The Madison Mountaineering team has arrived in Melbourne to climb/hike the highest point on Oceania and one of the “original” Seven Summits. Kosciuszko (2228m / 7,310ft.) located in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales is the highest point on the Australian continent. Climbers aspiring to reach the highest point on all 7 continents that […]
Since the April 18th, 2014 tragedy that killed 16 Nepali mountain workers, many people have asked me if I plan to return to Everest. My answer is ‘yes absolutely’, as our team for the 2015 spring season on the Nepal side of Everest is nearly complete at this time. I enjoy the challenge and experience […]
We had a wonderful climb to the summit of Ama Dablam just a few days ago, and since then have trekked down the Khumbu Valley to Lukla, and just this morning we flew by twin otter to Kathmandu. We are very happy to be back in the city after more than six weeks in the […]
After a few days in Ama Dablam base camp we are now ready to begin our summit attempt. We have been reviewing fixed line techniques, rappelling and have sorted our equipment and food for the high camps. The weather forecast looks good, and the recent snowfall has negligible effect on our route as it is […]
This morning we flew by helicopter (a brand new AS350 B3e) from the lower Makalu base camp to Ama Dablam base camp, it was a spectacular ride! We flew right by Baruntse, and many other high peaks before swooping down into Ama Dablam base camp. As you likely know, we called off our Makalu climb […]
We have just returned to base camp after pushing as high as possible on Makalu. Above our Camp 2 at 22,500′ we found deep snow left by the recent storm that caused the avalanches and fatalities on nearby peaks in the Annapurna region. We felt it unreasonable to press on in such difficult / dangerous […]
Greetings from Makalu base camp! The forecasted storm came and deposited about 30 centimeters of new snow in our base camp. Currently the winds are still very high, we hope they will drop in a few days. We are waiting patiently here in base camp, enjoying the clear blue sky and sunshine during the day, […]
After a few nights up high on Makalu at elevations of approximately 21,000′ we are now back in base camp relaxing and enjoying the comforts of our camp. We accomplished our goal of stocking camps with gear and food, as well as acclimatizing to the higher altitudes. We experienced perfect weather thus far, but we […]
We had a great time the last few days up at our advanced base camp on the South East Ridge. Great views of the surrounding peaks and fun climbing on the ridge line! We are now enjoying a rest day in base camp, with hot showers and great food! We have decided to change our […]
Yesterday we went for an acclimatization hike up to 19,000′ and found a good location for our advanced base camp on the South-East Ridge route. The hiking was mostly on rock and scree and we reached the snowy ridge line where we took a break before heading down. Today we had our Puja ceremony in […]