Sunday, October 30, 2011

Heading Home

Evening lights at Camp I
                                                          Steve and Tshering Dorjee

 
           Steve Bott and Kim below Malangphulang Peak, near Advanced Base Camp, Ama Dablam
            Deepak ("Gi-Di"), from Mumbai, India. He became an "Honorary Member" of the team.
 Steve Gabbert departs Ama BC. A melancholy moment for us all: the start of the long journey home.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

7TH SUMMIT PICS

 FULL ROUTE FROM CAMP 1TO NEAR SUMMIT WITH RUSSIANS COMING UP
 TSHERING AND KIM ABOVE ONE OF SEVERAL BERGSCHRUNDS ON SUMMIT SLOPES
STEVE VENTURES OUT DURING COLD WAR

SUMMIT 6

 MAKALU WITH BARUNTSE IN FRONT AND KANGCHENJUNGA ON RIGHT, FAR BACK
 OLD FIXED ROPES AND ANCHORS ON ICY SUMMIT SLOPES AS SUN FINALLY HITS
KIM KEEPING COOL HEAD ON DESCENT OF MUSHROOM RIDGE BELOW CAMP 3

SUMMIT 5

 LOOKING DOWN FROM NEAR SUMMIT WITH RUSSIAN CLIMBER COMING UP.
 MIKE RAPPELLING BACK TOWARD CAMP 1 AS PM CLOUDS ROLL IN. SUMMIT ABOVE
MIKE, KARMA, AND KIM ON STEEP KNIFE-EDGE RIDGE BELOW CAMP 2.

SUMMIT 4

 SLAB TRAVERSING WITH DOUBLE PLASTIC BOOTS
 ON SNOW RIDGE BETWEEN CAMPS 1 AND 2
ON SNOW RIDGE BETWEEN CAMPS 1 AND 2

SUMMIT 3

 CAMP 2, 20 K, WITH GMA TENT ON LEFT, AND TWO OTHERS IN FRONT.
 FLUTED 70-DEGREE SECTION JUST ABOVE CAMP 2, CLIMBED IN DARK, 2-5 AM.
KIM AND TSHERING (MAKING HIS 5TH SUMMIT) ON AMA TOP.

SUMMIT 2

 AMA TRIANGLE SHADOW AT DAWN
 KIM AND TSHERING ON FIXED LINES BELOW DABLAM ICE CLIFF WITH WIND PLUME
THE BIG E, EVEREST FROM AMA TOP WITH LHOTSE ON RIGHT.

Summit Pics

 
 TEAM AT CAMP 1 PRIOR TO MIKE'S DESCENT. MALANGPHULANG IN BACKGROUND.
 TYSON AND KIM ON SUMMIT WITH LAMA GESHE POSTCARD AND EVEREST AND LHOTSE BEHIND.
STEVE ON GREY TOWER

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Descent

We are about to depart basecamp this morning and heading for Deboche tonight and Namche bazaar tomorrow. Yaks will bring the rest of our gear tomorrow and catch us in Namche, which will put us on our itinerary schedule.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Ama Dablam summit

We started climbing at 1:30 this am, and Kim, Tshering and I stood on the summit at 10:30. Amazing views, but cold with a north wind, that turned Steve back. Got back here by 5:00; super tired. More soon.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Camp 2 Ama Dablam

Kim, Steve, and I are at camp 2, 20,000 ft; a tiny, sloping tower with barely enough space for the 4 tents that are here. Mike felt weak after 4 nights up high, and his cough just won't go away, so he decided to go down today. We plan to attempt the summit, along with our sherpas, Tshering and Karma, tomorrow. It will be a 2500' push, and we plan to start at 2 am. TB

Friday, October 21, 2011

Snow day at Camp 1

Today we are staying in tents at Camp 1 as it is snowing; maybe 6" in the last 18 hours. Our team is feeling OK, but anxious about stormy weather and dwindling time and energy. We still hope to move up tomorrow, but new snow renders slabs tricky.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Recon above Camp 1

Mike, kim, steve and I are resting today and feeling ok at camp 1, 19,000 ft. We climbed nice granite and knife-edges steep snow to 20,000 ft, yesterday, attached to fixed ropes. Tent sites at camps 2 and 3 are few, but we plan to break camp and move up tomorrow, Oct 21, weather and energy permitting. The next day would be our first summit opportunity. Ropes are fixed all the way up, and parties have summited the last few days.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Camp 1 Ama Dablam

Made it safely to Camp 1 at 19,000 ft. Many folks summited today.

Move to Camp 1

After a rest day and puja blessing for good luck we plan to move up 3800' to camp 1on Ama Dablam. We plan to then recon the route up to 20,000 or 21,000 the next day before returning here for another rest. Thanks to everyone who has sent us good wishes.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Lobuche East Climb



Oct. 16, Pheriche, Nepal, 14,200’
The GMA Ama Dablam team will head to Base Camp, 15 k, this afternoon after collecting high altitude food and gear previously cached in Pangboche. We plan to move up the mountain right away, establishing 2 or 3 camps before attempting the summit. We have until the 26 or 27 of the month to try AD. We don’t expect to be able to send photos, only text updates from now until then.
Yesterday we climbed Lobuche East, reaching a spectacular summit at 20,000’. It was a challenging and beautiful day, and a new altitude record was set for Mike, Kim, and Steve. We had climbed to a high camp at 17,500’ on the 14th. Then we woke at 1 am and began scrambling over snow-covered slabs at 2:30 under a bright full-moon. High stepping, chimney moves and lots of zig-zagging on ledges absorbed our energy as the air got thinner. 
Around 18,500’, we donned crampons and climbed snow up to 55 degrees with big exposure. Our Sirdar Sherpa, Tshering, fixed around 600’ of rope with pickets, working with another Sherpa, Kame, who had 2 clients. We worked through our breathing difficulties and gained the unbelievably scenic summit ridge by 6:30, as the sun shone on Makalu, Everest, Nuptse, Pumori, Mera and countless other sheer Himalayan summits. 
The knife-edged ribbon of snow we followed to the tiny top epitomized mountaineering. We rounded a crevasse with massive exposure and soon celebrated the postage-stamp sized tippy-top.
We reversed the ridge climb, took a photo at the false peak with Everest behind us, and descended carefully on the fixed lines. The Sherpas and I pulled pickets an coiled up the ropes as we dropped down. We came 6000’ down to Pheriche and enjoyed a bottle of wine and a deep sleep.    


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Trek to Kala Patthar, 18,300'

To Gorak Shep, 10/13
This afternoon at Kala Patthar, 18,300’, the trekking period reached its apex. Bluebird skies, juxtaposed with brilliant white snow on Nuptse, and topped by the massive dark pyramid of Everest’s West Face was the view we’d dreamed of. Its unusual for the high pressure, even during Post-Monsoon season in Nepal, to keep skies clear after noon. This good fortune enabled us to see the huge west faces “front-lit”.
Steve, Kim and Mike stood a few feet above their previous highest alttitude records from Denali.  Tomorrow we move to Lobuche high camp, and attempt the peak the following day. On to Ama Oct. 16.



Lobuche East, with intended route on snow and ridgeline. Team and porters in foreground.


Monday, October 10, 2011

Ama sunset

Pang and Dingboche TRek, Oct. 8-10

GMA's inaugural expedition continues smooth to Dingboche at 14,400', where Mike, Kim, Steve, and I arrived on the 9th.  Everyone feels well with altitude, after sleeping at what is the height of Mt. Rainier.  Tummy and upper resperatory maladies have affected us all to varying degrees.

This morning was the clearest yet, as the post-monsoon high pressure continues to strengthen.  We hoped to meet up with another SLC-based Ama team, Steve Bott and Matt Culberson and team, who are staying in Pheriche but our satellite phone messages failed to connect.

Today we acclimated by ascending to Nang Kharga, 5100 M (16,500').  En route we checked out a tiny Buddhist mountainside "gompa".  Kim danced upp to the rocky viewpoint with arms crossed, as the guys huffed and puffed behind.  Island Peak and Makalu dominated our view to the east, Ama's imposing north face was immediately south, and to the northwest, we saw Taboche, Cholatse, Cho Oyu, and our next objective, Loboche.

Yesterday we visited the oldest (600 years) monastery in the Khumbu and trekked here to Dingboche by 6 p.m.  The relatively benign hike brought us out of the highest forests and into the alpine tundra zone.  The day's highlight was meeting with its current chief, Lama Geshe, and receiving a blessing for our climb. The Lama welcomed us into his living room where Tshering, our lead Sherpa guide, interpreted his Buddhist teachings to us.  He began  by gently touching heads with each of us after placing a holy scarf around our necks.  A long chant followed.  He blessed and gave each of us a postcard to carry to the summit , prayer flags for base camp, and a little bag of holy rice to scatter at base camp.

Tomorrow we move up to Loboche where we spend the night in Loboche village at 4900 M. 

Global Mountain Adventures: Ama Dablam Expedition, Oct. 1-31, 2011

Global Mountain Adventures: Ama Dablam Expedition, Oct. 1-31, 2011: Tyson Bradley Mike Reberg Steve Gabbert Kim Wirthlin Itinerary Oct. 1, 8:20 pm, Depart SLC Oct. 3, 9:35 pm, Arrive Kathmandu, Nepal, vi...

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Tengboche Budhist Monastary

We are about to receive a prayer for good luck from the Lama. Tonight we'll have a late arrival in Pan
gboche. More to follow tomorrow.

Tengboche Monastary

Friday, October 7, 2011

Namche Day 2

Namche Day 2
Today, Oct. 7, we got our first glimpses of the famous Himalayan Giants, Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam, among others. We took advantage of another clear morning to take some early strolls above our Panorama Hotel. We saw the sun rise on Mt. Kongde from out bedrooms. 
After breakfast we ascended 1,000’ to a hanging valley where we saw the big peaks and had tea at the spectacularly located, and architecturally inviting Everest View Hotel. From there we dropped to the authentic, less touristic, Sherpa village of Khumjung where we saw the Hillary School. 
It clouded in by afternoon as we sauntered back to Namche for lunch and a permit procedure. We’ll turn in early tonight before tomorrows longer move to Pangboche. We expect uploading photos will be spotty at best from here on.


                                                   Team in front of Hillary School


                                                   Mt. Kongde above Namche Bazaar
                                             Mt. Thamserku, 6600 M with Mike and Kim
                                                           Namche Bazaar from above
                               Lhotse, 5th highest peak in the world, with Stupa in foreground
First glimpse of Ama Dablam


Thursday, October 6, 2011

Namche

Kathmandu to Namche
The Global Mountain Adventures (GMA) team, along with Sherpa Shangrila Sirdar, Tshering, and Expedition Cook, Deepak, flew from KTM (4200’) to Lukla (9200’), Oct. 5, and trekked with our 3 porters, to Phakding, where we slept in the Sunrise Guest House along the Dudh Koshi River.

The flight lived up to our expectations. We spent all of 5 minutes on the tarmac boarding, loading gear and taking our seats before our intrepid pilots fired up the Twin Otter Props and blasted off. Rising rapidly through the clouds and over terraced ridges, we began to glimpse the fluted faces, sheer rock, and angular ridgelines of the snowy Himalayan giants. Cotton balls issued by the stewardess, who vaulted over packs and large Russians, dulled the propeller scream.


We climbed to 10 K, and swooped low over a Cloud Forest and high pass on the trail from Jiri that I hiked in ’89 on my previous visit to the Khumbu. 35 minutes of scenic flying was a nice option compared to the 1-day bus ride and 5-days trekking it took me then to reach Lukla.


Landing on the STOL strip was even more mind-boggling in person than on You Tube. The postage-stamp size strip is at least paved now, but it is pasted on to a hillside high above the Dudh Koshi Gorge, and it gains probably 300’ in its 300 yards of length. I said, “Where the hell are we landing?” “There it is,” Mike pointed out the left side, but I couldn’t see it until we banked hard right and it was fully in our face. As we came in hot, the row of trekking lodges backed against a wall of Himalayan foothills advanced toward us at a frightening rate. Somehow, we slowed enough to make a hard right and taxi safely to a stop. Westerners headed immediately to the bathrooms to clean their shorts, and our team embraced, grateful to be alive, and breathing in the clean, thin air.

Lukla Landing Strip

Tsering led us to a beautiful stone and wood lodge where we sipped lemon tea while he sorted out the porter loads. Kuhlman, the senior porter, carried “only” my 66-lb. North Face duffel containing the expedition food and hardware. The two youngsters strapped two 20-kilo duffels each to their backs and headed out. We did the same, and our jaws dropped in amazement, while the cameras came out at, every turn of the busy stone path. Picturesque fields grew cabbage, corn, apples, squash, beans and more. Children played while women picked beans and dried hay. Yaks, donkeys, and porters carrying all manner of heavy awkward loads. After our first Military Checkpoint, where our climbing / trekking permit was scrupulously examined and our names copied into the ledger, we made a strenuous and slippery detour around a massive landslide. The summer Monsoons had apparently included an excessively wet storm-cycle, that had triggered many dirt and rock avalanches. Sadly, they decimated portions of the trail and local villages, including one where 6 people were buried alive. Steve put a few rupees in a box, where the sign said, “Please help me rebuild my home,” an all-too-honest request.









A 2-hour lunch with plates of potatoes, cheese and eggs, momos, noodles and Ginger tea on a sunny terrace provided rest and rejuvenation. Not long after we dropped to the river and crossed our first of numerous impressively engineered suspension bridges to reach our destination for the night.

A high-spirited 4 year-old Sherpa girl delighted us with her youthful exuberance for portering, the primary job of most young men in the region. She lashed a granite rock to her back and danced around, pretending to be our youngest load hauler. We washed up, dined and crashed early, having slept poorly the previous night.



Today the trekking got more serious with a steep climb to Namche Bazaar, 11,270’. Surrounded by towering peaks, this Tibetan/Nepali trading post is the epicenter of the region. Although still wonderfully quaint, the gateway to Everest, Ama Dablam, Island Peak and the upper Khumbu has evolved immensely since ’89. It now caters almost entirely to tourists, and sports a Pizza Hut, dozens of 4-story hotels, and internet access!


Now we are relaxing, marevelling at the views and taking showers after an awesome feed of local Pizza and Apple Pie. Tomorrow we’ll take a rest day and visit the museum and other sights before a longer trek to Pangboche, 12,900, via the famous monastery at Thengboche, on Oct. 8.