The Countdown

With our advance team of rope fixing Sherpa safely back in base camp and the private group of Kenton and Michael positioned for the summit bid tonight, our main team counts down for their summit rotation from base camp.  Here’s Garrett’s audio dispatch and some awesome pictures from the Sherpa team near and on the summit yesterday as well as some views of Everest from the main group at base camp today:

Hi!  This is Garrett calling in for the Everest team.  Today Kenton Cool and climber Michael Lavelle have moved up to the South Col.  They’re in position and heading for the summit tonight.  Hopefully they will reach the top of Mount Everest tomorrow morning (!) and then be safely on their way down.  The rest of the team is here in base camp.  We’re all doing great!  We’re just getting ready to move up, hopefuly, in a couple of days time.  Looking forward to the next weather forecast, hopefully it will show the winds dropping after the 17th, 18th, 19th, or 20th.  So all’s good here in base camp.  We’ll check in soon.  Thanks!

Fixing the summit route

MM rope team on summit day

MM rope team makes first 2019 summits

Acclimatization hike above EBC to prayer flag point