Tomorrow night (May 4, 2014) at 9pm please watch the Discovery Channel special Everest Avalanche Tragedy to learn more about Mt. Everest, Nepal, and the amazing Sherpa people. I’m certain that the special will highlight the heroic and unselfish rescue and recovery efforts that brought together everyone in base camp which were all effected by this terrible act of Mother Nature and feature first hand accounts by Garrett Madison, the leader of one of the recovery teams.

As you watch the special, please provide your generous support to the Sherpa families of the fallen by donating to the charity of your choice such as American Himalayan Foundation Sherpa Family Fund or The Juniper Fund.

For me, I’m still stunned that the avalanche I witnessed in full outside the door of our comms tent took the lives of so many men. I had been up early on the morning of Friday, April 18th as we I agreed with our team the night before to start radio checkins at 6am as they ascended through the ice fall to the Western Cwm. I talked to the team around 6:20am and they decided to carry loads only up to Camp 1 (and not on to Camp 2) due “wind and traffic” on the route. At about 6:45am, we were talking with Dorjee Khatri, our sirdar, up on the mountain when we heard shouting and yelling over the radio and then absolute silence – the radio had gone dead. Almost at the same time, the sound of the start of the avalanche reached our tent and we ran out of the door, fearing the worst. Our greatest fears were quickly confirmed when we saw the ice calving off the West Shoulder directly onto the climbing route at the top of the Khumbu Ice Fall. Certainly not largest avalanche I’ve witnessed but definitely the wrong place at the wrong time. The rest of the day was consumed with working the radio running down the checklist of our team members on the mountain and hopefully waiting for all to be found safe – but it was not to be and, in the end, half of our team of six was lost.

I will be profoundly emotionally impacted by this event for the rest of my life – but in many ways you might not expect. The loss of so many people in one single event, several of which I was dancing, singing, and celebrating with just 18 hours before after our puja ceremony, and the lifelong hardship and impact on their families is rightly the strongest and deepest of these emotions. But at the same time, the valiant and heroic rescue efforts of those Sherpa on the scene who’s split-second dodge of a house sized block of ice by mere feet or inches saved their lives and provided the inner strength and resolve for them to then work for hours to save and recover others leaves me in a state of awe. The same can be said for those who also put their lives at risk to climb up the ice fall to the scene of the accident to provide assistance with absolutely no hesitation.

Overlaying all of this is the one thing that remains common about all expeditions and adventures, the one thing that keeps me coming back for more, and that is — the wonderful people that you meet and the amazing friendships that you form. That’s why I do this and why I love it so much.

Kurt Hunter
Madison Mountaineering
Everest Base Camp Manager 2014

Photo: post-recovery at the “football field” in the ice fall. Garrett with the recovery team.

Today we returned from our short outing at Gorak Shep to the comforts of our Everest base camp, and we are all very happy to be back in our “home away from home”. The mood in base camp seems to be improving,

At 10 AM tomorrow morning we are going to partake in a Puja “aatma shanti” (peace of the soul) ceremony with all individuals in base camp. This event will be held at the SPCC camp and the purpose will be to pay respect to the men who lost their lives in the Khumbu Icefall on April 18th. We are very excited to participate in this ceremony as we feel this community gathering to recognize the importance of the life of all of these men is an essential piece of the grieving process. This ‘coming together’ in base camp has been a missing element the last few days and we hope will give solidarity to our climbing community on Everest.

After the ceremony our team will head down valley to Lobuche where we plan to spend the night. The next day we will climb to Lobuche high camp, and then the following day awake before dawn to climb the glaciated slopes of Lobuche East. After the climb we plan to stay in the Lobuche lodge and then return to Everest base camp the following day. We are very excited to be “going climbing” the next few days!

Recovery Recap:
I wanted to touch upon the recovery that occurred on April 18th & 19th. After the accident on the morning of April 18th, I climbed up to the accident site and worked for several hours with others who had also climbed up to assist such as Dave Hahn, Jeffrey Justman, Ben Jones and Andy Tyson. The following day on April 19th several of us flew up to the “football field” and then climbed up to the accident site and proceeded to finish our work in extricating the body of my Sirdar, Dorji Kartri, as well as search for a few of the missing Sherpas who are now buried under massive amounts of ice. The other recovery volunteers (Damien Benegas, Melissa Arnot, and several Sherpas) worked for several hours and in the end we flew off the body, then descended to base camp by helicopter. This recovery effort was a fine example of how foreign climbers and Nepali Sherpas can work together to accomplish a common goal, and I am very proud to have been part of this effort.

Yesterday, after narrowly surviving the tragic avalanche, our Sherpa team on the mountain heroically worked for many hours at the site of the accident freeing many of the injured and the casualties. Our team can not even begin to express the depth of the respective and gratitude we have for these valiant men. It is an honor to be associated with all of them.

At this time (11:00am Nepali) the SBCC has closed the Khumbu Ice Fall to all traffic today to allow the recovery teams to complete their work. Three recovery teams are at or near the site of the accident. Garrett Madison is leading team 1 that is primarily working to extricate the body of our Sirdar from the ice. Team 1 also bravely includes our own Jangbu Sherpa who survived the avalanche yesterday. Our respect is unfathomable. Team 2 led by Damian Benegas, is sweeping the area searching for the missing victims and will attempt recovery of those found. Finally Team 3, headed by Melissa Arnot, is providing the incident command near the site. Russell Brice is coordinating the helicopters and base camp communications from the HRA heli pad in EBC.

To my knowledge the only team above is IMG. They are safe and were moving today from camp 1 to camp 2 to continue their acclimatization.

More details as we have them.

[UPDATE: 1:30pm – recovery team successfully extracted our Sirdar and his body has been flown to Kathmandu. No sign of the other missing Sherpa was found. Entire set of recovery teams are off the mountain and back in base camp]

The photo above, courtesy of AAI’s Andy Tyson, was taken yesterday near the site. Included in the photo are some of the rescue and recovery personnel (left to right): Ben Jones, Melissa Arnot, Dave Hahn, Damian Benegas, Rob Casserly, two unnamed Sherpa, and Jeffery Justman.

Today we had our Puja ceremony with our entire climbing team including six climbers on the Everest permit, three also on the Lhotse Permit, and all of our climbing Sherpa who will go with us to the summit.

We received blessing from the Buddhist Lama to begin our climb which starts with the Khumbu Ice Fall. Tomorrow our Sherpa climbing team will carry equipment and climbing supplies to our camp 2. The following day, the first of our climbers will begin their ascent to camps 1 and 2.

It was a very special day and great fun with dancing, singing, and plenty of good cheer!