Tag Archive for: Khumbu Icefall

Snowy Day at Everest Base Camp

One week ago at our Camp 1 looking up at Lhotse (📸: Kilian Jornet)

On a snowy day at Everest Base Camp, expedition leader, Garrett Madison, has this daily report:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Autumn Everest Expedition.  Today is September 28th and we had a rest day in base camp as it snowed outside all day and fairly cloudy.

 

We were very happy to see our friend Kilian Jornet and his friend Carlos come into our camp for a few hours this afternoon and have lunch with us.  Kilian’s just back from Namche and planning on heading up in a few days, weather pending.

 

We heard a big boom today in the icefall, it might have been the serac that we’ve been waiting to break loose and fall down.  We won’t know until we get a good view when the weather clears up in a day or two.

 

But, we’re doing great here in base camp.  Everyone’s doing well and just enjoying being here at Everest Base Camp.

[photo above:  One week ago at our Camp 1 looking up at Lhotse (📸: Kilian Jornet)]

Recent photo of the serac approximately 1 kilometer above the central portion of the Khumbu Icefall (📸: Andrezj Bargiel)

Recent photo of the serac approximately 1 kilometer above the central portion of the Khumbu Icefall (📸: Andrezj Bargiel)

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Dinner at the Neighbors

Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, recaps tonight’s dinner at the neighboring Polish team camp and an update on the serac looming over the Khumbu Icefall:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Autumn Everest Expedition.

 

Today we had dinner with our Polish friends over in their camp, which was a nice contrast to our camp the night before.  We had a fun evening with everyone; got to talk about about different cultures and also took a look at the looming serac above the Khumbu Icefall through their telephoto lens and drone camera.  It definitely looks like the serac is moving, leaning more towards the icefall and hopefully falling soon.

 

Both teams, the Polish team and our team, have decided not to go through the icefall until the serac comes down because we do think that the blast from the ice and the wind would definitely clear an area from one side of the icefall, the West Shoulder, to the other side, the Nuptse wall.

 

So, we’re just hanging at base camp.  We had a great night and hopefully we will get some sunshine tomorrow.

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Dinner parties at EBC

Team dinner with our Polish friends Andrezj Bargiel at the MM dining tent in EBC

The Everest team at EBC is keeping themselves busy during the day with hikes and at night with dinner parties!  Garrett Madison, expedition leader, provides the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Autumn Mount Everest Expedition.  Today is September 27th and today myself and Kristin went for a hike up to Prayer Flag Point above base camp.  A snowy day this afternoon, not too snowy this morning, had some sunshine.

 

Yesterday evening we had the Polish team over to our base camp for dinner.  They are a very warm and pleasant group of guys.  Andrezj is trying to ski down Mount Everest this year.  If you haven’t seen his video skiing down K2, it’s worth checking out on YouTube.

 

Tonight we’re planning on having dinner over at their camp with Andrezj and his team.  Easy couple of days here in base camp, hoping for some sunshine, and the serac to come down tomorrow.

 

We’ll check-in soon.  Thanks!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Hike to Pumori base camp

Acclimatization hike to Pumori base camp above Everest base camp

With another cloudy and snowy day at base camp, expedition leader Garrett Madison and the Everest climbing team took a hike up to nearby Pumori base camp:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Autumn Everest Expedition here at Everest base camp.  Today is September 25th.

 

Myself, Kristin, and Zac had a great day.  We hiked up to Pumori base camp to get some exercise and to get out of camp.  We had a bit of a view, a little cloudy, but it was good to get out of camp and get the heart rate up.  We had a nice lunch this afternoon with a restful afternoon and evening.  We’re hoping the serac comes down tonight.

 

We are going to have a diner with our friends from the Polish ski team with Andrzej Bargiel tomorrow night.  And we are hoping for an improvement in the weather.  It’s been pretty snowy and cloudy here the last few days.  So, hoping that the weather gives us a break here in the future and we get some sunshine in the next couple of days.

 

All’s well here at Everest base camp.

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Relaxing Restful Day in Base Camp

Photo of Mount Everest

Relaxing at base camp, Garrett Madison, Autumn Everest expedition leader, provides the recap of the day:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Autumn Everest Expedition.  Today is September 24th, and we had a very relaxing restful day in base camp.  It snowed off and on most of the day and was fairly cloudly but had a few sun breaks.

 

Myself, Kristin, and Zac just took the opportunity to reorganize our personal gear, our tents, and get a little bit of nap time in this afternoon.  We had three great meals today and a nice day with the Nepal staff here and the Sherpas.  We are hoping that tomorrow’s a little more sunny and maybe this serac will come down tonight, and we’ll have a clear and safe route to climb up afterwards.

 

Thanks for checking in!

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering archives)

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Holding Pattern at EBC

Mountain Hardwear departing EBC for KTM

Autumn Everest expedition leader, Garrett Madison, called in from base camp with today’s dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in the for Madison Mountaineering Everest Expedition Autumn season.  Today is September 23rd.

 

Today our climbers, Joe and Tim, flew out from base camp to Kathmandu as the Mountain Hardwear team has concluded their Everest expedition.  And our film crew, Jon, Jess, and François from Louder Than 11 also flew from base camp down to Kathmandu.

 

Everybody’s doing well.  Myself, Kristin, and Zac are here at Everest Base Camp and we’re just in a holding pattern right now – it’s snowing and we’re enjoying base camp.  We went for a hike today up to Prayer Flag Point behind base camp.

 

And we are looking forward to some improving weather, hopefully, tomorrow.  So, all’s well here in base camp!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Monster serac forces expedition decisions

MHW team considering current icefall route data at EBC

Autumn Everest expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides this update on the new data regarding the Khumbu Icefall route and subsequent decisions made:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering / Mountain Hardwear Autumn Everest Expedition.  Today is September 22nd.  To recap yesterday:  we had a great day, our sherpa team reached Camp 1.  But, on the way down they noticed a large serac about 3,000 ft. or 1,000m up off of the Khumbu Icefall on the west shoulder of Mount Everest.

 

We were studying that late last night and again today with some drone footage (shared by the Polish Lhotse team) and, uh, it doesn’t look very safe.  So the Mountain Hardwear team has decided to conclude their expedition on Everest and decouple from the Madison Mountaineering expedition.  That means Joe Vernachio and Tim Emmett are going to be heading out tomorrow by helicopter, weather pending.  [see the @mhweverest2019 Instagram post for their firsthand conciderations]

 

Myself and the other climbers here with Madison Mountaineering, Zac and Kristin, are going to stay and evaluate conditions on a day-by-day basis.  So, we’ll have to keep an eye on the serac and also the weather, of course, to see how things progress.  But, everyone’s doing well here in base camp.

 

Today our sherpas decided not to move up look for a route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 because the weather was bad.  It was very cloudy with little to no visibility up in the Western Cwm between Camp 1 and Camp 2, which would make route finding very difficult with the deep snow.

 

Everyone’s here doing well, but we’re sad to have things turn out this way, but we’ll keep our hopes up that perhaps the serac will may come down tonight when no one’s on the route and clear out for the rest of the expedition.

Photo of serac above, with 3 climbers below...

Photo of serac above, with 3 climbers below… (📸: Tim Emmett)

Zoomed view of detatched section of hanging serac

Zoomed view (upper red circle in above image) of detached section of hanging serac (📸: Andrzej Bargiel)

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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The route to Camp 1 is in!

Enjoying the comforts of the new Mountain Hardwear Space Station at EBC

Autumn Everest expedition leader, Garrett Madison, report on the exciting progress today:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Mountain Hardwear Autumn Everest Expedition with Madison Mountaineering.  Today is September 21st and we had a GREAT day!

 

Exciting news:  our sherpa team was able to find the route through the icefall and reached Camp 1! So, the route is open to Camp 1!  The other climbers had a great day in base camp, relaxing and doing a little training out in the icefall.  Beautiful day here.

 

Tomorrow we are looking forward to another good weather day and further process on the route and planning for our first rotation up to the high camps.

 

All’s well here at base camp and we’ll check-in soon.  Thanks!

The awesome Garmin MARQ Expedtion at Everest base camp

Garrett rocks the new Garmin MARQ Expedition at 17,701 ft. elevation Everest Base Camp.  Keeping everything running on time.

Enjoying the comforts of the new Mountain Hardwear Space Station at EBC

Enjoying the comforts of the awesome, new Mountain Hardwear Space Station at EBC

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Tim says beautiful weather

Climbing in the icefall today

Here’s Mountain Hardwear Athlete Tim Emmett with today’s Everest expedition update:

Hello, this is the Mountain Hardwear / Madison Mountaineering Everest Expedition dispatch.  We are at base camp right now and we’ve been up to the icefall today with some of the crew to see how’s that’s going.  Beautiful weather today, it was the first time since we got here to be honest.  So it was amazing oportunity to see the big mountains that we are surrounded by.  Tomorrow we are going to have a rest day.  The sherpas are getting us really close to Camp 1!  So we’re getting quite excited about that.  So, yeah we’ll see what happens!!

Sunny at EBC

Sunny at EBC (📸: Joe Vernachio)

Tim Emmett getting his dinner. It’s burgers!!

Tim Emmett getting his dinner. It’s burgers!!

Climbing in the icefall today

Climbing in the icefall today

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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Mountain Hardwear CEO checks in…

Today's View from Base Camp

Today, Mountain Hardwear CEO, Joe Vernachio, provide a recap of yesterday’s activities around base camp the plan for today:

Hi, this is Joe Vernachio for the Mountain Hardwear Everest Expedition with Madison Mountaineering.  We had an active rest day yesterday where we walked up into the Khumbu Icefall.  It was a very cloudy, snowy day.  We woke up this morning to bright sunshine, and we are going to do it again today and get some altitude and some acclimatization.  And tomorrow (will be) a rest day, then we will probably start our rotation up the mountain.  Everybody’s good!  We’re here in base camp, just finishing up breakfast, and we are having a GOOD time!  We will talk to you soon!

Joe V on the ice course

Today's View from Base Camp

Today’s View from Base Camp

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow the team as they trek to Everest Base Camp and then make their attempt to summit the world’s highest mountain 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

– Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

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