Tag Archive for: China

First rotation on Cho Oyu coming up!

Our team during yesterday's Puja ceremony!

The Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu expedition team is about to begin their first rotation on the world’s sixth-highest peak! The team has spent the last few days settling into their base camp, reviewing technical skills, packing for their rotation up to Camp 2, and taking part in a Puja ceremony! The Puja ceremony is a crucial piece to all of our 8,000-meter expeditions, asking the mountain for safe passage before going up. Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this dispatch from Tibet:

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu (8188m/26,864ft) expedition here in Tibet on the sixth-highest mountain in the world in China! Today is September 21st.

We had our Puja ceremony yesterday, it went very well asking the mountain for safe passage. A Tibetan monk came up and officiated the ceremony with us! Tomorrow we’re planning to head up on our first rotation to acclimatize on Cho Oyu up to Camps 1 and 2. It’s been a little snowy the last few days, but hopefully, we’ll get a break in the weather. The team’s doing great! We’re really excited to be here. There’s just a handful of teams and a few climbers each here on the mountain, so pretty small compared to some of the other peaks we’ve been on this year. But, all is going well here!

We’re thinking of our team on Manaslu (8156m/26,759ft) in Nepal, the eighth-highest peak in the world. They’re starting their summit rotation tomorrow heading up to Camp 1, hopefully summiting around September 25th or 26th. So, fingers crossed and they’ll be in our prayers!

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

Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu base camp!

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

– Instagram:

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Arrived in Advanced Base Camp on Cho Oyu!

The team out for an acclimatization hike!

The Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu expedition team has made it to advanced base camp on Cho Oyu, which will serve as their base camp for the duration of the expedition while they move up and down between there and the summit. The expedition has gone seamlessly so far and the team is looking forward to what lies ahead on the world’s sixth-highest peak! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this dispatch from Tibet:

Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu (8188m/26,864ft) expedition on the sixth-highest peak in the world here in Tibet!

Our team arrived in advanced base camp (5700m/18,700ft) yesterday, which is our base camp for the season, 18,600 feet – about 5-7 meters, 5,700 meters. We’re doing great! We’re just settling into our base camp, getting everything set up the way we would like it to be for the season, and looking forward to doing some more acclimatization hikes and some training before we head up for our first rotation on the route up to the higher camps.

It’s been beautiful weather here in Tibet! It’s been clear and cold, so great views and it’s great to be up high in the mountains. We’re really excited that everything has been going well on schedule. We’re here in the Himalayas just having a great time! We’ll check in soon.

Advanced Base Camp on a clear and starry night!

Advanced Base Camp on a clear and starry night!

Our base camp dining tent.

Our base camp dining tent.

The team during an acclimatization hike earlier in the expedition.

The team during an acclimatization hike earlier in the expedition.

The team during an acclimatization hike earlier in the expedition.

The team during an acclimatization hike earlier in the expedition.

Taking in the scenery during a hike high in Tibet!

Taking in the scenery during a hike high in Tibet!

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:

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Cho Oyu team arrives in Tibet!

The Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu expedition team after arriving in Tibet!

The Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu expedition team has officially arrived in Tibet! This long-awaited expedition is off to a great start so far and spirits are high after getting one step closer to reaching the mountain. We’ll continue our journey tomorrow and will be arriving in base camp soon! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this celebratory dispatch from Tibet:

Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu (8188m/26,864ft) expedition team. Today is September 12th and today we entered Tibet!

We drove from Kathmandu (1400m/4,600ft) and across the border and got to our hotel here in the village of Kerung (2774m/9,101ft) in Tibet. We’re really happy that everything has gone perfectly so far and according to our schedule! Our Sherpa team is with us and we’re excited to head to the town of Tingri (4348m/ 14,268ft) tomorrow where we’ll be a couple of nights acclimatizing, and then the following day to Chinese Base Camp (4900m/16,076ft) at Cho Oyu! So, the team’s doing great and we’re so happy to be here. (We’re) really excited for the climb ahead.

We’re also following our team over on Manaslu (8156m/26,759ft) led by Terray Sylvester as they’re up on the mountain doing their first rotation above base camp! So, having a good fall season in the Himalayas and looking forward to checking in 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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

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A successful climb of Haba ‘Snow Mountain’

Our climbing team had a wonderful ascent of Haba ‘Snow Mountain’ above the village of Haba in the Yunnan province of China. The climb was only 3 days followed by some sight seeing in the historical city of Lijiang. The summit of Haba is 5,396m or nearly 18,000′ so this was not a small climb by any means!

We hiked from the village of Haba on our first day of the trip through the dense forest and along mountain streams then came to grassy meadows as we approached our base camp. By the afternoon we reached our camp and had a glimpse of the peak.

On summit day we awoke at 3 AM and departed camp around 4 AM for the summit. We climbed up the rocky slopes and gained the glacier just as the sun began to rise, where we roped up and donned crampons. We then climbed the snow and ice slopes  and reached the top at 10:30 AM. We saw only a few other climbers on our ascent, even though it was a holiday weekend in China. At the summit we found the peak marker and savored the moment before heading down to our camp. The next day we hiked down through the lush forest back to the village of Haba, then drove along the scenic ‘Tiger leaping gorge’ back to Lijiang, where we visited the beautiful ‘old town’ that dates back to the 1300’s and enjoyed a traditional Chinese dinner typical of the Yunnan province. It’s been a great adventure with climbers Scott, Florian, Lloyd and Rafael!

To higher places!

Garrett Madison

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To view our climbing team’s exact route to the summit you can view our RainOn mapping platform here!

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Garrett and climbers setting off for Haba Xueshan!

Yesterday after meeting up in Shanghai, Garrett climbers flew to Lijiang, a beautiful city in the Yunnan province on the way to Haba Xueshan. Today our team is departing Lijiang and driving to Haba, to organize equipment and prepare for the trek to Haba Xueshan base camp! At an elevation of 17,703ft (5,396m), Haba Xueshan is a beautiful glaciated peak in southern China. Go team!
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Throughout this expedition you can view our team’s location and progress by viewing our RainOn mapping platform here!
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Garrett & team of climbers from Shanghai setting off for Haba.
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Yangtze River
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Team passing by the famous Hu  Tiao Cha ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ and Yangtze River located between the Haba Snow Mountain and the Yulong Snow Mountain. With a vertical drop of 3,800 meters the view to the bottom of the Tiger Leaping Gorge is nearly twice as high as the Grand Canyon!
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Fried snakes or sea horses anyone?
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Local woman in traditional dress in Haba.
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K2 2016 Climbing Season Recap

K2 2016 Climbing Season Recap:

Our K2 2016 team made a great effort to climb the peak but it was not meant to be. We are thankful that nobody was injured in the avalanche that came down from high on the mountain on July 23rd and took our Camp 3 and Camp 4 deposit off the mountain.  This avalanche resulted in the cancellation of the climbing season for all teams on K2 in 2016.  We have enjoyed our time in Pakistan and feel very lucky to have experienced this incredible mountain range, the Karakorum.  Please read the National Geographic article here for more information on the recent K2 climbing season.

To Higher Places!

–Garrett Madison

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Amazing Youtube video by Petr Jan Juracka with beautiful drone shots of our 2016 K2 ascent.

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Below please also enjoy 2016 K2 climber Takayasu Semba’s photo’s from the expedition.

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K2 Summit Attempt: Climb Recap

Our team is now back down in base camp after our K2 summit attempt. Tomorrow was supposed to be our summit day, the weather currently looks perfect as predicted, clear skies and no wind. We had everything in position for our summit attempt, after about 5 weeks of preparations, we had established our high camps, had climbed to camp 3, and were looking forward to our summit. But it was not meant to be, as when we were preparing to climb from camp 1 to camp 2 on the morning of July 23, we saw a big avalanche come down the mountain. We later learned that this avalanche was massive, had started somewhere near our camp 4, and had covered nearly a third of the mountain down to the base,  taking out our camps 3 & 4, nothing was left. We were lucky that we were not in these camps when the avalanche occurred. Without our equipment for our summit attempt (tents, oxygen, ropes, food, etc) we cannot continue our climb, we are now heading home, as are all teams. Yesterday we searched the avalanche debris field at the base of the mountain, about 7000′ below where the slide began,  but found nothing,  as the debris was around 10-20 ft. deep in most areas. We will leave base camp in a couple of days and trek out,  then fly or drive to Islamabad and fly home. Even though we did not make the summit we had a great experience and and are thankful for the time we had in this beautiful mountain range. -Garrett Madison

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Massive avalanche on K2, team safe at Camp 2

Massive avalanche on K2, camps 3 and 4 totally gone without a trace: All members currently safe in camp 2. Expedition now finished as all equipment for summit attempt (tents, oxygen, ropes, food, etc) has been lost.

-Garrett Madison

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K2 climbing team at Camp 1 with harsh weather conditions

Expedition leader Garrett Madison called in this morning to report that the team has safely reached Camp 1 and are now pinned down with harsh weather conditions. The team will wait and see if the weather stabilizes before moving higher on K2.

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This is a wind graph that we use to make data driven decisions on K2. Michael Fagin and team at West Coast Weather provide our expeditions around the world with advanced forecasting models. Michael Fagin has a background in weather forecasting for major expedition groups that climb K2 and other climbing venues. He is experienced in climate data retrieval and analysis for clients around the world.

K2 Wind Graph

*Forecast issued on July 22, 2016 and weather needs to be monitored as the weather patterns can and do change over time.

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Our climbers and guides climbing to Camp 1.

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Our international expedition prepares for K2 Summit rotation

In one day or so our international expedition of four climbers, two guides and six Sherpas will be leaving on their third and final climbing rotation, their K2 summit rotation. We expect the summit rotation to take six days to summit and return to K2 Base Camp.

Beautiful photos taken by Stuart Erskine.

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This is the first time we’ve seen K2 in a week or so as it has been non-stop fog and blowing snow.

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Broad Peak, the Godwin Austin Glacier and K2 Base Camp from partway up K2 Glacier.

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K2 glacier looking up to K2.

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K2 glacier and K2 in the middle, with Angle Peak to the left and Broad Peak to the right.

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At K2 Base Camp we’ve had snow, fog and rain for over a week now since July 13, 2016. This is our first nice day of weather and we are experiencing a lot of avalanches. This avalanche coming high off K2 from the bottleneck at over 27,000 ft has some serious propulsion and just misses the top of K2 Base Camp. The debris goes all the way across the valley towards the base of Broad Peak.

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Life is a balance. Stuart, a rock and K2.

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Stuart and his Sherpa climbed up onto the K2 glacier to the base of K2 to ponder their upcoming summit bid and contemplate safe passage on the mountain.

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