Everest Nepal Training Climb, Peak Climbing Trekking News

Everest Nepal Training Climb, Peak Climbing Trekking News

 


News of our recent expedition: Everest Training Climb Nepal


Trip Summary: Everest Training Climb Nepal: This year veteran SummitClimb leader Dan Mazur was lucky to be at the forefront of a new trip:


Everest Training Climb , with a friendly team from Australia and Malaysia, where people who had only done walking previously, learned new skills, climbed through Everest's famed Khumbu Icefall, and reached a highpoint of 7000 metres / 23,000 feet. All in just 16 days, basecamp to basecamp. Including the flight from Kathmandu to Lukla and the trek to basecamp, the trip totals 31 days in Nepal. The participants followed the normal schedule for the trek to 5300 metre/17,400 foot high basecamp, which takes about 9 days, including rest days. After reaching basecamp they rested well, then pursued acclimatization walks around basecamp and they practiced ice climbing and rope techniques, safe ascending and descending, on an ice pinnacle near to basecamp. After further rest, they were ready to ascend through the very amazing Khumbu Icefall, a huge jumble of ice blocks, deep crevasses, aluminium ladders, and fixed rope to camp 1 and spent two days up there at 6000 metres/19,650 feet. The weather was good and during their two day stay in camp 1, they walked part way up to camp 2, inside the enourmous flat Western Cwm, which divides Mount Nuptse from the west ridge of Everest.


After going back down to basecamp and resting for a few more days, we were ready to head back up through the icefall, and back into the cwm and get as high as possible on Everest, during the time allotted. We reached camp 2 at 6200 metres/20,300 feet and spent a few days resting and walking around the camp and up t the top of the cwm, to allow our bodies to adjust to the increasing height. Finally, when the weather and conditions were right, we headed up the Lhotse face. The climbing was fascinating, and the views stunning as we worked our way up this icy snowy steeply pitched (up to 50+ degrees) enourmous face, dotted with enourmous ice ledge overhanging seracs and a spiders web of cracks and pockmarked ice. It became cloudy and began to snow a bit, then finally we reached the camp at 7000 metres/23,000 feet.


We are very excited about this new offering and encourage you to join in.


Also, one unique thing is that if you feel well during the April training climb, it is possible to transition directly to Everest and to try for the summit. We welcome you to join our next Everest training climb 8 April to 8 May, and 22 April-22 May.


Dispatches: Please just scroll down for more news and photos


 
everest training climb nepal everest training climb nepal rope training 
 
 Franz clips a top anchor during ice training.Paula practices on a ladder, while Lakpa Nuru holds the ropes and Jonas looks on. Mike Fairman photo.
 
Team practices fixed rope climbing near basecamp on a sunny day. Mike Fairman photo.  Team practices fixed rope climbing near basecamp on a sunny day. Mike Fairman photo. Walking back to basecamp after ice training. Mike Fairman photo
 
Team practices fixed rope climbing near basecamp on a sunny day. Mike Fairman photo.
Walking back to basecamp after ice training. Mike Fairman photo
 
 
 
 
 
Closeup of a massive ice serac with Mount Lhotse seen behind. Dingboche village with Lhotse south face above. Island Peak appears on right side of photo. Everest basecamp with west ridge of Everest, the Khumbu Icefall, and Mount Nuptse above. Stupa with Buddha eyes. Mighty south face of Lhotse towers above. SummitTrek.com team in Everest basecamp. Trekkers walk up Kala Patar view ridge. Mount Pumori in background (Miyako Mori).

Hi this is the dispatch for 16th May. It’s Dan Mazur calling and I’m up in Camp 2 and today was a busy day.

Beow Lim and Nawang Nuri from our Everest training climb went back down through the Khumbu icefall. They crossed the Western Cwm then down through the icefall and back to basecamp. Beow has completed his training climb with the help of Nawang Nuri and Sange Sherpa everybody did a great job. We all got to an amazing high point of 7200m up above camp 3. We spent the night up there and had some incredible views. It was great and we did a lot of excellent training, ice climbing, ascending, descending, crevasse crossing, learning about glaciers and staying in basecamp, camp 1, camp 2, camp 3 and learning about all the different climbing it was an excellent experience. It’s the first time we’ve had this training climb and we’re looking forward to doing quite a few more.

In other news today we had a kind of melancholy goodbye to our Everest Climbers; Stewart Edge, Squash Falconer, Mitch Lewis and Paula Leonard went down today, leaving basecamp with Lakpa Nuru and Thile Nuru and they’re heading down valley with 6 porters. They plan to go down to Pangboche- the little beautiful village with a forest, trees and lovely views of  Ama Dablam, then onto Namche –the capital of the Sherpa people and then finally to Lhakpa – where they’ll fly back from that picturesque village back to Kathmandu in 3 days time if all goes well. Also they were accompanied by Eric Peterson our dear friend who came all the way from Singapore to be part of the Everest ascent and witness that from basecamp and it was really great to have Eric Peterson with us and joining us in basecamp so we said our goodbyes to them.

Tonight in the middle of the night the Lhotse team is going to climb back here up to camp 2 where they’re going to begin they’re Lhotse ascent. That’s Gavin Vickers and Alex Holt and we’re really excited to have them up here climbing with us. They’re going to be joined by Sange Sherpa and Dorje Sherpa in support and helping them get the ropes ready, up to high camp and get the oxygen up there so we’re really excited to have them coming up and to carry on with the climb of Lhotse, the worlds’ 4th highest peak. So thanks for staying tuned and we’ll be in touch soon thanks and goodbye.

 

  

 

Stewart Edge climbing the final few steps into camp 3. Thats the Geneva Spur on the left (Squash Falconer). Climber works her way up the hard blue ice at the top of the Lhotse face (Alex Holt). Climbers work on crossing the Bergschrund at the base of the Lhotse face, enroute to camp 3 (Alex Holt). Making the big climb up to camp 3. Check out the big string of climbers climbing into camp 3 on the middle right side of the photo (Alex Holt).

15 May,

Hi it’s the 15th May and we’re on the Everest Training Climb. This is Dan calling from camp 3 together with Sange Sherpa and today we trekked to a higher altitude. It was a beautiful day with excellent views. We came down in the afternoon and after a delicious lunch we went straight back down to camp 2 and that’s going to conclude the Everest Training Climb.

Tonight we had some really good opportunities to explore how we were feeling up to 7200m and we did some ice climbing, crevasse crossing and saw how we felt crossing on some ladders. We also familiarised ourselves with the basics of abseiling, ascending, ice climbing and we put all those skills to good use over last couple of days on the Lhotse face and also in the Khumbu icefall. Tomorrow we will be using those skills again.

Thanks for following along. We also have some updates on the Lhotse team. The ropes are being fixed now so that’s very encouraging. There are still a few sections that need to be finished with the rope fixing before the team sets off and we’re also looking for a really good weather forecast so we’ll keep you informed, thank-you bye-bye.

 

 

Paula crosses the huge 5 section ladder in the Western Cwm while Thile Nuru Sherpa holds the ropes (Mitch Lewis).  Stew Edge and Dorje Sherpa climbing down a ladder in the Khumbu icefall (Squash Falconer). Climbers working their way up to camp 3, which can be seen at the upper right (Alex Holt). Climbers on blue ice on the Lhotse face beneath bizarre clouds (Alex Holt).

14 May,

Hi this is the dispatch for the 14th May and we’re up  here with Beow Lim along with me Dan Mazur and Sange Sherpa and Nawang Nuri Sherpa. We climbed up from camp 2 to camp 3 today. We’re doing the Everest Training Climb and we climbed up here today, it took about 7 hours. The weather was very beautiful, sunny, no wind, gorgeous conditions and we reached camp 3 at about 4.30. We’re just relaxing around in the tent and it’s getting darker. We’ll see how we feel tonight and keep you posted about our plans tomorrow.

The Everest team have returned to basecamp and are doing very well and everybody’s fine.

We saw the rope fixing team going up the Lhotse face today. It’s getting windy up there ahead of us so we’re not too sure how much progress we’ll make and we’re watching the weather forecast very carefully now. We’re hopeful that our Lhotse team can get to the top as soon as possible with all due safety with the fixed slides.

So thanks for following our expedition and we’ll keep you posted, thanks very much, bye-bye.

 

 

Tents lined up in camp 1 (Stew Edge). Closeup of camp 2 seen from above (looking down from camp 3). The top of the Khumbu icefall can just be seen on the upper right (Alex Holt). Clockwise from upper right - Pasang, Jangbu, Mitch and Lhakpa Nuru on the summit (Stew Edge). Climbers working their way through a steep section on the Lhotse face. Note the wind blowing down the face (Alex Holt).

9 May,

Hi this is the dispatch from the Everest Nepal Training Climb for the 9th of May and we’re up here in camp one. There’s three of us here. Beow Lim, Dan Mazur and Nawang Nuri Sherpa. We climbed up to the icefall today from basecamp. Up in camp 2 we have Squash Falconer, Stewart Edge, Alex Holt, Gavin Vickers, Jangu Sherpa, Sange Sherpa, Pasang Sherpa, Dorje Sherpa also Mitch Lewis, Paula Leonard, Thile Nuru Sherpa, Lakpa Nuru Sherpa and the group in camp 2 plans to go up to camp 3 tomorrow.

Sange Sherpa went up to camp 3 today to reconnoiter today. There was a big wind storm a couple of days ago that knocked out a bunch of our tents so we had to replace those tents and also that same windstorm affected all the other teams. All of the other teams lost tents on the mountain in Camp 3. In this camp today we have Eric Peterson. He has checked in from Singapore and he’s down there with Gyalje Sherpa together with Jay Bahadur. So all of the teams are planning to move up tomorrow and we’ll keep you updated.

Right now it’s snowing lightly with a light wind but overall the weather conditions are pretty good in our camp. I can’t say what the conditions are like on the summit but we have heard that there is quite a bit of snow that has accumulated up there and we’ll tell you more when we get there. Thanks for following and goodbye. back to top

 

 

Stew, Alex, Gav-The Massive & Dan about to leave Camp One (Squash Falconer). Stew coming down the Lhotse face from Camp Three (Squash Falconer).  Stew on 5 stage ladder (Squash Falconer). Mitch in the Western Cwm (Lakpa Nuru Sherpa).

8 May,

Hi this is the dispatch for the 8th of May from the Everest Nepal Training Climb.

Dan and Beow are in basecamp with Lakpa, Nawang, and Gyelje. They’re planning to head up to Camp one in a couple of hours.

Everyone’s doing OK. We had some high winds on the mountains like I mentioned and luckily it seems like our tents have survived but a lot of tents from other teams got damaged and blown around and some of ours got damaged as well but we patched them up, so we’ll be OK. We’re going to keep making progress up the mountain and we will keep you posted about how everything is going, thanks a lot for following our progress.

We saw this beautiful, rare, wild Himalayan Tahr ram sheep on the slopes above Pangboche. Gorgeous!!!!

 

 

Alex on the Lhotse Face (Stew Edge). Beow Lim abseiling in the Khumbu Icefall (Beow Lim). Building a platform at Camp Two for the dinning tent (Squash Falconer). Gavin crossing icefall ladder (Stew Edge).

6 May,

Life in basecamp takes on many aspects and here are just a few!

 

Amanda Fitchen, Gary, and the Island Peak group visited us in basecamp. Diet coke, and a propane heater, this is what keeps us going in basecamp!. Kaji Tamang, our superb basecamp manager, and Jangbu Ssherpa our chief sherpa (in background).
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