Trekking in the Langtang Valley!

The Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu expedition team is staying busy while we await our Tibet visas! In the beautiful Langtang Valley, the team is taking advantage of higher elevations and the processing time needed at the Chinese Embassy to build some acclimatization, camaraderie amongst the team, and take in the views! Our thoughts are with those impacted by the civil unrest in Nepal this week. We look forward to the time when we will head back to Kathmandu, collect our Tibet visas, and start the journey to Cho Oyu! Expedition leader, Garrett Madison checks in with this dispatch from Langtang village:

Hello! This is Garrett checking in for the Madison Mountaineering Cho Oyu (8,188m/26,864ft) team.

Tonight, we are in the Langtang Valley staying in Langtang village (3430m/11,253ft). We got out of Kathmandu (1400m/4,600ft) a couple of days ago during the civil unrest and drove up here to be in the mountains, to trek and gain some acclimatization, get some good mountain views and fresh air! It’s been great being up here, not many trekkers, beautiful scenery, very lush, green. We’re hoping to spend a few days more up here trekking higher, hopefully getting some great views and acclimatization, all building for our Cho Oyu program.

We’re going to head back to Kathmandu when things calm down, hopefully obtain our Tibet visas, and be able to head into China in maybe a weeks time!

So, all is well here. Everyone’s doing very well. We’re just fortunate that all of our team, our Nepali friends, our colleagues, everyone’s doing okay and got through the difficult time earlier this week with the protests and riots.

So, everyone’s doing okay here in Nepal. We’ll check in soon!

Crossing a suspension bridge during the trek!

Denisa and Aang Phurba Sherpa!

Clouds filling the valley during todays trek

The valley is green and lush, with a constant roar of the rushing river.

On the trail!

The team together outside one of the guesthouses that fill the valley.

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:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s