Tag Archive for: Summit Success

Celebration at Vinson Base Camp

Clients Sarah Brittain and Thomas Moore move from Low Camp to High Camp with guide Garrett Madison on a Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition in the Sentinel Range of Antarctica’s Ellsworth Mountains on January 1, 2021. (📸: @terray_s)

With the full team down to Vinson Base Camp, expedition leader Garrett Madison checks in with today’s dispatch recapping summit day and the journey down to base camp where everyone is celebrating:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team. Today is January 19th.

Our team came down from High Camp today after reaching the summit of Mount Vinson yesterday on January 18th. We had a good summit day and a nice trek down from High Camp. We arrived in base camp this evening and had a fun, celebratory dinner with our team – everyone was present. We enjoyed some champagne and burgers and had a good finish to our expedition here on Vinson.

We might be here another day or so at Vinson Base Camp. We’re not sure when the Twin Otters will be able to arrive to fly us out – hopefully in a day or two. But everyone’s in good spirits; we’re happy to be down safe and had a great summit yesterday, especially being up there with Ed Viesturs on the highest point in Antarctica was really special.

It was a wonderful expedition, and we’re just going to be here in Vinson Base Camp, hanging out, enjoying Antarctica until our flight back to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas, Chile.

(📸: @terray_s – Team Two climbers Sarah B. and Thomas M. moving up to high camp with guide Garrett Madison earlier this month)

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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Perseverance Pays Off – Vinson Summits!

Happy New Year 2022 from Antarctica!

After persevering through five nights at Mount Vinson‘s High Camp, our Team Three’s patience and tactics paid off and they were successful today in making it to the highest point in Antarctica, the summit of Vinson Massif.  Guide Terray Sylvester provided this text message from the mountain:

Good news from Antarctica! Most of our climbers summited Mount Vinson today in excellent weather.

The rest of the team is already in base camp relaxing and enjoying some good meals: pancakes, eggs and bacon for breakfast today, and hamburgers and french fries for dinner.

Tomorrow our summit team, led by Garrett and Ed Viesturs, plans to descend to base camp to await flights back to Union Glacier and Punta Arenas. We’ll be in touch!

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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Vinson Team Two Summits!

Best Christmas

Congratulations to Sarah, Thomas, and expedition leader Garrett Madison for making the summit of Mount Vinson (4892m/16,050ft)!!  Here’s Garrett via sat phone from High Camp with a recap of the day:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Vinson team number two.  Today is January 2nd.

Today we reached the summit of Mount Vinson!  We had a beautiful, glorious day all to ourselves up at the summit.  Nobody else was around and hardly any wind, clear skies, great climbing conditions.  So, a great day up there for myself, Sarah, and Thomas.  We are back at High Camp (3536m/11,600ft), had dinner, and are heading to bed.

Tomorrow we’re going to get up and head down to Base Camp.  So, all’s well here on Vinson…

[remainder of sat phone call was garbled and cut out]

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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100% Summit Success!

Mount Vinson summit ridge

Great news!  Garrett and the entire team made the summit of Mount Vinson today.  Way to go team!  Special congratulations to Jen for completing her Seven Summits quest!!  Here’s Garrett via sat phone just minutes are from Mount Vinson High Camp with the details:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Vinson expedition team.  Today is Tuesday, December 28th and we reached the summit of Mount Vinson today – the highest point in Antarctica.

We had a beautiful day, just fantastic weather, and great route conditions.  Myself, John, and Jen got up to the top around 5:30 PM, a beautiful evening summit with 24-hours of daylight here in Antarctica.  We just got back to camp, had dinner, and heading to bed now at about 11 o’clock.

All’s well here and we’re heading down to Vinson Base Camp tomorrow.  Hoping this great weather sticks around for a while.

We’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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Ama Dablam Summit!

Ama Dablam

Yesterday our private team on Ama Dablam reached the summit with a clear sky and calm winds. They had the whole mountain to themselves and savored the views from up on the summit of the surrounding peaks Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, and many others.

It’s been a pleasure to follow their smooth progress during the past 2 weeks, they had great route conditions and weather throughout the expedition. We are very proud of them all for their safe and successful climb of Ama Dablam! Way to go team!

For climbers interested in learning more about our private expeditions please contact our office.

Ama Dablam Ama Dablam Ama Dablam

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Madison Mountaineering 2021 Ama Dablam Summiteers List

Summit day climbing on Ama Dablam

We are pleased to announce the following team members successfully obtained the summit of Ama Dablam (6,812 m / 22,349 ft) on November 8, 2021:

# Name Country
1 Mr. Garrett Madison USA
2 Mr. Jonathan Eakes USA
3 Mr. Morgan Hawes USA
4 Mr. Gautam Shine USA
5 Mr. James “J.B.” Waterman USA
6 Mr. Aang Phurba Sherpa Nepal
7 Mr. Kam Dorjee Sherpa Nepal
8 Mr. Siddhi Ghising Nepal
9 Mr. Fur Lakpa Sherpa Nepal
10 Mr. Tenzing Sherpa Nepal
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Team Safely Back in Base Camp

2021 Madison Mountaineering team and friends on the summit of Ama Dablam

With 100% summit success, the team is back in base camp celebrating, and getting ready to head back to Kathmandu.  Garrett provides the recap and a ton of awesome photos of their summit day:

Hello, this is Garrett caling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ama Dablam expedition team here in Nepal.  Today’s November 9th and yesterday we reached the top of Ama Dablam.

Beautiful morning!  We summited with 100% success, all four of our climbers plus myself and Aang Phurba and our Sherpa team made it to the top of Ama Dablam!

We got down safe and some of our members continued down to base camp and the rest of us were down today.  We are looking forward to starting the trek out tomorrow to make our way back to Lukla and then Kathmandu.

We are feeling so fortunate and lucky that we had a beautiful summit day, great weather, and great route conditions up there and all of our team made the summit and made it down safely.

Summit day climbing on Ama Dablam

Summit day climbing on Ama Dablam

Climber J.B. and Garrett on the summit of Ama Dablam

Climber J.B. and Garrett on the summit of Ama Dablam

Climber Jonathan E. on the summit of Ama Dablam

Climber Jonathan E. on the summit of Ama Dablam

Good times on the Ama Dablam summit

Good times on the Ama Dablam summit

Climber Jon E. with Garrett and Mount Everest in the background from the Ama Dablam summit

Climber Jon E. with Garrett and Mount Everest in the background from the Ama Dablam summit

Last night in base camp with our team celebrating our successful Ama Dablam expedition!

Last night in base camp with our team celebrating our successful Ama Dablam expedition!

Summit Ama Dablam and get some cake!

Summit Ama Dablam and get some cake!

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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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

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Ama Dablam Summit Success!

View of Ama Dablam

A quick inReach text message while on a break from Garrett:

Just back at camp 3 after the summit, everyone made it! 100% success for all climbers who went up from base camp. Now we will descend carefully.
Congratulations team!  Be safe on the descent.  More details soon…

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 daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

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

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100% Success on Mount Baker!

The entire team summits Mt. Baker!

Congratulation to our August 21st climbing team for another great summer 2021 Mt. Baker climb.  100% of the team made it to the summit of this iconic Pacific Northwest peak.  The weather couldn’t have been better and everyone had a fantastic experience.

Well done team!  Everyone is off the mountain and home savoring a job well done.  Make your plans to climb with us in the Pacific Northwest in 2022.

Dawn breaking during the summit push

Dawn breaking during the summit push (📷: Terray Sylvester)

Climbers on the summit plateau of Mt. Baker

Climbers on the summit plateau of Mt. Baker (📷: Terray Sylvester)

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2021 K2 Concludes

Heading off to begin the final rotation

Our 2021 K2 expedition is now concluded with just Garrett and our crew preparing to fly home.  Expedition leader, Garrett Madison, calls in from Skardu, Pakistan with this final expedition dispatch:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering K2 expedition which now has concluded!

We’re back in Skardu and all of our members from the UK, the USA, and Ukraine have flown out and are back home now. Just myself and the Nepal Sherpa team and the Pakastani team are here in Skardu. We arrived last night from the trek out from base camp to Skardu. It took us four days.

Today we did some gear organizing, and some sight-seeing around Skardu. We are hoping tomorrow that we have good weather to fly to Islamabad. All’s well here in Skardu. Nice weather and we are looking forward to getting back to Islamabad and on our way home.

It’s been a wonderful expedition here. We had 100% summit success with 21 summits of K2 on our team in total and everyone made it down safely and is on their way home healthy, which is the most important.

So, we had a wonderful expedition. Thanks for following along. Looking forward to our next expeditions out there on the horizon.

Starry skies above K2

Starry skies above K2

The day we set off from base camp for the K2 summit push. Serious faces..

The day we set off from base camp for the K2 summit push. Serious faces..

A very happy 3-time K2 summiteer at base camp

A very happy 3-time K2 summiteer at base camp

After getting down from the successful K2 summit rotation, happy face!

After getting down from the successful K2 summit rotation, happy face!

Garrett with Sherpa and Pakistani crew departing K2 base camp

Garrett with Sherpa and Pakistani crew departing K2 base camp

Cutting the celebratory K2 cake in Skardu

Cutting the celebratory K2 cake in Skardu

Post K2 celebration in Skardu

Post-K2 celebration in Skardu

If climbing K2 or Broad Peak 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:

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