Tag Archive for: Himalaya

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:

/1 Comment/by

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:

/0 Comments/by

Summit Push Update: Preparing to move to the South Col

Camp 3 on the Lhotse face

Our Everest team is still hanging tight at Camp III on the Lhotse Face and it looks like tomorrow might be the day to move up to the South Col to get into position for a subsequent summit attempt.  Here’s Garrett via sat phone with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhtose expedition.  Today is May 20th.

We just finished a rest day up here at Camp III.  Little bit of a stormy day – a lot of wind and snow.  But everyone’s doing good.  We’re hoping tomorrow is going to be a little bit better day for our move up to the South Col – Camp IV.

So all’s well here at Camp III – 23,600 feet on the Lhotse Face.  We’re looking forward to some sunny skies tomorrow.

We’ll check in soon, 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:

/1 Comment/by

Summit Push Update: Camp III

Camp III on the Lhotse Face with lots of fresh snow

The team has moved up to Camp III (7230m/23,720ft) on the Lhotse Face and expedition leader Garrett Madison checks in via sat phone with the day’s recap and the plan for what’s ahead:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhtose expedition.  Today is May 19th, just a litte after 7:00 PM.

Today we climbed up from Camp II to Camp III.  We are currently in Camp III.  Happy to be here on the Lhotse Face.  It’s been a stormy day – very blustery, lots of snow fall, and high wind gusts throughout the day.  We got up here to our camp and spent the first three hours digging out our tents which had been consumed and covered in fresh snow and spin drift blowing by the wind.  Once we got moved into our tents, got our stoves going and made some water, we had dinner.  Everyone is getting to bed now.

The weather changed a bit.  We were hoping to head up to Camp IV tomorrow, but with the new forecast and the inclement and blustery weather on the way tomorrow, our plan is to hunker down here in Camp III and take a rest day and wait out the weather and then move up to Camp IV the following day on the 21st of May.

Everyone’s doing well here.  We had a great day.  It was a big push coming up in the tough weather, the high winds, and the snow.  But everyone did wonderful.  I’m very proud of the team.  We’re looking foward to tomorrow up here at Camp III.  Hopefully we’ll get a few breaks in the weather and get to enjoy some nice views.

Thanks for checking in!  We’ll talk to you 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:

/1 Comment/by

Summit Push Update: Moving up to Camp III tomorrow

On the way to Camp III

Our Everest team has been holding tight at Camp II over the past few days as they wait for the weather conditions to open up for a summit attempt.  Everyone is doing well and excited to get climbing.

The plan is to move up to Camp III tomorrow (May 19th) and be in position for a summit attempt within the following few days as the weather allows.

Stay tuned for our progress updates!!

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

Summit Push Update: Rest day at Camp II

The Lhotse Face covered in snow as seen from Camp II

Our Everest team had a rest day today at Camp II in the Western Cwm.  Garrett Madison checks-in via sat phone with all the details and the plans for the summit attempt:

Hello, it’s May 16th and this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse team.

Today was our rest day at Camp II after coming up here yesterday through the Khumbu Icefall, past Camp I, and through the Western Cwm to Camp II.  We had a wonderful day coming up here – didn’t see many people at all actually on the route.  It was a bit windy which kept it cool in the Western Cwm where it usually gets too hot.  After we pulled in here yesterday we had a nice lunch, a restful afternoon, and dinner.

Today we’ve just been resting all day and watching the weather.  It looks like we might have a weather window around the 21st of May but too be sure, we’ll check the weather forecast tomorrow to confirm and probably head up the following day or perhaps delay another day or two before heading up from Camp II.

It’s great up here, everyone’s well – we’re healthy, happy, in good spirits, and eating well.  We were out taking photos and videos today and just admiring the views – it’s been clear and sunny and warm.  So, life is good here at Camp II.

We’re fortunate to be here and feel very lucky to be on Everest.  We are setting our sights on a summit attempt here, hopefully, sometime in the next few days – weather pending.

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

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

Summit Bid Time

Jon and Becks on the summit of Mount Everest!

It’s Summit Bid time!  Garrett and the team are ready to head up the mountain tonight to go for the summit!  Here’s Garrett with the details from Everest base camp:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition 2021.

We’re in base camp and went through all of our oxygen systems today and our food for the high camps and talked about our plan.  We’re gonna head up to Camp II tonight and reevaluate the weather at Camp II, take a rest day there, and look at potential summit days of the 20th, 21st, 22nd.  But we’ll definitely have to reevaluate the weather forecast.  Looks like it could be good, but still a lot of uncertainly in the weather forecast model.  So, we want to give it a day or two to verify what’s in the forecast.

But everyone’s doing well here.  We’re excited to head up, it’s a beautiful evening here at Everest base camp:  no clouds, the stars are out, just a spectacular day here.  So we’re feeling good, we’re excited, and we’re looking forward to getting up the mountain here.

Also, today our British friends, Kenton, Jon, Becks, and Ardavan, all flew out from base camp down to Kathmandu.  So they’re doing well in Kathmandu at the moment.  They had a great climb of Everest and Lhotse.  So, we’re hoping to repeat their success here sometime in the near future.

We’ll check in soon, thanks!

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

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:

/0 Comments/by

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.

/3 Comments/by

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:

/0 Comments/by