Tag Archive for: Camp 2

1st Rotation Complete!

Abruzzi Ridge on K2

The K2 team has completed the first acclimatization rotation up the mountain to Camp 2 and Garrett Madison, expedition leader, provides all the details in today’s expedition dispatch from K2 base camp:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 and Broad Peak expedition.  Today is July 13 and yesterday we got down from our first rotation on the Abruzzi Ridge of K2.  We spent five nights in total above base camp: one night in Advanced Base Camp (ABC), two nights in Camp 1, and two nights in Camp 2 at about 22,200 ft.

We’re back in base camp and it’s stormin’!  It’s snowing, windy, and we’re hunkering down to stay warm.  Hopefully good weather’s on the way; we could use some sun and some warmth.  But everyone’s doing well here, we’re staying entertained with books, movies, board games, and just resting up and enjoying some GREAT food.  So, we’re very comfortable here and looking forward to some good weather in the days ahead.

We’ll check in soon, thanks!

Abruzzi Ridge on K2

Garrett Madison says “hello” from the Abruzzi Ridge on K2

The view from K2's Abruzzi Ridge

The view from K2’s Abruzzi Ridge

If climbing K2 or Broad Peak 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:

/0 Comments/by

K2 Camp 2 on 1st Rotation

Climbing up K2 Abruzzi ridge!

Satellite comms are up again and Garrett and team check-in for K2’s Camp 2 on the Abruzzi Ridge with today’s dispatch:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 and Broad Peak expedition team.  Today is July 10th, and today we climbed from Camp 1 up to Camp 2 on the Abruzzi Ridge – about 22,000 ft. or almost 6700m.

We had great weather – beautiful sunny day today, awesome views all around.  The team is doing great, and we’re really enjoying this first rotation to acclimatize, getting familiar with the climbing route, and spend a couple of nights up here at Camp 2, and then we’ll be heading down to rest in base camp.

The sherpa team is doing great – they pushed up to Camp 3 and above yesterday.  So they’ve made great progress on the route, and they’re gonna head down tomorrow and take a little rest.  Looks like we’re going to take some high winds coming in a few day’s time, so it will be good to go down to base camp and rest for a bit and then revisit the upper mountain.

So all’s well here on K2, we’re enjoying ourselves, and having a great time here in Pakistan.

Climbing up K2 Abruzzi with the Black Pyramid above

Climbing up K2 Abruzzi with the Black Pyramid above

If climbing K2 or Broad Peak 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:

/0 Comments/by

Team back at EBC

Acclimatization hike above Camp 2

The first acclimatization rotation up the mountain is complete and the Everest team is now safely back in base camp.  Here’s expedition leader, Garrett Madison, with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse team.  Today, April 28th, we came down from Camp II.  We did our first rotation; we had two nights at Camp I, two nights at Camp II.  We had a great time up there – good weather and got some great views.

Today we came down from Camp II through the Khumbu Icefall to base camp.  It was a beautiful day – we got into base camp, had a nice lunch, some showers, naps, and we just finished up our dinner and now we are having a movie.

Everyone’s doing well here.  We’ve been enjoying the time on the mountain.  We’re all healthy, enjoying the climb, and looking forward to a few days of rest here in base camp.  And then heading back up on our next rotation here in a few days and hopefully touching Camp III.

All’s well here in Everest Base Camp!

Climbers in the Western Cwm with the Lhotse Face in the background

Climbers in the Western Cwm with the Lhotse Face in the background

The Western Cwm

The Western Cwm

Everest Camp 2

Everest Camp 2

Climbers descending through the Khumbu Icefall

Climbers descending through the Khumbu Icefall

Art M. loves acclimatizing!

Art M. loves acclimatizing!

Heading down through the Khumbu Icefall with base camp below

Heading down through the Khumbu Icefall with base camp below

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:

/0 Comments/by

First Rotation – Camp 2

Camp 2

On their first acclimatization rotation, our Everest team moved up to Camp 2 in the Western Cwm today marking a personal high-point for some of the climbers at nearly 21,300 ft (6490m).  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, phones in the details via satellite phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Everest and Lhotse expedition.  We are up at Camp 2!  It is April 26th and we had a great day climbing from Camp 1 to Camp 2 today – beautiful weather, no wind, no clouds – just a perfect day up here in the mountains.  We got into Camp 2 in the afternoon.  Our Sherpa team did a great job in setting up Camp 2 for us.  We’ve got a nice dining tent with a heater, all of our personal tents are up, and great views all the way around.  It’s really great to be up here.

We spent two nights at Camp 1; restful but a little windy at times, but it was good to acclimatize at Camp 1.  We plan to spend two nights up here before heading back down to base camp before the big snow starts.

All’s well up here and we’ll check in soon.

(photo:  Everest South Col route Camp 2 from the 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:

/0 Comments/by

Ama Dablam Summit!

Ama Dablam summit track in Google Earth

Congratulations to the entire Madison Mountaineering 2020 Ama Dablam (6812m) team and crew!  100% summit success!!  Details and photos to follow.  Meanwhile, enjoy this coverage of the summit effort from The Himalayan Times.  Most of the team is safely resting at Camp 2, while others have safely descended all the way down to base camp.

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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

/1 Comment/by

Summit Push – Camp 2

Jenn D and Garrett touching Ama Dablam Camp 2

The Ama Dablam team have once again completed the crux of the route, The Yellow Tower, while making the move to Camp 2 (6000m) on their summit push.  Tonight is the night!  Within the next few hours, they will start the climb to the summit.  Godspeed team!  Here’s today’s audio dispatch courtesy of team member, Moe Al Thani from his Instagram feed @moealthani:

This is Moe Al Thani calling you from Camp 2, Ama Dablam.  I can see the summit, it’s so close I can touch it.  We arrived here like within three hours since we left Camp 1 after the tough hike up to Camp 2.  We are feeling really good!

The sherpa team just fixed the fixed lines all the way up to the summit.  So now we have the go-ahead to go this evening for our summit push.  We will leave around 1 AM for an 8-9 hour summit push to the summit.  [Arabic]  Keep us in your prayers and will talk to you soon.

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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

/1 Comment/by

First Rotation – Touched Camp 2

Moe on Ama

The Ama Dablam team touched their high point so far by climbing to Camp 2 (5980m) today before returning to Camp 1 for the night.  Just before reaching Camp 2, they enjoyed some of the route’s best climbing by tackling the technical crux:  Ama Dablam’s Yellow Tower.  Tomorrow they will descend to base camp and rest up for their summit bid.  Team member Moe Al Thani returns with today’s dispatch, again courtesy of his Instagram feed: @moealthani:

This is Moe Al Thani from Camp 1.  We are back at Camp 1 after climbing to Camp 2.  It was harder than I expected.

Climbing the Yellow Tower was whatever people say and even more.  It’s really difficult, rock climbing at 6,000m with no oxygen.  However, we made it!  Now we’re back at Camp 1 and acclimatized better.

So tomorrow morning we’re going to head back down to base camp where we will enjoy internet, shower, food, and a good place to sleep.  Now that’s Heaven to me!  That’s it.  I’m really tired, we had a very long day.

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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

/0 Comments/by

Going for the summit tomorrow

The evening's glow on Aconcagua

Hi, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We’re up at high camp, Camp 3 on the normal route – Cholera Camp (5945m/19,504ft).  And everyone’s doing really well.  The weather seems to be improving so we are looking forward to potentially a nice summit day.  But there’s only one way to find out.  So, we are going to wake up early at 4:00am and start climbing by 6:00am and hopefully have some good luck up there and have a great climb.  We’ll check-in soon.  Thanks!

(photo:  earlier this week at base camp)

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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

– Instagram:

/0 Comments/by

Up to Aconcagua Camp 3 tomorrow

Sunset from Aconcagua Camp 1 (5052m/16,575ft)

The plan is to move up to Camp 3 tomorrow after waiting out the winds hitting the upper mountain.  Here’s expedition leader, Garrett Madison, with the details:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team up here at Camp 2 on the normal route – Nido de Cóndores.  We took another rest day today as we are watching the winds up high.  It looks like the strong winds have been persistent for a couple of days but they should be dying down.  So our plan is to head up to Camp 3 tomorrow and go for the summit the following day.  Fingers crossed for good weather.  The team’s doing great up here.  Everyone’s in good spirits and we are looking forward to moving up the mountain soon!  All’s well here on Aconcagua.  We’ll check-in soon!

 

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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

– Instagram:

/0 Comments/by

Rest Day at Camp 2

The view from Camp 2 on Aconcagua

Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, reports in from Camp 2 on Aconcagua:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Aconcagua team.  We’re up here at Camp 2.  We had a great rest day in Nido de Condores camp.  Nice day – not too windy and not as warm as yesterday but still not too cold.

We are going to see how the weather is tomorrow.  Sounds like there’s some high winds coming in by the forecast but we haven’t seen them yet – haven’t felt the high winds so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Either we’ll move up to Camp 3 or we’ll take another rest day here at Camp 2.

Everyone’s doing well here on Aconcagua.  Check-in soon!

By the way, it’s not too early to start making your plans to join us on other expeditions in the 2020 season!  Contact our office for details.

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

– Instagram:

/0 Comments/by