Tag Archive for: Lukla

The Trek to Base Camp – Day 1

Team excited to fly to Lukla!

Early this morning the Ama Dablam and Gokyo teams flew by helicopter from Kathmandu to the mountain village of Lukla, where they started their treks.  The first stop is the village of Phakding.  Here’s expedition leader, Garrett Madison, with today’s audio dispatch from Phakding, Nepal:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Ama Dablam team expedition.  We all made it to Lukla today and had a wonderful trek to village of Phakding.  It’s great to be back up here in Khumbu Valley — clear views, fresh air, nice wonderful people.  It feels like we are the only group here, which we may be.

We’re very happy to be up here and to be on our way!

Heli Flight to Lukla (🎥: @eliasaikaly)

On the trek from Lukla to Phakding

On the trek from Lukla to Phakding (📸: @aang_phurba_mountaineer)

Rest break trekking from Lukla to Phakding

Rest break trekking from Lukla to Phakding (📸: @aang_phurba_mountaineer)

Beautiful views from Lukla to Phakding

Beautiful views from Lukla to Phakding (📸: @aang_phurba_mountaineer)

Crossing one of many bridges on the trek to base camp

Crossing one of many bridges on the trek to base camp (📸: @aang_phurba_mountaineer)

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

– Instagram:

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Ama Dablam team nearing base camp

Ama Dablam

Our autumn Ama Dablam expedition kicked off earlier this week and the team has been trekking their way up to base camp from the mountain airport village of Lukla (2860m / 9,380ft.).  The first stop was the village of Monjo where they entered the Sagarmatha National Park. and from there up to Namche Bazaar where a couple of days were spent resting.  On their acclimatization hikes above Namche, the team caught the first glimpses of their objective:  Ama Dablam.  Great hiking weather with dramatic clouds unveiling the summit.  From Namche, the team pressed on to Deboche and were able to spend some time enjoying the Tengboche Monastery on their way.

Today they are now at the last village before Ama Dablam base camp, Pangboche and should be crossing the river and finishing up the trek to BC tomorrow.

Team arrives Lukla

Brook and Rick at the hanging bridges below Namche

Brook and Rick at the hanging bridges below Namche

Having a great trek and now are on the Namche cappuchino tour

Ama Dablam team - Brook, Conan, Rick

Ama Dablam team – Brook, Conan, Rick

Ama Dablam

First glimpse of the Ama Dablam

Ama Dablam team checking out the Tengboche Monastery en route to Pangboche

Also follow the team on Instagram:  @MadisonMtng

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Kathmandu to Lukla to Phakding

Trekking day 1:  Lukla to Phakding – Distance: 8.30 km – Elev Gain/Loss: 394m/-639m

Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, provides the recap of today’s exciting flight to the trailhead mountain village of Lukla and the first day of trekking towards Everest Base Camp:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Mountain Hardwear Everest expedition and base camp trek.  Today is September 8th.  We were very lucky this morning to have an early flight at 6:00 AM out of Kathmandu and landed in Lukla.  But not after a fun, unplanned stop in the small village of Phaplu on the way.  The clouds rolled in and the Lukla airport was closed en route on our flight so the pilot diverted and landed at a small airstrip on the way.  Then when the clouds parted our pilot took off and landed us in Lukla.

 

From Lukla we made our way up the start of the Khumbu Valley.  It’s amazingly green here right now!  It’s been raining so much at the end of the monsoon season.  Everything is just incredibly green and vibrant.  A lot of growth here – the vegetation, the trees, the forest…  So, we’ve got it really good here!  We are at Phakding in the Sunrise lodge.  We just finished a good dinner and are heading off to bed.

 

Tomorrow we are going to head up to Namche.  Everybody’s feeling great.  It’s surprisingly quite here in the Khumbu.  We have the lodge all to ourselves and we didn’t see many people on the trail today because it’s not quite the trekking season which starts up in October.  We are feeling great and looking forward to a great day trekking up to Namche tomorrow.

(photo:  Lukla airport from the Madison Mountaineering Everest 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:

– Instagram:

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

– 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
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Everest team in Kathmandu and flying to Lukla tomorrow

Lhotse

Team Arrived At Kathmandu!

Our Mount Everest climbing team and trekking team is in Kathmandu and scheduled to fly to Lukla tomorrow . They will  begin to  trek to base camp from there!  Today everyone is sightseeing around Kathmandu and excited to get up to the fresh mountain air in the Khumbu valley! Please check out the tracking links above for location of the team as they make their way up to Everest base camp.  Stay tuned for more dispatches…

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Unclimbed peak expedition settled in base camp

Our unclimbed peak expedition team is now in base camp, preparing to make a recon up to the peak to scout the potential climbing route. Our peak, Tharke Khang, looks to have a ridge line beginning from the west that appears climbable, with steep snow and ice slopes. Our base camp is comfortable with a heated dining tent and great food!

Garrett

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peak expedition

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Trekking through Machermo up the valley to the village of Gokyo

We made our from Machermo up the valley to the village of Gokyo, situated next to a beautiful aqua marine lake. After lunch a few of us hiked up nearby Gokyo Ri, at just over 17,500’. We glimpsed our unclimbed peak in the distance, still a long way off…with major challenges between us and the start of the route, about 10 miles of glacier moraine and glacier/ icefall. This will not be an easy walk to say the least…accessing the base of the route is one thing, climbing the technical ridge is another.

Exploration in essence is venturing into the unknown… and that is exactly where we are headed.

Our team is good, everyone is acclimatizing well. The weather has been favorable and we hope this trend continues. We look forward to reaching our base camp the next day or two.

–Garrett Madison

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Tham Serku peak

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Ama Dablam

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Trekking through the high country towards base camp

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First view of the unclimbed peak, Tharke Khang

Machermo

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At the top of Gokyo Ri today, 17,500′

Machermo

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The village of Gokyo, at 15,600′ high in the Himalayas where we are staying

Machermo

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At one of the Gokyo lakes today

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Our head Sherpa, Aang Phurba

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Stairway to heaven

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Old chorton (in Sherpa language) means stupa

 

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Team arrives in Namche Bazaar!

Namche Bazaar! Despite the flights, the time in Kathmandu and the preparation, for me it always takes until Namche to start feel like we are moving forward. Yesterday we trekked from Phakding to Namche under a low cloud ceiling keeping it nice and cool. Arriving around 2 in the afternoon we all had time to wander the narrow streets and relax at the beautiful Panorama Lodge. This morning we woke up, ate breakfast and took a nice acclimatization hike up to the Everest View hotel. There we took in stunning views of Mt. Everest, Lhotse and the crown jewel of the Himalaya, Ama Dablam, our objective after our unclimbed peak. Now back at the Panorama, we eat lunch, rest and prepare to head off towards Khumjung in the morning. The team is healthy, strong and psyched to get moving!

–Sid Pattison

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Namche is the main trading center and hub for the Khumbu region with many Nepalese officials, a police check, post and a bank

Namche

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Namche

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Team lunch with Ama Damblam in the background

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Greetings from Lukla!

Greetings from Lukla! We made it! After a couple of days of preparation in Kathmandu, today we boarded our Dornier aircraft and landed on Lukla. With most of our bags accounted for we are about to start off towards Phakding for the night. The crew is well rested, healthy and excited about finally being on our way to our unclimbed peak.

The Himalayan giants greeted us on arrival!

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Lukla

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First group returns to base camp after successful first rotation

Today guides Brent and Geoff returned to base camp with John and Anders after a successful first rotation. The weather at base camp has been cold with steady snowfall over the past two days. Our climbers up on the mountain are doing well and tucked in at Camp 1 and 2 on Mount Everest. They will follow the same schedule with two nights at Camp 1 and two nights at Camp 2 before returning back down to base camp.

Our Sherpa team reports that the route fixing team has moved up to Camp 4. We predict that the first Sherpa summits will be in the next one to two weeks. Beautiful photos below taken by our first rotation team!

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successful first rotation

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Changing Everest weather as teams move up

Today at base camp we woke up to sunshine and by early afternoon we had steady snowfall accumulating, Everest weather changes quickly! Our second wave of climbers pushed through the Khumbu icefall and made it to Camp 1 early this morning. We now have climbers acclimatizing at Camp 1 and Camp 2 on Mount Everest. Our third and final group will depart for Camp 1 early this morning. Everyone is doing well and in good spirits.

For daily photo updates follow us on Instagram @MadisonMtng.

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Everest weather

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Everest weather

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Everest weather

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Everest weather

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Everest weather

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