Nuptse summit attempt ahead!

With our “first wave” of climbers recuperating and enjoying the comforts of Namche Bazaar, our “second wave” of climbers is currently up at Camp 2 with plans to descend to Everest Base Camp tomorrow. They’ve had a very successful second rotation as they prepare for their summit push! A few members of our team will continue higher into the Himalaya as they make their summit attempt on Nuptse! Expedition guide, Terray Sylvester, checks in with today’s dispatch from Namche Bazaar:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest (8848m/29,032ft), Lhotse (8516m/27,940ft) and Nuptse (7861m/25,791ft) expedition – today is May 7th.

Today our “second wave” of Everest and Lhotse climbers were in Camp 2! They climbed part way up the Lhotse face toward Camp 3 (7230m/23,720ft), and then returned back down to Camp 2 (6500m/21,325ft) at the head of the Western Cwm. Tomorrow, they plan to descend back to base camp (5364m/17,598ft), and that will wrap up their acclimatization rotation. They’ve spent two nights at Camp 1 (6050m/19,849ft) and three nights at Camp 2 as of tomorrow.

Meanwhile, our “first wave” of Everest–Lhotse climbers are down here in Namche Bazaar (3440m/11,290ft). We flew down here yesterday morning from base camp. It was a beautiful helicopter flight, and since then, we’ve been enjoying hot showers, eating good food and sucking up all the extra oxygen down here, which feels great! So, we’re just resting and biding our time, recuperating for our summit push which is still a little ways off. Right now we’re waiting for high winds to ease on the upper mountain so that our Sherpa team can carry oxygen and other supplies up as high as the South Col (7900m/25,919ft), and then we’ll start looking for a summit window.

Our Nuptse climbers moved up to high camp at the foot of the route this afternoon. They’re currently resting in high camp and preparing for a summit attempt that will start late tonight. Most of the route is fixed, and if the weather permits, then our climbers and our rope-fixing team will complete the route to the summit tomorrow morning.

So, lots of things going on here in Nepal, but all is well and we will be in touch tomorrow!

Camp 1. (Photo: Terray Sylvester)

Climbing out of Camp 1. (Photo: Terray Sylvester)

Climber, Erwin Visser crossing a ladder in the Khumbu Icefall. (Photo: Terray Sylvester)

Our “first wave” of climbers descending through the icefall back to EBC. (Photo: Terray Sylvester)

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