Tag Archive for: Mountaineering

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Summit Success on Lobuche East!

Topping out on Lobuche East

Meanwhile down valley in the Khumbu, our Lobuche East climbers reached the summit and safely descended to the village of Lobuche!  Congratulations team!!  Madison Mountaineering guide Scott Webster reports in from Lobuche village with this recap of summit day:

Successful ascent of Lobuche East this morning (April 15, 2022). The team set out from high camp at 0200 and reached the summit (6119m/20,075ft) at 0730. The weather couldn’t have been any better with clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind! After descending back to high camp we packed up and returned to Lobuche village. The clients then helicoptered back to Kathmandu! From the summit of a 6000m Himalayan peak to Kathmandu in less than 10 hours!

On the summit of Lobuche East!

On the summit of Lobuche East!

Heading up from high camp on Lobuche East

Heading up from high camp on Lobuche East

Nearing the summit of Lobuche East

Nearing the summit of Lobuche East

Climber Katherine Crociata and Tenji Sherpa on the summit of Lobuche East

Climber Katherine Crociata and Tenji Sherpa on the summit of Lobuche East

Topping out on Lobuche East

Topping out on Lobuche East

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:

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K2 team at Camp 2 on Abruzzi ridge

View from camp 2 on K2

We are all up at our Camp 2, perched at 22,000 ft on the Abruzzi ridge overlooking the Godwin Austin and Baltoro glaciers. We had a great day climbing from Camp 1 up the steep rock & snow slopes. Everyone is doing well.

Today our super Sherpas left base camp at 2 AM and carried up additional fixed ropes (9mm Petzl semi static kernmantle ropes) and re-fixed the entire distance between Camp 1 and Camp 2 ahead of us, so that we did not have to rely on using the Korean ropes that the Japanese team fixed. We are very thankful that our team could respond on a days notice and quickly put these lines in place so that our team and others can climb safely on this section of the route with confidence.

We look forward to a rest day tomorrow.

David and Semba smiling before tackling House’s chimney!

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Acclimatization hike to Advanced Base Camp

Climbers heading up to camp 1 on the Abruzzi route

Today our team had a nice breakfast in base camp and then climbed up to Advanced Base Camp, which is just 3 miles away and 1000 ft. Higher than our K2 base camp. It was warm and sunny when we began our hike, and after 2 hours we reached the ABC, where we took a short rest before descending back down to base camp for lunch. In the afternoon the clouds arrived and we have had a little snow this evening.

Today our Nepal & Pakistani Sherpas carried loads of equipment for the rope fixing project on K2 such as the semi static rope, ice screws, carabiners, and snow pickets to camp 1. They also carried some tents, stoves, fuel, etc. for us. Our plan is to rest tomorrow and then start planning for our first rotation on K2 to acclimatize. Everyone is doing well and we are looking forward to some good weather beginning the day after tomorrow.

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Expedition team arrives at K2 base camp

K2 base camp

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition. Today is June 29th and we are at K2 base camp. It has been snowing a lot the last few days and we had a tough time getting up to base camp with all of our porters but we made it today. We set up our camp hastily just to create some shelter. We are looking forward to the snow letting up in the next couple days. We probably have two and a half to three feet here at base camp, waiting now for the weather to change and let up. Everyone is doing well and we just had a nice dinner and heading off to bed. Looking forward to a nice rest day tomorrow. All is well here at K2 base camp and we will check in soon.

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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison

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Climbers arrive at Concordia camp on the Baltoro Glacier

Concordia camp

Hello! This is Garrett calling in for the K2 expedition. Today is Thursday June 28th and we are at Concordia camp on the Baltoro Glacier. Tomorrow our plan is to trek up all the way to K2 base camp. Today we woke up around 5am and trekked from our camp at Goro II up to Concordia in the early afternoon. Hoping the suns going to let up soon, probably another few days of clouds and snow fall before we see clear skies. Everyone is doing well here and we are excited to make our way to base camp tomorrow. We will check in soon. Thanks!

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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison

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Nice trek day from Paiju to Urdukas

Urdukas

Hello!  This is Garrett Madison calling for the K2 expedition team.  Today is June 26th and we continued our trek toward K2 base camp.  We had a nice trek today from Paiju to Urdukas. Mixed weather today; some clouds, a bit of rain, some sun and some wind, but we had nice day overall. Had some great views of the Trango Towers on our way up to camp. Everyone is doing great and looking forward to hiking up to Goro II camp tomorrow on the Baltoro Glacier. So, one day closer to K2 base camp! Everyone is doing well and we are happy to be here. We will check in soon.  Thanks!

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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison

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Trek from Askole to Jola, entering the Central Karakoram National Park

Jola

Today is Monday, June 25th and yesterday we started the trek from Askole into our first camp at Jola. Today we are heading up to our next camp which is Paiju at over 10,000 feet. The group is doing very well and excited to be underway, moving up toward the Baltoro Glacier and K2 base camp. The weather has been pretty good, cool and not too hot. The team is looking forward to settling in at Paiju this afternoon. Tomorrow we will pass the Great Trango Towers! All good here and we will check in soon.

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Audio dispatch from Garrett Madison

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To learn more about the Central Karakoram National Park, which is the highest national park in the world and the largest protected area in Pakistan please visit: http://www.cknp.org

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K2 Team in Skardu!

2018 K2 Skardu

Yesterday our team of climbers and Sherpas flew from Islamabad to Skardu.  Today we are organizing our equipment and tomorrow we plan to drive by jeep to Askole, from there we will begin the trek to base camp.  In total we are 10 climbers, 3 guides, 10 Sherpas, and 5 Pakistan high altitude porters (HAP), along with our 8 base camp kitchen staff.  Last week our advance team of 77 porters and 5 Pakistan HAPs arrived in K2 base camp to begin building the camp and to reserve places at Camps 1 & 2.  We will have around 150 porters trekking in with us to base camp, in addition to some horses.

Skardu is a small frontier town, and we are staying in our hotel nearby the Indus river.  It’s a big contrast from the very comfortable Serena hotel in Islamabad where we slept the past couple of nights.  The Serena was a great place to rest and recover after the long flights many of us took from our home countries.  Everyone is doing well and we are excited to begin trekking soon!   – Garrett

K2 Team Roster:

  • Garrett Madison: Expedition Leader and Guide
  • Geoffrey Schellens: Guide
  • Robert Kelso Smith: Guide

Climbers:

  • Andras Kaasik
  • Daniel Lochner
  • David Liano
  • James Clarke
  • Jason Black
  • Jesse Rosales
  • John Stenderup
  • Klara Polacova
  • Lisa Thompson
  • Takayasu Semba
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2018 K2 expedition preparing for liftoff

2018 K2 expedition

The Madison Mountaineering 2018 K2 expedition will be meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan in less than 2 weeks. We are excited to be returning to the Karakoram mountain range with a strong team of 10 international climbers. After checking gear our climbers will fly via fixed wing aircraft from Islamabad to Skardu to begin the trek toward K2 base camp at 16,500 feet. The team is excited and we look forward to making our ascent!

Stay tuned!

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Video Recap of EBC Trek 2018

Video Recap:

Video recap (Day 1-12) of Madison Mountaineering journey to Everest base camp!  Please enjoy the short video given below of our team trekking to Everest base camp.

Video Recap Till EBC

                                                                                                            Video Recap Till EBC

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