at base camp, everyone is healthy. We have had one member of our team that went ahead and left the expedition due to his personal time constraints. Rikard Mansson went ahead and left towards Hong Kong where he lives. He had a combination of a pre-existing stomach condition that was aggravated by all this high altitude, and also his personal time schedule was coming to a close. So he went ahead and took off back to Hong Kong. So we wish Rikard the best of luck and hope he makes it home safely. Everyone's resting so we'll get back in touch as soon as we have news of going back towards our chance hopefully for a summit push within little over a week. Ok, thank you for everything. Talk too you later, goodbye.