Nepal: Pangboche to Lobuche in Photos

Here’s a link to the next set of photos from our Nepal trip. Captions are on the upper right or bottom center, depending on which way you view the album. This album includes our climb of Lobuche East peak. We’ve also included a great video from the summit.

Nepal: Pangboche to Lobuche

Enjoy!

Nepal: Namche Bazaar to Pangboche in Photos

Here’s a link to the next set of photos from our Nepal trip. These are the days when the mountain views really started to open up, and we had fantastic blue sky weather to enjoy it! Captions are on the upper right or bottom center, depending on which way you view the album. We’ve also included two great videos of the scenery and a yak train.

Nepal: Namche Bazaar to Pangboche 

Enjoy!

Update on Donations

Here is a way to give funds directly to families of three men killed in the Nepal earthquake. Below is an update from our guide Rob who has setup an option within The Juniper Fund to direct funds to the families of the three members of his team (Tenzing, Kumar, Pasang Temba) killed at Everest Basecamp.

"The photo above crystalises my thoughts about what has happened here, and how we - all of us - can make some positive difference to the lives of those less fortunate than us.

The 3 figures on the left are Mingma - Tenzing Bote's wife - and their 2 children. On the right is Kumar Rai's brother. The legacy of Tenzing and Kumar (& Pasang Temba) cannot be forgotten.

Of course, our 3 families over here are just the tip of the iceberg with respect to all of the destruction and loss after the earthquake, but at least we can make a genuinely positive impact on their lives.

I have looked at all of the charitable options available, and save forming a new charity, by far and away, 'The Juniper Fund is our best option for getting money to the 3 families - as well as helping the overall mission statement of the charity.

For every donation we make, 80% will be diverted directly to the families of Pasang Temba, Kumar and Tenzing. The remaining 20% will go to the fund at large, which will also indirectly benefit them. The Funds' quest is to pay each of the involved families (those of deceased Sherpas and staff killed during climbing expeditions in the Himalayas) $3000/year for 5 consecutive years.

Obviously, our aim is to ensure that even the youngest of the children in our affected families are schooled for the entirety of their education - maybe a 13 year commitment for Kumar's youngest - but we need to start somewhere and have a safe way of getting the money to them. The Charity's founders, Dave Morton and Melissa Arnott are trusted friends and independent (thankfully) of the horrific misuse of aid that the Nepali government simply cannot be trusted to deal with.

You can donate on the website with a secure online payment. They will provide you with a charitable receipt (to claim against tax). The website is:

www.thejuniperfund.org

To ensure that your donation goes to the right place, when the option of 'in honor of' comes up, please write: Trek8848. This will ensure the 80% ring- fence for Pasang Temba, Kumar and Tenzing's families. We think it is important that 20% goes to the fund at large, and hope that you agree."

Nepal: From Home to Namche Bazaar in Photos

Here’s a link to photos from the first several days of our Nepal trip. Captions are on the upper right or bottom center, depending on which way you view the album. We’ve also included two great videos of the Lukla airport.

Nepal: From Home to Namche Bazaar

Enjoy!

Nepal Earthquake

We have had so many people reach out to us in the past few days. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words. We arrived home last Thursday and were devastated to hear of the earthquake early Saturday morning. Having just left Nepal 3 days earlier, in many ways, we could feel we were still there. Our thoughts immediately went to all the places we visited, the people we met, the new friends we made. Our thoughts and hearts are very much in Nepal.

All of the areas we were in Nepal (Kathmandu, Khumbu valley) have been affected. We've seen a lot of coverage of Kathmandu and Everest, but have not heard/read any info on all the small villages in the Khumbu between Lukla and Everest basecamp. Given their location, we tend to believe there has been devastation there as well, but communication in such small villages is always a challenge. We have received news that our friends on Everest are okay and just today have been helicoptered down from Camp 1 to Base Camp. We are so grateful to learn of their safety. Unfortunately, we also learned that 3 of their Sherpas lost their lives at Base Camp.

We can easily imagine the devastation in the streets of Kathmandu, having just been there in the last week. We have seen photos of places we visited completely destroyed. It feels very helpless to be here unable to lend a hand. So much devastation in a place with such extreme poverty. We wish we were there (safely) to lend a hand to the people of Nepal, but we think the best we can do right now is to lend financial support. Several folks have asked for suggestions on where to donate. We’ve listed a few below, but this is by no means comprehensive, there are a lot of good organizations who will do great work over there.

AmeriCares: http://americares.org

CARE: http://www.care.org
Juniper Fund: http://www.thejuniperfund.org/

Oxfam: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

We'll leave you with a few photos of the smiling, beautiful, strong, kind people of Nepal. 

Namaste

Island Peak 20,305'

Since our last post, we've had two long treks heading back to increasing levels of civilization and warmth and John lost his phone in Kathmandu. So this will be a text-only post. The pictures for this climb will come after a while, but we believe they will be worth the wait.

After a breakfast of rice pudding and some energy snacks from our backpack, our team of 7 (5 plus 2 climbing Sherpa guides) started off in headlamps from the Island Peak base camp on time at 1:15am.

One of our group, who had been feeling a bit off since the trek in to camp yesterday, soon began having GI and overall weakness and problems. Twice he dropped his water bottle, inciting a stern warning from Rob, our group leader. After about 2 hours and 2000' ascent, he decided that he could not continue with us and turned around with our second Sherpa guide.

Our remaining team of 5 was strong and moving well. Before sunrise, we overtook a team that had started from a high camp. In the darkness just before first light, we heard the thunder of a significant avalanche, probably rolling off the southern flanks of Peak 38 across the valley. Not much was said, but I know both of us thought about the feet of snow that had fallen the days prior and what the terrain and conditions would be like higher on the mountain.

Eventually, the rocky trail and scrambling gave way to glacier travel and we roped up in a line to protect from falls into crevasses. This was a new experience for us. Along the way, there were some fixed lines, offering extra protection in some of the sketchier sections, an aluminum ladder across a 15' wide gap over a deep crevasse and one spot where we had to leap across a crevasse. It was much more of a varied and extensive glacier experience that we'd expected and quite exciting. 

So, we were first up the fixed lines on the headwall and John was first to attempt the 100' or so of knee-deep snow along the knife-edge ridge to the summit. Fortunately, there is a fixed rope along the left side of the ridge that he clipped in to, because about 3 steps along, he fell off the ridge to the left and performed his first real self-arrest with his ice axe. It worked, along with the fixed line, to stop him only 10 feet into a what would have been a much faster descent than intended, down the wrong side of the mountain. Amusingly, Dan readily relayed the matter of fact message to our leader, "Rob, John fell off the summit ridge".
Subsequently, we all made it to the very cramped summit point, soon followed by a team from Mongolia and we all took glory shots. As more teams were coming up behind us, we left after a short time and began our rappel (abseil, for the non-Americans) down the headwall. If we recall, it was about 4-5 pitches, but we were slowed by having to negotiate around several people who were ascending. Not a problem, as long we took our time and made sure we were always clipped into our safety lines, as we exchanged places with the ascending person...no rushing or taking anything for granted when this isn't something we do every day.
We all made it down to the flatter part of the glacier fine and then began to roast in the reflected sunshine off the all-white surroundings. Amazing how fast it can get really hot in a sea of snow and ice at 18,000' or so!
As of this posting, we're in Mumbai, India about to board our United flight back to the US in an hour or so. It's been an amazing trip and it's going to take time to process the experiences. Obviously, we saw amazing sights, but we also met amazing people who have touched our lives and inspired us in ways we know and will find out.
As we have some time over the coming weeks, we'll get some images organized and shared, but we hope that you've enjoyed sharing in some key parts of our journey.
Namaste...J&J

Lobuche to Chukhung and Indecision @ 15,500'

We had to pull out our long-distance slog experience for the long trek back to the village of Lobuche after our Lobuche East summit. As is often the case, the way back felt a LOT longer that than the way there the day before, with exhaustion firmly entrenched and the distraction of anticipation no longer a companion on the trail. Plus, as covered previously, Lobuche is not a cushy Honeymoon destination about which to get excited. Nonetheless, we got there, spent a cold night and headed out the next morning to Chukhung.

Looking to regain some strength, we decided to take the easy way around with Marie Krystal (MK), while the rest of the group headed up and over the high Kungma La (pass) to the next valley where Chukhung resides. We all arrived safely and before the 2 feet of snow that came that night.

Fortunately, Sunday the 12th was a scheduled rest day, which meant that the Chukhung Kgangri Resort dining (common) room, which is the only space in any of these places which is sometimes heated, was the center of activities. It was packed with two dozen-plus, mostly type-A folks of various nationalities, trying to do mostly nothing for a full 24 hours. Oh, and did we mention the WiFi had been non-functioning in Chukhung for 2 weeks and counting, and cell service doesn't exist there. It was a fun and social scene in which to be, and to observe.

In addition to creating cabin fever, the snow complicated our plans for Island Peak, which we had plans to climb on Tuesday, the 14th, after spending the night at base camp. Many questions to be considered...
-would there be more snow?
-how would the snow that had already fallen affect the conditions/avalanche risk up high?
-would our shoes and feet get muddy and wet on the way to base camp, and then freeze overnight? In which case we'd have to consider wearing plastic boots for the walk to the tents.
...and no firm answers to be had.

In multiple consultations with Rob throughout the day, he remained resolute in his commitment to our successful and safe summit. Our decision, however, was complicated by that fact that Island Peak, although important, was not the crown jewel of our trip and we didn't want to spend the next couple days wet, miserable and waiting at base camp, only to have to retreat lower without going for the summit.

In the end, at breakfast on Tuesday, Rob told us that Thundu had found the trail to be firm and dry enough. So, after 24 hours of indecision, we were in. While Hugh and Ben decided they'd had enough of life at 15,000'+ and headed down to Pangboche, our team of 7 headed off for base camp late morning and arrived just over 2 hours later, had a hearty pasta and cheese lunch, dal bhat dinner and headed off to our tents by 7pm, in anticipation of a midnight wake-up and 1:15am start toward the summit.

We are glad we made the decision to push on. The picture here is Jenn at base camp with Ama Dablam behind.

Namaste

Lobuche East Summit ~20,075'

Since our summit of Lobuche East, we've been without WiFi in the villages of Lobuche and then in Chukhung for the better part of a week, hence our total lack of communication for a while now.

As we trekked further up valley, we got closer and closer to our first peak climb. On Thursday morning we headed towards Lobuche East base camp. Upon arrival Jennifer started having intense nausea, and was not able to eat the plentiful dinner or breakfast that was provided at base camp. She did manage to choke down a few tea biscuits and a pop tart prior to the start. Intense nausea persisted throughout summit day, making it a very tough 24 hours for her.

We were incredibly fortunate to have a perfect summit day on Friday, April 10. After leaving base camp at 4:00am and a very challenging and exposed climb, we topped out around 9:00am to a cloudless, mild and windless summit. We were able to lay back on our packs and along with a jubilant South Korean team, enjoy the astounding views and enjoy our pack lunches of grilled nak (yak cow) cheese, pineapple juice and Mars Bars.

What an incredible experience! The views were amazing, as you can see in the video linked here. We learned valuable new skills for high altitude alpine climbing and rapelling, experienced our first base camp hospitality and enjoyed great teamwork. We also got a serious taste of the epic commitment, strength, endurance and hardship that must be endured to tackle an 8000 meter peak expedition...way beyond this, and this was hard!

Namaste

Lobuche East Peak

We are back safe after a successful summit of Lobuche East Peak today. We got up at 2:30am, left camp at 4:00 and summitted around 9:00 with amazing views of the entire Everest massiff. We're beyond exhausted and can't wait to get to sleep after dinner, so just wanted to let you know we're safe.