Lobuche East climb starting soon!

The climbing is about to begin! Our 2024 Himalayan expedition teams have conducted their Puja ceremony, done technical training in the Khumbu Icefall, and are ready for their first rotation. Their first rotation will take place on Lobuche East, another peak near base camp which has less objective hazard than the Khumbu Icefall. Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this dispatch from the Himalayas:

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest (8848m/29,032ft), Lhotse (8516m/27,940ft), Nuptse (7861m/25,791ft) expedition team. Today, our Everest main team is down at Lobuche Peak (6119m/20,075ft) and leaving in a few hours for the summit of Lobuche East! (They’re) going for the summit early morning, hopefully at sunrise, and then will be back at base camp (6119m/20,075ft) in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, a couple of our climbers were out training in the Khumbu Icefall today practicing ropes and technical climbing with Aang Phurba and myself. Terray and Nelly are back from Annapurna (8091m/26,545ft) doing their climbing and cleanup project. It was a very successful project! Now they’ve just arrived to Everest Base Camp, settling in, and getting ready for Lhotse!

So, all is well here in the Khumbu Valley and on Mount Everest! Our Sherpa team has been carrying loads up to Camp 2 (6500m/21,325ft), the weather has been great, and we are excited to continue with the expedition and head up the icefall here in a few days time! We’ll check in soon.

Scene from the team’s Puja Ceremony – an essential piece of our Mount Everest expeditions. (Photo by Courtenay Roche)

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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s