Tag Archive for: Himalaya

Congrats to climbers Sid Pattison and IngvildS for a successful Lhotse summit today! They made the ascent with Lakpa Dandi in great time and are now safe and sound at Camp 2. Our main team moved down from Camp 4 today and are now resting at Camp 2 before making the final descent to base camp. We’ve had an incredible expedition and look forward to having our team back down safely. We posted a beautiful 360-photo from the summit of Lhotse today on Facebook, check it out here!  Epic photos below from guide Geoff Schellens 🙂

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Moving up from Camp 3 on the Lhotse face. 

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Toward the summit of Lhotse

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Moving toward Everest summit

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Ascent of Everest 

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Lhotse summit

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Sid Pattison and IngvildS after an amazing summit today!! L for… Lhotse!!

After a successful summit on both Mount Everest (main team) and Lhotse (private team) today, our climbers made a safe descent and are now resting at Camp 4 on the South Col. With high winds today our team bunkered down in their tents after returning from their summit push. Guide Sid Pattison and climber IngvildS will climb Lhotse tonight if the weather allows. The rest of our team will return to Camp 2 tomorrow and base camp the following day. Summit photos and video will be posted soon! 🙂

Private guide Geoff Schellens and climber JohnS successfully summited Lhotse this morning! After their summit they made a safe descent to Camp 2. Tomorrow morning they will depart Camp 2 and will arrive back in to base camp before lunch time.  We are incredibly proud of all our climbers and can’t wait to have the entire team back down to base camp safe and sound.

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Looking up from Camp 4 toward the summit of Everest

safe descent

Amazing news from Nepal, Mount Everest 2017 summit success!! This morning our entire climbing team reached the summit with clear conditions and light wind at 8848 meters. After snapping a few pictures our team is now making their descent back down to Camp 4. Congratulations to the following:

Guides: Garrett Madison, Conan Bliss, Billy Nugent

Climbers: JohnK, AlinaZ, AllanM, IngvildS, DrewM, EllenG

Sherpa: Ang Phurba, Lakpa Dendi, Nurbu Sherpa, Pasang Dawa, Pemba Sherpa, K.B. Thapa, Tsherine Bhote, Ming Dorjee, Shere Thapa, Chhombi Sherpa, Shamgbu Bhote, Kam Dorjee, Phurba Bhote

Once the team arrives back to Camp 4, a few will evaluate their conditions and make a decision on climbing Lhotse tonight with guides Garrett and Sid Pattison. Guide Geoff Schellens and JohnS successfully summited Lhotse this morning!! The conditions were beautiful today with clear skies and 360 views!

This evening here on Everest our climbing teams had a short weather delay, then around 10pm left Camp 4 for the summit. Looking outside, the mountain is still and thousands of stars light up the sky. Little to no wind now here at base camp. Our main climbing team is currently making their ascent of Mount Everest, as they are moving well we expect them to approach the summit by sunrise.

Geoff (private guide) and JohnS. are currently climbing Lhotse together with Shidi Tamang. As our climbers approach the summits we will send another update here from base camp. Pictures and video to come 🙂

To the top!

We are happy to announce that our first team of climbers summited Everest! Guide Geoff Schellens was on the top of the world this morning with climbers John S. and Anders C. Way to go team!  As our team moved up through the night they encountered a seriously injured climber at around 3am. Our team of 4 western climbers and 3 Sherpa were strong and in good health and quickly made the decision to provide this injured climber with rescue assistance. Guide Brent Bishop heroically turned around on his summit attempt near the balcony with Sherpa Tashi and brought the seriously frostbitten climber back down to Camp 4 for further medical attention.

Today our main climbing team made their ascent from Camp 3 to Camp 4. Team is well and positioned for the summit. Our entire climbing team had dinner at the South Col together and will spend the next day resting in preparation for continued summit ascents on Everest and Lhotse. All of our climbers are on oxygen as they rest at Camp 4. Tomorrow night our main team is planning to move up Mount Everest and our private team will climb Lhotse. Weather reports are positive and we are excited to to make our summit bids!

For immediate family members, please email me at any time: andrew@madisonmountaineering.com

Today our private climbing team made a safe ascent to Camp 4 on the South Col. The weather is reported to be clear with little to no winds. In a couple hours our team will move toward the summit! We will be monitoring their progress all night at they climb to 8848 meters. Forecasts are predicting a great day to stand on top of the world!

Our main climbing group with guides Garrett, Sid, Billy and Conan climbed up to Camp 3 today. The team is doing well and resting now in preparation for their next move. Tomorrow at 6am they will climb up toward Camp 4 on the South Col. Forecasts are showing great summit conditions for our team!

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Our main team climbing from Camp 2 to Camp 3. (DrewM. in picture)

South Col

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Close to Camp 3 on the Lhotse face

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Our main team moving up from Camp 2 with the Lhotse face ahead

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

Minutes ago the first 2017 Mount Everest summits were made by a group of climbing Sherpa’s. This team included two of our best climbing Sherpa’s that were chosen to fix the ropes to the summit. Lakpa Dandi and Tashi were among seven climbing Sherpa’s that fixed the summit route. Now that the route to the summit is fixed we will start to see climber summits as early as tomorrow morning.

Our team is holding at base camp as high winds will be hitting the mountain over the next 1-2 days. Based on current weather forecasts we are looking to move up to our high camps by Wednesday. Stay tuned!

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2017 Mount Everest summits