Ama Dablam Expedition First Week Summary

Wel­come to the 2009 Moun­tain Mad­ness Ama Dablam Expe­di­tion Dis­patch­es. We had a bit of delay with some satel­lite phone issues, but we are now receiv­ing reg­u­lar updates from lead guide Seth Hob­by. The first week’s worth of reports have been con­sol­i­dat­ed into this intro­duc­to­ry post and we expect to be post­ing updates every cou­ple of days for the remain­der of the trip so stay tuned!

2009-11-09

5000m on Pokalde ridge!

Today the team went up to 5000m (17000 feet) to accli­ma­tize on the ridge of Pokalde peak.

Here they had some amaz­ing views over Makalu, Lobuche and the north side of Ama Dablam. This has been a great ​“rest day” and anoth­er day with tasty food and relax­ation. Mark has a lit­tle bit of a virus going, but he feels ok. Tomor­row they will decide if he will join the team up to base camp of Lobuche or take anoth­er rest day.

So the team will head up to Lobuche Base Camp tomor­row for more acclima­ti­za­tion and spend the first night in a tent on this trip. They are doing great and is still enjoy­ing the amaz­ing views and the impres­sive clear sky at night with its end­less num­bers of stars. Namaste!

2009-11-08

Pheriche!

Seth called in from Pheriche today.

They are stay­ing at an amaz­ing lodge run by a french lady and the food here is appar­ent­ly real­ly real­ly good. Some­thing that is extra nice since it´s Kats birth­day today!!! She got a big birth­day cake with can­dle lights, and Pereche is a beau­ti­ful place to cel­e­brate for sure.

As for activ­i­ty today the crew went to the The Himalayan Res­cue Asso­ci­a­tion (HRA) which is a vol­un­tary non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion formed in 1973. Among many things they teach climbers about high alti­tude sick­ness. So the team got a cou­ple of hours lec­ture in the high alti­tude clin­ic. Check out their web:

www​.himalayan​res​cue​.org

Every­body is still felling good and the weath­er is great!

More news will come in the next days as the team soon will climb Lobuche east to acclimatize.

Thanks for check­ing in!

2009-11-07

Nam­che to Pangboche!

Today the crew walked up the long hill to Teng­boche where they vis­it­ed the monastery, enjoyed the amaz­ing view of Ama and had some good pas­tries. Seth bought a cake here too so they can sur­prise Kat on her birth­day com­ing up. The walk end­ed in Pang­boche today, which is a vil­lage locat­ed at 3950 m and they will stay here tonight at the Black Yak lodge. Every­body is feel­ing exit­ed, healthy, hap­py and good, also with the alti­tude. They are get­ting lots of sleep and start­ing up ear­ly in the morn­ing. Tomor­row they will con­tin­ue to Pheriche where they will pre­pare to do an acclima­ti­za­tion climb on Lobuche east, which is a 6000 m ​“trekking peak” with steep snowy slopes to the top. The tem­per­a­tures are get­ting cold­er the high­er they go and tonight it was ‑4 c when Seth called in around eight a clock Nepal time. Stay tuned and thanks for check­ing in!

Namaste!

2009-11-06

Nam­che and Khumjung!

We all woke up this morn­ing to amaz­ing blue skies and bright sun­shine. Per­fect con­di­tions for a rest day. We are in Nam­che Bazarre 3440m/​11220ft (Sher­pa Cap­i­tal) as of yes­ter­day and we will rest here today before head­ing into the Khum­bu Val­ley. Every­one is feel­ing great and enoy­ing the sights, sounds, peo­ple, pas­tries, show­ers, inter­net, and shop­ping of Nam­che. We are real­ly rough­ing it? This after­noon we will head up on a short walk to vis­it Khunde (amaz­ing monas­tary) and Khumjung (med­ical clin­ic and Hillary School). Today we will also get to enjoy per­fect views of Ama Dablam like seen in the pic­ture below. We are all think­ing of our loved ones and send love to our fam­i­ly and friends from this beau­ti­ful world in the sky! This will be like­ly my last post on the blog untell I get back here to Nam­che. But don’t wor­ry!!!! Maren will be post­ing dis­patch­es dai­ly from SAT phone calls on the moun­tain!!!! Stay tuned!

Seth…aka Rin­ji Sherpa

2009-11-03

Game ON!

Every­one arrived yes­ter­day Novem­ber 2^nd here in Kath­man­du safe and sound with all their bag­gage. Mark and Wolf came in first at 1pm fol­lowed by Hakon and Cathrine at about 2pm (we had to wait anoth­er hour for thi­er bags) then Kat­ri­na arrived around 9pm. This means I was at the air­port almost all day. Glad thats over. Today we had a real­ly nice first group meal, an amaz­ing all you can eat break­fast at the Yak and Yeti and every­one is real­ly hit­ting it off. After lots of tea and cof­fee we had our group meet­ing and talked over our sched­ule, gear, and logis­tics. After every­one was tired of hear­ing me talk we went out to brave the busy streets of Kath­man­du Thamel dis­trict for last minute gear pur­chas­es, mon­ey exchange, and of course more cof­fee! Now we about to meet with Elis­a­beth Hawley(sp?). She is an amaz­ing elder­la­dy and very famous for doc­u­ment­ing all expe­di­tions into the Nepal Himalaya and 8000m peaks. After this we will have a nice meal out and wrap it up for the evening. Tomor­row the trek into the Khum­bu begins. We fly to the small vil­lage of Luk­la at 7am and then trek to Phakd­ing for the night. The day after tomor­row the 5^th we will trek up to Nam­che Bazare the Sher­pa Capi­tol of the world.… its an amaz­ing village/​city hang­ing on the side of the Himalaya. We will all have inter­net con­nec­tion in this lit­tle city as well as pas­try’s, good shop­ping, dis­co, Tibet­ian trad­er camp, ohh and the tow­er­ing peaks of Tam­serku, Kawande, etc.…. We will up date you all again on our progress once we arrive in Nam­che! Namaste from Nepal and thanks for check­ing in!

Seth