Bad Ass Climbing while the skiing was taking place - the 7000m tag

Laying in a cold tent, nestled deep inside of a huge, puffy down sleeping bag, fashionably dressed in the latest in 7000m lingerie (eg. down suit) is about the most comfortable place to be above 6600m and at the crack of dawn. This morning was no exception. It was 8am and the sun STILL hadn’t reached our tent and all of my water bottles were frozen. Given that Chad had given us a 9.00am set-off time I knew that I’d have to get moving. It seemed...

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Bad Ass Skiing at 7250m...

I’m fairly certain that the Sherpas, like us, assumed that Adrian and Sergey were carrying their skis up the bouldery and snowy steep slopes of Makalu in an attempt to look seriously bad-ass in front of all of the other people on the mountain… (um… all 10  of them?!).  We all watched with bemused looks upon our faces as, in a session of ‘arts and crafts’ in the mess tent, they installed complex boot-heating systems with an even...

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Rest days before the next acclimatisation push....

Spare yourself no illusions that we are stilll heroically trudging knee-deep through a steep snowy slopes on the far flung reaches of Makalu, clinging onto our jumars with clenched teeth, breathing each breath as if it were our last… Oh no.... Rather, the greater proportion of us are lounging in our tents or enjoying the warm comforts of the 'chill out tent' where the world is 'yellow', enjoying the benefits of satelite internet, solar power...

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Our thoughts and prayers are with those on Manaslu

We’re just back down from our latest round of acclimatization to Camp 2 and have learned of the terrible avalanche on Manaslu.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the ongoing rescue efforts on Manaslu, to our friends and family dealing with the disaster on the mountain, and to all those who have been affected by what is one of the biggest Himalayan accidents in history. ...

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Rocks, Glaciers, Snow Walls and Seracs - our journey to Camp 1

Must. Take. One. More. Step. Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.  Yes, sadly, despite the comforts of Advanced Base Camp the time has come for us to make the hot slog up to Camp 1… Our initial round of acclimatization up to ‘Crampon Corner’ did prepare our bodies for the initial part of the push up to the Camp but the real fun began (eg. High altitude reality check) when we strapped on our spikey ice-walking crampons and began our move across a giant dry...

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Acclimatisation Walk to Camp 1, 6300m

 Today we hop-skipped-and-jumped our way up to ‘Crampon Corner’ as part of an acclimatization walk which granted us our first views of the route to the summit of Makalu. I say ‘hop-skipped-and-jumped’ because it was all we could do to stop the giant glacial boulders from slipping from under our feet and careening down the to the glacial lakes about 200 metres below. We could definitely feel the altitude but kept a steady pace along a trail...

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Showering at 5700m - not for the faint hearted….!

I’ve gone on quite extensively about ‘Advanced Base Camp Hilton’ that we are quite comfortably occupying here at 5700m.  With it’s 5* high altitude kitchen, 5* tent accommodation, 5* ‘lounge’ room, and 5* toilet facilities it’s worth paying special mention to the 5* shower… yes, in spite of the temperature range between -5 and +15 we do have a particularly luxurious shower – complete with hot water, luxury spa products with which one can...

The Sacred Pilgrimage of Adventure – The Puja Ceremony

Central to the Buddhist religion and forming an integral part of any Nepalese or Tibetan expedition is the ‘Puja Ceremony’, during which the Sherpas pay homage to the mountain deity. The ceremony is the starting point for all Himalayan expeditions. The ceremony conducted by a Llama or Sherpa trained in conducting the Puja ceremony reads from a book of sacred prayers while sitting in front of a stone altar covered with offerings of cookies,...

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The People You Meet: The Alpenglow Expeditions Makalu 2012 Team

Expeditions would make a fine social psychology experiment – You take a group of people from different nationalities and backgrounds who don’t know each other and you put them together under challenging conditions for 1 – 2 months and get them to work together. They will all have their own personal objectives but must work together to reach one common objective – to summit and descent safely both as individuals and as a team. And then, of course,...

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The People You Meet: The Sherpa People of Nepal

I opened my eyes, shuddered and wiggled deeper into the down depths of my -30C sleeping bag. The wind was howling and I could tell by a dark-ridged shadow along the outside of my bright yellow tent that a fresh layer of snow had fallen overnight. Ice condensation lined the inside dome - sparkling in the light coming from my headlamp. Over the sound of the wind I could hear a 'crunch crunch' - it sounded like someone walking over styrofoam. Early...

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Advanced Base Camp Hilton / Hyatt / Four Seasons / W …….

I know that I can be a bit of a diva… and there is something to be said about creature comforts on a mountain… maintaining a degree of comfort (while pretending to be ‘roughing it’ and suffering terribly in blogs!) is something that I’ve managed to achieve over the past few expeditions. The Alpenglow Advanced Base Camp at 5600m takes luxury to a whole new level…. Our ‘ABC’ is base camp on steroids. I have never quite seen anything like it...

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A Vision of Home - Makalu Base Camp At Last!

This morning we woke to rain and fog – not ideal news given our previous track record of helicopter flights and rain. We looked out at the heli still ‘parked’ in the rapidly growing swamp and wondered how we would get out if the rain continued… One option was to start the two-day walk up to Base Camp which, in the freezing cold rain, wasn’t an especially appealing option… particularly when a helicopter and a 15 minute ride up the valley was the...

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The People You Meet: The Himalayan Helicopter Master, Captain Ashish Scherchan

With nearly 20 years of experience, Captain Ashish Scherchan was the man for the job in ‘rescuing’ us from leech central with his trusty engineer, Anil Basnyat in a 9N AKA helicopter. We could not be in better hands for the precarious journey through the Barun valley up to the final destination of Base Camp at an altitude of 4700m. Flying at altitude presents more than its fair share of challenges primarily due to the ‘thinness’ of the air. Captain...

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The Yanglekharka stopover on our tour of the Barun Valley… with the eventual destination, Makalu Base Camp

 “OK, everybody up! The heli is ready to gooooooo” sang Adrian at 5am. I genuinely couldn’t believe my ears after what had seemed like non-stop torrential rain all evening. Stuffing my sleeping bag and bedbugs into my duffel bag I couldn’t help but wonder what adventure the day held. The morning sky revealed patches of blue sky between the thickening cloud. It was obvious that more rain was on its way however the main question was no...