Best. Summit. Day. Ever!
Via sat phone from Camp IV on the South Col of Mount Everest, expedition leader and now 11-time summiter of Mount Everest, Garrett Madison provides the happy news:
Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition. Today is May 23rd, it’s 7:30 PM in Nepal. We are at Camp IV on Mount Everest’s South Col.
We had an amazing day. We left around midnight on the 23rd and summited Mount Everest this morning. It was a beautiful day! It was clear, calm, and probably the nicest summit day I’ve had on Everest out of my 11 summits!
Our team of nine clients, four American western guides, and over 20 Nepal sherpas all made it to the top of Everest and back down safe. So, we had a wonderful day! It was beautiful – amazing views as far as the eye could see and we spent a long time at the summit.
Tonight, we have some climbers heading out for Lhotse. In fact, one of our climbers, Kristin Harila, actually already summited Lhotse. From Everest to Lhotse today in record time! She is on her way down from the Lhotse summit now.
Big congrats to Kristin and to all the members of our team for making it up to the top of Everest today and back down to Camp IV safely.
We aren’t out of the woods yet; we have to get down to Camp II tomorrow. We are going to wake up, pack, and be safe on the way down the Lhotse Face to Camp II. But, we’re very happy that the weather forecast from Marc De Keyser worked out and we got a beautiful day here on the summit of Everest. It couldn’t have been better! We are very fortunate and are looking forward to a safe descent.
(photo: Madison Mountaineering archives)
If climbing Mount Everest is in your future, please contact our office, we would love to have you climb with us!
In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:
– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:
- Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my Madison Mountaineering flash briefing.“
– Instagram:
– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:
☀️☀️☀️congratulations everybody!
Congratulations Team Madison! It must have been a spectacular day! Now come down safe and share your tales with the rest of us in the coming months!