Tag Archive for: Camp IV

Team Safely Down to Camp II

Everest Camp 2

Our Everest team is safely down to Camp II and expedition leader Garrett Madison provides the recap of the descent from the South Col via sat phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition.  Today is May 24th.  It’s 8:07 PM and we are all safely down in Camp II.

Today we woke up at Camp IV on the South Col about 6:00 AM, had breakfast, started packing, and made our way down from the South Col, over the Geneva Spur, down the Lhotse Face, over the Yellow Band, and onwards down over the [garbled] at Camp III, down the Western Cwm into Camp II.  We’re all safely back in Camp II.

We’re tired – it was a big effort getting down today.  But, everybody’s doing okay here in Camp II.

Our plan is to get up tomorrow at 4:00 AM and head out by 5:00 AM to make our way down through the Khumbu Icefall to base camp.  So we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re down to Camp II, we’re doing well, and we’re just so fortunate and so happy that we had a beautiful summit day yesterday on Everest.  Nine clients, four guides, and over twenty sherpas were all able to make the summit on what was probably the nicest summit day I’ve ever had – beautiful conditions up there.  And some of our climbers were also able to make Lhotse.  So very fortunate that everyone had good climbing and is down safe.

One more day to go here through the Western Cwm and the Khumbu Icefall to be back at base camp.  We are looking forward to making our way towards Kathmandu and back home.

All’s well here in Camp II and we’ll check in soon!

(photo:  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:

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Best. Summit. Day. Ever!

The Everest summit ridge on May 23rd

Via sat phone from Camp IV on the South Col of Mount Everest, expedition leader and now 11-time summiter of Mount Everest, Garrett Madison provides the happy news:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition.  Today is May 23rd, it’s 7:30 PM in Nepal.  We are at Camp IV on Mount Everest’s South Col.

We had an amazing day.  We left around midnight on the 23rd and summited Mount Everest this morning.  It was a beautiful day!  It was clear, calm, and probably the nicest summit day I’ve had on Everest out of my 11 summits!

Our team of nine clients, four American western guides, and over 20 Nepal sherpas all made it to the top of Everest and back down safe.  So, we had a wonderful day!  It was beautiful – amazing views as far as the eye could see and we spent a long time at the summit.

Tonight, we have some climbers heading out for Lhotse.  In fact, one of our climbers, Kristin Harila, actually already summited Lhotse.  From Everest to Lhotse today in record time!  She is on her way down from the Lhotse summit now.

Big congrats to Kristin and to all the members of our team for making it up to the top of Everest today and back down to Camp IV safely.

We aren’t out of the woods yet; we have to get down to Camp II tomorrow.  We are going to wake up, pack, and be safe on the way down the Lhotse Face to Camp II.  But, we’re very happy that the weather forecast from Marc De Keyser worked out and we got a beautiful day here on the summit of Everest.  It couldn’t have been better!  We are very fortunate and are looking forward to a safe descent.

(photo:  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:

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Everest Summits!

Close up of Everest and Lhotse from Gokyo Ri

Our Everest base camp staff is in touch with the climbing team and is reporting the following May 23rd Everest summits (all times NPT):

  • 06:30 – Kristin H. / Aang Phurba Sherpa / Dawa Bhote
  • 08:30 – Kevin W. / Sid Pattison / Terray Sylvester / Phurba Ridar Bhote / Chhiring Bhote / Mingma Sherpa / Kul Bahadur Thapa Magar
  • 08:50 – Art M. / Pasang Bhote / Dawa Bhote
  • 09:15 – Cokie B. / Ronan M. / Mingma Dorjee Sherpa / Sange Sherpa / Pemba Sherpa / Lhakpa Bhote / Dawa Gyalgen Sherpa
  • 10:10 – Andrew H. / Kristin B. / Ben V. / Mark P. / Krisli M. / Rob Smith / Garrett Madison / Siddi Bahadur Tamang / Dawa Nupu Sherpa / Kam Dorjee Sherpa / Free Chhombi Sherpa / Diwas Sherpa / Tenzing Sherpa / Dorjee Sherpa

Total of 14 members and guides and 22 sherpa.

Congratulations to all the climbers and our entire 2021 Madison Mountaineering Everest staff!  Well done.  Wishing everyone a safe descent.

Official news to follow.

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Summit Push Update: It’s GO time!

Photo of Mount Everest

We just received a sat phone updated from Garrett at the South Col.  It’s GO time!  Be sure to follow the summit push with our real-time location tracker:  https://madisonmountaineering.com/maps/everest-2021.  Godspeed team – get safely up and down.

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest team.  It is nearly midnight on May 23rd and we’re getting ready to head out and go for our summit attempt here on Mount Everest!

A little gusty up here but the winds are supposed to die down.  So we’re hoping the forecast holds true and we get some nice, calm winds up there today and a clear sky for a nice view.  We’re all excited to start our summit push and we’ve been training hard and prep’d for a long time.  So, this is the BIG night!

We’re gonna set off here shortly and we’ll check in when we get back.  Thanks!

(photo: 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:

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Summit Push Update: Team safely at Camp IV

Camp 4

Today our Everest/Lhotse team moved up from Camp III to Camp IV on the South Col.  Conditions were tough with the wind and snow, but everyone did great and are now safely tucked into their tents.  The plan is to take a rest day tomorrow  (5/22) and go for the summit on the following early morning (5/23).  Currently, the wind is blowing on the South Col and it’s too noisy for an audio dispatch.  Via our satellite communicator, here’s expedition leader Garrett Madison‘s quick text update:

Greetings from Camp 4 at the South Col.  We all made it up here, tough conditions.  Will rest tomorrow (22) and leave 22 night for the summit AM of 23.

(photo: 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:

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Everest Summits with More to Come!

The view of Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse from Pumori base camp

From Everest base camp, expedition leader Garrett Madison checks in with some exciting news and a look ahead for what’s still to come:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition!  Today is May 11 and we have some exciting news to report.

Jon Gupta, Kenton Cool, and Rebecca Ferry have all summited Everest along with three of our Nepal Sherpa team (Dorjee Gelgen Sherpa, Chhetan Dorjee Sherpa, Lakpa Wongchu Sherpa).  They are back in Camp IV on the South Col now resting up.  It sounds like tonight some of them will be going for Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world.  Hopefully they’ll have another great day up there.  It sounded like almost no wind today on the Everest summit and they got some great photos and video.  Another great day coming tomorrow in the weather forecast before the winds pick up.

The rest of our team is doing well.  We had some members return from Namche today and the rest of the team is coming back from Namche tomorrow.  We will be doing our distancing and isolating when people come back – staying away from the group for 72 hours and testing upon arrival and after 72 hours.  So we’re feeling good about that and looking forward to a good long time here in base camp resting up before we head up on our summit rotation.  We’re waiting for that weather forecast to look good for us.

So, all’s well here in base camp.  We’ll be training with our oxygen systems over the next few days and doing some hikes to the surrounding areas and just enjoying Everest base camp.

All’s well here and we’ll check in soon!

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:

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Everest Summits!

The Everest summit ridge on May 23rd

We are very pleased to report the following Mount Everest summits today ranging from 06:45 to 08:34 local NPT time:

  • Dorjee Gelgen Sherpa
  • Chhetan Dorjee Sherpa
  • Lakpa Wongchu Sherpa
  • Kenton Cool
  • Jon Gupta
  • Rebecca Ferry

Congratulations all!  Godspeed for a safe descent.

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BREAKING: Climbers Nearing Everest Summit

BREAKING NEWS:  Climbers Kenton Cool, Jon Gupta, and Becks Ferry have been climbing throughout the night from Camp IV on the South Col and are now just about 100m below the South Summit.  Follow along with Jon’s inReach tracker.

Fingers crossed for a summit and safe descent to soon!!  Stay tuned, more news as we get it.

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:

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