After a restful night at the comfortable Serena hotel in Islamabad, we flew to Skardu. We are thankful that nice weather allowed us to fly today, rather than driving the Karakoram Highway, a two-day journey. We are organizing gear today and tomorrow here in Skardu, touring the town, and preparing for the jeep ride to Askole. Everyone is well!
Our team of climbers & trekkers have arrived in Pakistan and are on the way to K2, the world’s 2nd highest mountain!
Our advance team of 100 porters began the trek to base camp 2 weeks ago to help deliver supplies for our expedition team and reserve our place. The journey to K2 base camp is rugged, wild, and very scenic with breathtaking views! We begin in Islamabad and hope to fly to Skardu. I’ve been very lucky the last few years and had good weather for this flight, however, if weather conditions are not suitable for flying we will drive the Karakoram Highway, a two-day journey by road to Skardu, which is part of the original Silk Road trading route. While it’s a scenic and historic route, I prefer the flight! Fingers crossed for good flying weather!
From Skardu, we plan to drive by vintage Toyota Land Cruisers to the mountain village of Askoli. This jeep ride is a fun six-hour adventure along steep river gorges and mountain passes. From Askoli we will begin the trek, a ~100 km journey to base camp up the Baltoro glacier. We will pass by iconic peaks such as the Great Trango Towers, Gasherbrum 4, Broad Peak, then arrive at K2 base camp.
*** Stay tuned here for daily expedition dispatches! You can also follow the team on Amazon Alexa devices and with our real-time location tracking map: https://madisonmountaineering.com/maps/k2-2019 ****
Here are some of our favorite photos from the 2018 K2 expedition. Enjoy!!
The ‘traverse’ on K2 in 2018
View from high on K2 looking at Broad Peak in 2018
2018 K2 Base Camp
Congratulations to our Everest 2019 spring team in successfully climbing the world’s highest peak, but more importantly making it down safely! In contrast to what the media has portrayed, our experience on summit day was a pleasant one, due to a strong and experienced team. Our guides and Sherpas not only installed the fixed lines to the summit, which ‘opened’ the route on May 14th for all climbers on the south side of the mountain but also supported our climbers in a seamless climb of Mount Everest. The challenge of climbing Everest, coupled with the added uncertainty of the weather and other climbers on the route, can create adverse conditions. However, our team of professionals orchestrated a perfect expedition under the circumstances.
Climbers celebrating at the summit
The Everest summit ridge on May 23rd
In my 12 expeditions to Everest, this was one of the finest teams of hard working, competent, positive, and pleasant Nepal “Sherpas”, many of who I have climbed with for the last 5 years. Big thanks for these incredible guys who helped us make our extraordinary success possible!
MM rope team on summit day
Now our attention turns to the world’s second highest peak, K2. Today, our advance team of 100 porters and 2 Pakistan high altitude climbers left the village of Askole to begin the 100 km trek to K2 base camp.
K2 supplies headed to base camp
Over 100 porters and staff leaving Askoli for K2
We are excited to meet our climbing team in Islamabad in mid-June and make our way to ‘Chogori’, the savage mountain.
Our autumn Himalayan season following K2 will be action-packed, with our first ever Expedition to Everest in the fall! We also have expeditions attempting Ama Dablam, as well as an unclimbed peak! Previously, we have had very high success on these peaks in the autumn. For climbers looking to climb the highest peak in Oceania, we also have a Carstensz Pyramid climb. We invite you to join us if climbing in the Himalaya or Oceania is on your ‘to do’ list this autumn!
Our Mount Vinson expeditions also have some availability, if climbing in Antarctica is on your mind, contact us for details!
With the Everest season quickly wrapping up, here’s expedition leader, Garrett Madison, with a final dispatch from the 2019 Mount Everest base camp:
Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Everest team. Today most of our crew helicoptered down to Kathmandu and they are at the Yak & Yeti hotel, relaxing and enjoying a nice comfortable stay and a great dinner. Myself, Conan and Stuart along with Joyce are still here in base camp with our Sherpa team – just packing up the camp and we are hoping to head out tomorrow down to Kathmandu.
But, it’s been a great season for us. We have a very high success and safely all around with our team. It was a challenging season, very windy on the mountain and cold this year with a narrow summit window. And unfortunetly, there was a notable loss of life with climbers the last week on the mountain. But we are happy to be down safe and looking forward to heading home soon. All’s well here at base camp. Thanks for following along!
Descending down from C2 with the Sun about to rise over Everest
Walking down the Western Cwm between C2 and C1
Climbers descending the icefall
A toast to a safe climb at our base camp with the Khumbu Icefall behind
All climbers, guides, and Sherpa from the 2019 Madison Mountaineering Everest expedition have safely returned to base camp. More details and recap of the climb coming soon…
The Everest team has safely descended down the Lhotse face from the South Col to advanced base camp (ABC), Camp 2. Here’s Garrett with the sat phone dispatch from 6500m Camp 2:
Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Everest climbing team. Today is May 24th. We all made it down to Camp 2, our advanced base camp here on Mount Everest. We has a very good day coming down from the South Col high camp. We climbed down past Camp 3 on our way to Camp 2. We all made it safe, all the climbers, guides, and Sherpa.
So, we are here and we just had a nice dinner and we’re tucked into our tents now for a good night’s rest. And tomorrow our plan is to depart Camp 2 at 6:00 AM and head down through the Khumbu Icefall to Everest base camp. So, all’s well here and we’re looking forward to checking in from base camp tomorrow. Thanks!
(photo: Madison Mountaineering archives)
Congratulations to our Everest team for reaching the top of the world! All of the team is now safely back at Camp 4 on the South Col. Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides the happy news:
Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Everest team. Today is May 23rd and today we summitted Mount Everest! [garbled] We left about 9:30 PM from our high camp here at the South Col near 26,000 ft. and climbed through the night up the Triangular face to The Balcony and then up the South East ridge over the rock bands to the South Summit and then crossed the summit ridge, up the Hillary Step and then the summit! We reached the summit just after 5:00 AM with the last of our members reaching the summit about 8:00 AM.
So, it was a nice day – a little windy and a little chilly up there – but everybody did really good. The most important thing is that everybody made it back down to high camp this afternoon. So, we are all back in high camp, safe and sound. We are looking forward to descending down to Camp 2 tomorrow night and then base camp the following day on May 25th. All’s well here at high camp! Thanks for checking in.
We are pleased to announce the following members of the 2019 Madison Mountaineering Everest expedition successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest (8,848 m / 29,029 ft) on May 23, 2019, at approximately 6:30 AM NPT (local time).
| # | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ms. Nadhira Alharthy | Oman |
| 2 | Ms. Nelly Attar | Lebanon |
| 3 | Ms. Joyce Azzam | Lebanon |
| 4 | Mr. Sherief Elabd | Egypt |
| 5 | Mr. Wojciech Falkowski | Poland |
| 6 | Mr. Chad Gaston | USA |
| 7 | Mr. Elia Saikaly | Canada |
| 8 | Ms. Mona Shahab | Saudi Arabia |
| 9 | Mr. Garrett Madison | USA |
| 10 | Mr. Conan Bliss | USA |
| 11 | Mr. Stuart Robertson | United Kingdom |
| 12 | Mr. Aang Phurba Sherpa | Nepal |
| 13 | Mr. Phurba Ridar Bhote | Nepal |
| 14 | Mr. Pasdawa Sherpa | Nepal |
| 15 | Mr. Lakpa Bhote | Nepal |
| 16 | Mr. Siddhi Bahadur Tamang | Nepal |
| 17 | Mr. Ming Dorchi Sherpa | Nepal |
| 18 | Mr. Kul Bahadur Thapamagar | Nepal |
| 19 | Mr. Phree Chhombi Sherpa | Nepal |
| 20 | Mr. Sher Bahadur Thapamagar | Nepal |
| 21 | Mr. Dorchi Bhote | Nepal |
| 22 | Mr. Nima Lhaten Lama | Nepal |
| 23 | Mr. Prem Magar | Nepal |
| 24 | Mr. Tenzi Sherpa | Nepal |
| 25 | Mr. Lenduk Lhomi | Nepal |
| 26 | Mr. Dawa Nurbu Sherpa | Nepal |
| 27 | Mr. Pasang Dawa Sherpa | Nepal |
| 28 | Mr. Chhiring Bhote | Nepal |
| 29 | Mr. Pasang Kaji Sherpa | Nepal |
Sounds like the 2019 Everest team is on the summit!!! Listen for yourself: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I8UQN5E?ref=cm_sw_em_r_as_dp_Fx7lsWCZC23IX
We will provide more details as we have them! Stay tuned.
This is it. Because, tonight’s the night the past seven weeks in Nepal and preceding months of planning, preparing, and training have been building up to. We go for the summit of Everest tonight!!! It’s now morning in Nepal and the team will be spending the day resting and getting psyched for the final push up to the summit. So, from the home office in Seattle, WA USA and from friends, family, and well-wishers all over the world we say, Go get it team – climb strong, be careful, make your mark and get up and down safely! Here’s Garrett Madison on the South Col of Mount Everest via satellite phone just minutes ago with today’s expedition dispatch:
Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Everest team! We are up at the South Col, high camp, on Mount Everest – nearly 26,000ft. or 8000m. Everybody is doing great! We got up here yesterday evening, had a nice dinner, tucked into our tents, and had a restful night sleeping on oxygen. Today we just had breakfast, we’re up, moving around, sleeping, resting, breathing oxygen.
We are planning to leave this evening at 9:00 PM for our summit attempt. Hopefully reaching the top the next morning, which will be May 23rd. So, everybody’s doing great up here, the team did excellent coming up to high camp yesterday. Everyone’s doing great today, in good sprits and we’re looking forward to leaving tonight and giving it our best shot to climb to the top of the world! Alright, thanks for checking in! We’ll call in tomorrow. All’s well here at high camp on Mount Everest.
(photo: 2018 Everest Camp 4 from the Madison Mountaineering archives)