Tag Archive for: Climbing

Topping out on Lobuche East

Meanwhile down valley in the Khumbu, our Lobuche East climbers reached the summit and safely descended to the village of Lobuche!  Congratulations team!!  Madison Mountaineering guide Scott Webster reports in from Lobuche village with this recap of summit day:

Successful ascent of Lobuche East this morning (April 15, 2022). The team set out from high camp at 0200 and reached the summit (6119m/20,075ft) at 0730. The weather couldn’t have been any better with clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind! After descending back to high camp we packed up and returned to Lobuche village. The clients then helicoptered back to Kathmandu! From the summit of a 6000m Himalayan peak to Kathmandu in less than 10 hours!

On the summit of Lobuche East!

On the summit of Lobuche East!

Heading up from high camp on Lobuche East

Heading up from high camp on Lobuche East

Nearing the summit of Lobuche East

Nearing the summit of Lobuche East

Climber Katherine Crociata and Tenji Sherpa on the summit of Lobuche East

Climber Katherine Crociata and Tenji Sherpa on the summit of Lobuche East

Topping out on Lobuche East

Topping out on Lobuche East


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:

David Liano climbing up part of the black pyramid

Today our team rested at camp 2 on the Abruzzi ridge on K2. Some of us climbed a litter higher to around 22,500 ft on the route. Pictured here is David Liano climbing up part of the Black Pyramid. Our plan is to descend to base camp tomorrow.

The view from K2 base camp

Happy 4th of July! Today our K2 team rested and organized equipment in base camp. We are planning to move up on our first rotation in a couple of days so we are busy organizing gear and food for the high camps on K2. Our Sherpas are going to Camp 2 tomorrow and the following day will begin fixing ropes towards Camp 3, pending good weather.

To celebrate the USA Independence Day 4th of July we watched the film Top Gun after dinner this evening. Everyone is doing well here in K2 base camp and we look forward to making a move up the mountain soon!

Video Recap:

Video recap (Day 1-12) of Madison Mountaineering journey to Everest base camp!  Please enjoy the short video given below of our team trekking to Everest base camp.

Video Recap Till EBC

                                                                                                            Video Recap Till EBC

Settled into EBC :

Today is our 4th day in Everest base camp, we are now settled here for this 2018 expedition. We have been training for the Khumbu Icefall by practicing various climbing techniques such as ascending fixed ropes, rappelling, and crossing ladders. We will continue training the next few days before we make our first ‘rotation’ to Camps 1 & 2. Tomorrow is our Puja ceremony. All is well here in base camp.

Settled In Dinning Room

                                                                                                                                                     Resting In Dinning Room

 

 


We left Lobuche, and heading towards Gorak Shep as we make our way closer to Everest. Yesterday we had a light snow in the evening so today its blue sky with the sun reflecting off the new snow. Furthermore, Everyone is doing well and we are excited to climb Kala Pattar this afternoon! Tomorrow we plan to reach Everest base camp.

Our Mount Vinson Expeditions concluded yesterday when our second team made it back to Punta Arenas, Chile, after a successful climb of the highest peak on the continent of Antarctica.  We are thrilled to announce that Madison Mountaineering was the only company leading multiple Mount Vinson Expeditions with 100% climber success overall, this is unmatched by the other guide companies on the mountain this year.  We credit this high level of achievement and safety to our commitment of thorough climber screening and preparation beforehand, our leadership on the mountain, and building cohesive teams of climbers that are very powerful.  Our first team of Mount Vinson climbers comprised of Garrett, Peter, Richard, and Sharon reached the summit of Mount Vinson on January 7th, and our second team of Mount Vinson climbers comprised of Garrett, Keith, Annie, Mei, Jeff, Tamas, and Maria reached the summit of Mount Vinson on January 17th after first having skied to the South Pole!

Each of our Mount Vinson expeditions were very fortunate to reach the top of the mountain with fantastic weather, clear skies and only a little wind, very pleasant summit days indeed!  We now will head home to our families and friends, and for some of us begin preparing for our next big expedition, Mount Everest beginning in early April!  Please enjoy the photos below of our recent climbs in Antarctica!  For climbers looking to climb Mount Vinson or other peaks in Antarctica for the upcoming season (December 2018), its important to start planning soon!

Garrett Madison

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Mount Vinson Expeditions

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Mount Vinson Expeditions

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Mount Vinson Expeditions

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Mount Vinson Expeditions

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Mount Vinson Expeditions

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Today private guides Brent and Geoff moved up to Camp 3 with climbers John and Anders in three hours. The route conditions and weather made for a quick ascent. Tomorrow they will depart at 8am and continue the ascent to Camp 4 and prepare for their summit push on Everest and Lhotse. We are excited to have our team in summit position and will be up all night here at base camp to monitor their progress.

Our main team spent today resting at Camp 2 and will move up to Camp 3 early tomorrow morning. Mountain winds are expected to decrease and allow our climbers to be well positioned for clear summit days on Everest and Lhotse. The weather has been clear and sunny the past few days with little to no precipitation. All of our high camps have been stocked with oxygen and supplies by our strong Sherpa team.

To the top!

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Beautiful weather at Camp 2 today

Camp 3

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Moving between Camp 1 and 2

Our Mount Everest and Lhotse summit rotation has launched! At 2am this morning our climbing team departed Everest base camp and began the ascent though the Khumbu Icefall. Now resting at Camp 2, our entire team will rest and prepare for the next move to Camp 3. Weather forecasts are predicting for increased wind over the next couple says so we will hold till the conditions settle down. We are all in good spirits and health and excited to continue our journey to the top of the world.

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Celebratory photo with our Ghurka neighbors! 

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Relaxing in our dining tent the evening before taking off on our summit rotation

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Happy Birthday Ellen!!

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Anders, Brent, Geoff and John taking off for Camp 2

Lhotse summit rotation

Yesterday, 2 of our top fixing Sherpas in partnership with the British-Gurkha team (Sherpas and Nepali climbers) were able to reach the summit around 2:15 PM.  We are very happy that our plan succeeded, and now climbers will begin making attempts on the peak.  Our 2 Sherpas who aided in the rope fixing effort today are Lakpa Dandi and Tashi Sherpa, 2 of the 7 rope fixing Sherpas to reach the summit.

As we are now in the final phase of our Mount Everest expedition, our sights are set on climbing to the summit of the world’s highest peak, and for some of us after that also climbing to the top of the world’s 4th highest peak, Lhotse.  We have completed our acclimatization rotations on Everest, reaching Camp 3 and spending several nights at Camp 2 (21,300’) on each of our rotations. Our Sherpa team has stocked all of our high camps with essential equipment for our climb including tents, oxygen cylinders, food, etc.  We are now well rested after spending the last week in base camp or down in Namche at the comfortable Panorama lodge.  We are now waiting in base camp for a favorable weather forecast.

The current weather models show that high winds will arrive over Everest in the next day or two, so we will wait until these winds pass before making our summit attempt. Some teams may try to summit in the next day or shortly after, we prefer to wait for a better forecast before making out attempt. Our main team hopes to be ready to climb on the tail end of this wind event, perhaps as early as May 22nd if the winds do indeed drop down by then.

Currently we are all resting in base camp and passing the time watching films, reading books, going for short hikes, occasional camp maintenance projects, reviewing our climbing kit and oxygen systems, and of course coming together as a team for meal times in our dining tent.  We will continue to monitor the weather forecasts, and hopefully begin our summit attempt in a few days time, stay tuned!

Garrett Madison

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas

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Rope fixing Sherpas