Tag Archive for: Mountain Hardwear

Evening light on Ama Dablam above our base camp.

The Madison Mountaineering Ama Dablam expedition team spent the day acclimatizing as they continue to prepare for their climb! More beautiful views fueled the team as they climbed up towards Camp 1. The team couldn’t ask for better weather on the expedition so far and with more good weather tomorrow, the team will conduct their Puja ceremony along with technical skills training near their base camp. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Nepal:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the fall, 2024 Madison Mountaineering Ama Dablam (6812m/22,349ft) expedition – today is October 28.

Today, we woke up to another beautiful day here – no wind, nice sunshine. So, we went for a hike up to Yak Camp, which is about a little over halfway, two-thirds of the way up to Camp 1 (5791m/19,000ft). It was a really nice hike, great views all around the valley, Thamserku (6608m/21,680ft), Kangtega (6782m/22,251ft), up toward Cho Oyu (8188m/26,864ft), Cholatse (6440m/21,130 ft), Taboche (6495m/21,309ft) – all the beautiful peaks around here! Then, we came down for a nice lunch and we’ve been relaxing this evening.

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to our Puja, our pre-climb ceremony to ask the mountains for safe passage! Then, we’ll be doing some technical training later in the day.

So, all is well here and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Fresh apple pie for dessert in base camp this evening!

Fresh apple pie for dessert in base camp this evening!


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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

Approaching Ama Dablam Base Camp. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

The Madison Mountaineering Ama Dablam expedition team has reached their base camp and begun to get settled into their temporary home! The team enjoyed excellent views on their hike up from Pangboche and are filled with excitement as they are many steps closer to the mountain, with their first rotation set to start in just a few days. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Nepal:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ama Dablam (6812m/22,349ft) expedition – today is October 27th.

Today we hiked from Pangboche village (3985m/13,074ft) up here to Ama Dablam base camp (4600m/15,100ft). It was a great hike, another sunny day with fantastic views of the mountain along the way! Now, we’ve gotten settled into our box tents here in base camp and some of our members have had nice, hot showers and we’re just settling down to dinner in our Mountain Hardwear Space Station Dome. It’s a beautiful evening, a starry sky with just a faint blush of peak off to the west and we can see a few headlamps high on the southwest ridge heading toward the summit of Ama Dablam.

So, all is well here in Nepal and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

The team with their objective! (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

The team with their objective! (Photo by Terray Sylvester)


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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

A sunny morning in Manaslu Base Camp! (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Today the team continued getting to know their new home at the foot of Manaslu! The day started off with a nice breakfast and views of the mountain peeking through the clouds. After fueling up for the day, the team came together to put the finishing touches on their base camp and then had some fun brushing up on technical skills that will be used throughout the climb. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from the Himalaya:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Manaslu (8156m/26,759ft) expedition – today is September 7th.

Today we woke up to clearing skies! It was nice to have some sunshine for our first morning here in base camp (4859m/15,944ft). We had a nice breakfast of pancakes with real maple syrup, bacon, and eggs, and some nice fresh yogurt. Our kitchen staff here at these camps high up in the Himalayas do a great job of making really good yogurt. We had some fresh apples to go along with that.

We spent the morning buffing out our base camp! We set up our Mountain Hardwear Space Station Dome. That will be a nice space for our climbers to relax during the expedition! In the afternoon, we dialed in our climbing equipment and reviewed some technical skills before having a nice dinner and watching another movie.

Tomorrow we plan to do an acclimatization hike up toward ‘crampon point’ at the edge of the ice! So, we’ll be in touch tomorrow. All is well here in Nepal!


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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

The team celebrating with a welcome cake after arriving in base camp!

The team climbed out of the lower valley and into the alpine, finding their way to Manaslu Base Camp after acclimatizing for the last few days. Nice views of familiar sights revealed themselves below as we climbed up the trail. Now in base camp, the fun begins and we start to prepare for the climbing to come! Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from the Manaslu Base Camp:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Manaslu (8156m/26,759ft) expedition – today is September 6th.

Today we left Sama Village at about 8:00 AM and arrived in base camp (4859m/15,944ft) about four and a half hours later. We had nice weather for most of the hike with good views down the valley past the Manaslu Glacier and Birendra Lake toward Sama. A little bit of rain as we got into base camp. We had a nice lunch and then we moved into our tents and got settled in base camp. And now we’re just about to sit down for dinner and then we’ll watch a movie afterward in our base camp cinema.

The weather right now is very nice! We can see up to Camp 3 (6800m/22,310ft) and up toward the summit, and we’re getting patches of blue sky through the clouds.

So, all is well here in Nepal and we will be in touch tomorrow!

Our climber, Sara, en route to base camp. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Sara, en route to base camp. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Jimmy, en route to base camp. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Jimmy, en route to base camp. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Chie, approaching base camp with Siddhi, a member of our Sherpa team. Birendra Lake, Sama Village, and the Manaslu Glacier can be seen in the background. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)

Our climber, Chie, approaching base camp with Siddhi, a member of our Sherpa team. Birendra Lake, Sama Village, and the Manaslu Glacier can be seen in the background. (Photo by Terray Sylvester)


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 our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.

Instagram:

Everest 2021 Team

Definitely a challenging season on the world’s highest peak, but in the end Sagarmatha smiled and opened her arms, welcoming us to journey to her highest point. Our @madisonmtng team had magnificent summit days on May 11th and 23rd, with a total of 17 foreign climbers and 23 Nepal Sherpas reaching the top, of which 5 foreign climbers went on to summit Lhotse with 6 Sherpas. Among our team was Arthur Muir, now the oldest American to reach the top of the world and Kristin Harila who reached the top of Everest at sunrise and the top of Lhotse later that day at sunset.

Despite the pandemic, the harsh weather, and other challenges which forced many teams to cancel mid-late season, our team pulled together and remained focused on our mission, accomplishing what we came here to do, and everyone (foreign climbers & Sherpas) made it off the mountain safely.

We are very grateful to our clients who believed in and trusted us, our guide and Sherpa staff who went above and beyond, and the mountain for giving us the opportunity to test ourselves and admire the view from the top for a few fleeting moments. We look forward to returning to Everest in the spring of 2022, Namaste 🙏!

Everest 2021

Everest 2021

Art Muir with climbing sherpa Pasang Bhote on the summit of Everest

Here’s expedition leader Garrett Madison with today’s dispatch from Mount Everest base camp:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse team.  We are in Everest Base Camp.

We had a nice, restful day here in base camp – cloudy and snowy all day.  We were going to head out today but no helicopter flights and we decided to delay one day, so we are planning to head out tomorrow.  Some folks are going to be trekking down the valley over three days to Lukla and others are hoping to helicopter out if the weather clears.  But the Cyclone Yaas out of the Bay of Bengal has created some very inclement weather here in Nepal in the Himalaya, so there might not be many helicopter flights coming soon.

Anyhow, we’re having a great time here, we’re savoring our summit success, and the fact that we all made it down safely and just enjoying our time together here as a team.  It’s been a wonderful two months here together in Nepal on the expedition, trekking, climbing, suffering together (haha), and we’re just enjoy our last day together here before we all head out.

So, we’re doing well and looking forward to another good night of rest in base camp.

(photo:  Madison Mountaineering team member Art Muir, at 75 years young, the oldest American to summit Everest along with climbing sherpa Pasang Bhote on the summit of Mount Everest!)

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:

The team toasting the summit success at Everest Base Camp. Cheers!

Riding high on the team success, Garrett and the team call in from Everest base camp:

Hey!  This is Garrett and the team here at Everest Base Camp.  We just finished our team celebration dinner.  We all got down safe to base camp through the Khumbu Icefall today.

What a WONDERFUL group of people!  I’m so happy everyone’s down safe.  We had a great time up there in a safe and successful climb!  [big team cheer]

Best team ever!

Art Muir, now the oldest American at 75 years-young to summit Mount Everest, in the background:  “Kurt, we could not have done it without all your help!”

Well, thank you Art.  I’m just in awe of your amazing accomplishment.  Wow!  Just wow!  From the home office in Seattle, hats off to all the team members, guides, and climbing sherpa, staff, and porters that really make the whole expedition possible.  We are so proud of all of you!

From Everest’s SE ridge on summit day

Andrew H and Garrett on the summit of Everest

Andrew H and Garrett on the summit of Everest

Kristin B and climbing sherpa Mingmar at the top of the world

Kristin B and climbing sherpa Mingmar at the top of the world

Kevin W enjoying a Coke with Phurba Rita Sherpa upon arriving in base camp

Kevin W enjoying a Coke with Phurba Rita Sherpa upon arriving in base camp

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:

Everest Camp 2

Our Everest team is safely down to Camp II and expedition leader Garrett Madison provides the recap of the descent from the South Col via sat phone:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition.  Today is May 24th.  It’s 8:07 PM and we are all safely down in Camp II.

Today we woke up at Camp IV on the South Col about 6:00 AM, had breakfast, started packing, and made our way down from the South Col, over the Geneva Spur, down the Lhotse Face, over the Yellow Band, and onwards down over the [garbled] at Camp III, down the Western Cwm into Camp II.  We’re all safely back in Camp II.

We’re tired – it was a big effort getting down today.  But, everybody’s doing okay here in Camp II.

Our plan is to get up tomorrow at 4:00 AM and head out by 5:00 AM to make our way down through the Khumbu Icefall to base camp.  So we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re down to Camp II, we’re doing well, and we’re just so fortunate and so happy that we had a beautiful summit day yesterday on Everest.  Nine clients, four guides, and over twenty sherpas were all able to make the summit on what was probably the nicest summit day I’ve ever had – beautiful conditions up there.  And some of our climbers were also able to make Lhotse.  So very fortunate that everyone had good climbing and is down safe.

One more day to go here through the Western Cwm and the Khumbu Icefall to be back at base camp.  We are looking forward to making our way towards Kathmandu and back home.

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

(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:

The Everest summit ridge on May 23rd

Via sat phone from Camp IV on the South Col of Mount Everest, expedition leader and now 11-time summiter of Mount Everest, Garrett Madison provides the happy news:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Everest and Lhotse expedition.  Today is May 23rd, it’s 7:30 PM in Nepal.  We are at Camp IV on Mount Everest’s South Col.

We had an amazing day.  We left around midnight on the 23rd and summited Mount Everest this morning.  It was a beautiful day!  It was clear, calm, and probably the nicest summit day I’ve had on Everest out of my 11 summits!

Our team of nine clients, four American western guides, and over 20 Nepal sherpas all made it to the top of Everest and back down safe.  So, we had a wonderful day!  It was beautiful – amazing views as far as the eye could see and we spent a long time at the summit.

Tonight, we have some climbers heading out for Lhotse.  In fact, one of our climbers, Kristin Harila, actually already summited Lhotse.  From Everest to Lhotse today in record time!  She is on her way down from the Lhotse summit now.

Big congrats to Kristin and to all the members of our team for making it up to the top of Everest today and back down to Camp IV safely.

We aren’t out of the woods yet; we have to get down to Camp II tomorrow.  We are going to wake up, pack, and be safe on the way down the Lhotse Face to Camp II.  But, we’re very happy that the weather forecast from Marc De Keyser worked out and we got a beautiful day here on the summit of Everest.  It couldn’t have been better!  We are very fortunate and are looking forward to a safe descent.

(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:

Close up of Everest and Lhotse from Gokyo Ri

Our Everest base camp staff is in touch with the climbing team and is reporting the following May 23rd Everest summits (all times NPT):

  • 06:30 – Kristin H. / Aang Phurba Sherpa / Dawa Bhote
  • 08:30 – Kevin W. / Sid Pattison / Terray Sylvester / Phurba Ridar Bhote / Chhiring Bhote / Mingma Sherpa / Kul Bahadur Thapa Magar
  • 08:50 – Art M. / Pasang Bhote / Dawa Bhote
  • 09:15 – Cokie B. / Ronan M. / Mingma Dorjee Sherpa / Sange Sherpa / Pemba Sherpa / Lhakpa Bhote / Dawa Gyalgen Sherpa
  • 10:10 – Andrew H. / Kristin B. / Ben V. / Mark P. / Krisli M. / Rob Smith / Garrett Madison / Siddi Bahadur Tamang / Dawa Nupu Sherpa / Kam Dorjee Sherpa / Free Chhombi Sherpa / Diwas Sherpa / Tenzing Sherpa / Dorjee Sherpa

Total of 14 members and guides and 22 sherpa.

Congratulations to all the climbers and our entire 2021 Madison Mountaineering Everest staff!  Well done.  Wishing everyone a safe descent.

Official news to follow.