Expedition Blogs for variety of 8000m Peaks

No Luck

2010-10-15T06:27:00.001+05:30

I wish I could say that we went up the mountain and had success in reaching the top. We did not.

We went up to camp 1 in strong winds and low temps. Found one of our tent fly's ripped to shreds. Had a long nigh of high winds. Woke up to still more wind and moved up to camp 2. By the time I arrived I felt like my face had been to one of those fancy spas where they sand blast the outer layer of skin off your face. We found both our tents standing but definiely the worse for wear. We rested and brewed up but the the winds did not die down. We made the decision to wait it out one more night. During the next day clouds built, snow came, and our constant companion the wind stayed with us. The big issue with wind is that the ambient temperature at the summit is -25 to -30f add a 25mph wind to that and it is bitter cold and high risk of frost bite.

At about 2pm we pulled the plug on the climb and came down figuring it was not going to be our season.

On any expedition, luck and timing play a huge role. Based on my estimate there were 3-4 days that Cho Oyu was summitable. Unfortunately we were not in a position to take advantage of any of those days. The team is in great spirits knowing that we did everything we could to reach the top.

This morning we woke to 4-6 inches of snow at ABC so it helps with our decision.

Thanks for all the support...Until next time.

Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu ABC

Quick Update

2010-10-14T18:50:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,
Just a quick update from Chris's sister (Amy). He left a message last night that the winds are bit strong for a summit attempt today (Thursday the 14th) so they are pushing it back one day till the 15th.

Stay tuned!

Be well,
Amy

Summit Update

2010-10-12T18:28:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone!

This is Amy, Chris's sister with a summit update from Camp 1. He called while he was cooking - it was only 10 degrees, but with no wind which is good. They plan to head up to Camp 2 tomorrow (wed) and then go straight from Camp 2 to summit on Thursday and all the way back down by Friday the 15th. They really have to boogie it back down as they have a ride waiting for them at base camp on the 15th. Chris said not to expect to hear anything until late on Thursday, so if you don't hear from me, its b/c they are not in a good place to call yet.

Laurent and Chris were joined by Chris's good friend Fred Strang. Chris and Fred have been climbing together for years, so it will make for a good solid team. The only mitigating factor of course is weather, so please send calm and clear thoughts to Cho Oyu in Nepal over the next 3 days!

post a question if you have any and thanks for following, I know that they really appreciate it!

Be well,
Amy Klinke

Summit Aspirations...

2010-10-10T14:40:00.001+05:30

We have ben waiting patiently, we have been checking a variety of weather forecasts, we have have been eating our veggies and maintaining our caloric intake, we have changed flights and plans, and now we are going to try for the summit on the 13th. We will leave tomorrow for Camp 1 in what will be some foul high wind conditions, then move up to Camp 2 in hopefully diminishing winds, and the leave around 2 am for the summit on the 13th. If that does not work we will have to wait on more day and head up on the 14th. If it is the 14th we will have to descend from the summit all the way to ABC on the same day, then wake up early and head down to BC to catch our jeep to the border.

That is our plan at the moment, but as always it is subject to the forces of Mother Nature. We will be out of contact until at least the 15th.

Everyone here thanks you for your continued support.

Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu ABC

Hurry Up and Wait

2010-10-07T09:12:00.000+05:30

The weather certainly has not been cooperating with us and has forced us to make some decisions. Laurent and I are going to stay and extend our visas through the 15th of October with a forecast that says there is a summit window on the 13th. Matt is leaving to join his wife on a three week vacation in Thailand.

Right now I have been taking advantage of the Urkainian Teams Banya (Steam Room) what a great experience in ABC.

I will let you know more about our plans as they materialize.

Chris Klinke
ABC Cho Oyu

Weather Woes

2010-10-05T19:32:00.000+05:30

The weather gods are fighting us with. We are back in ABC and are debating about the feasibility of another summit push. Permit and visa's expire on the 11th, flights are on the 10th and 11th. Decisions, decisions.......

Tenative Summit Push

2010-10-03T17:26:00.000+05:30

We are going to head to Camp 1 on the morning of Oct 4th, move to Ccamp 2 on the 5th and test the conditions and weather. If everything seems good we will go for the summit from Camp 2 in the early hours of the 6th with the plan of returning to Camp 2. If the r weather does not cooperate we will wait and see what weather the morning of the 7th holds for us.

Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu ABC

Waiting and summit Plan

2010-10-02T13:47:00.001+05:30

So we have been waiting for the past 7 days for the snow to firm up on the upper mountain. Amazingly it has and one lone German made it to the summit yesterday. He said conditions were fickle but the lower part of the summit push had firmed up.

This morning we woke to a large lenticular cloud over the summit and high wind raging up on the mountain. So we are back to waiting.

Our tentative plan is to move up the mountain on Oct 4 with a goal of summiting the 6th or 7th if the winds drop to an acceptable level.

Right now most of the other teams in Base Camp have left. The Chinese threw an end of the season party a few nights ago the likes of which I have never experienced. It was quite a bit of fun. By the 4th we will be one of only 4 groups left waiting for an opportunity to move up the mountain.

From the rumors I have heard it seems to have been a dismal season across the Himalayas with heavy snows and high winds hampering most of the summit bids.

Everybody is in good spirits though and still enjoying each others company. The more time you spend with the people the more you get to know them.

Chris Klinke,
Cho Oyu ABC

Weather, Camp 2, and Waiting

2010-09-27T10:14:00.001+05:30

We had a bad stretch of weather from the 20th through the 24th. Everyday we woke up to a cloud of white. Snow falling, clouds hanging all around us and we were forced to wait it out as it dumped snow on the mountain. Finally on the 25th we made the decision to head up to camp 1. We got up there in a little bit of snow, but nothing that was daunting. The next morning we woke up to clear skies and headed up to Camp 2 for our night of acclimatization. The winds were picking up and were making the use of down suits necessary for some. Everyone was feeling great though and we were happy that we were one step closer to making our summit bid. Throughout the night of the 25th the winds continued to pick up and when we woke in the morning, the windspeeds were gusting up to 60 knots. We made the decision to head down rather then try to fight the wind and touch camp 3. As we descended the winds kept at us and we kept huddling up like penguins in the antarctic to be able to speak to each other.

We are now resting comfortably at ABC, enjoying great food, a few movies, and we watched our last episode of The Office. Dunder Mifflin seems so out of our reality we just laugh at Michael Scott.

Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu ABC

Puja Team Photo

2010-09-20T14:17:00.003+05:30

Matt, laurent, and Chirring relaxing Camp 1

2010-09-20T14:17:00.001+05:30

French and English Blog Entry

2010-09-20T14:02:00.001+05:30

Hello I'm Laurent and I'm going to give some news in french as we are an international expedition.
Bonjours a toutes et a tous, le programme de l'expedition se deroule comme prevu par chhiring, notre sherpa nepalais organisateur Rolwalling expedition ltd . Nous avons pu atteindre C2 le 18/09 et poursuivont l'acclimatation en y remontant le 22 pour y dormir. La suite sera conditionnee par la meteo

Safe at Camp 1

2010-09-17T16:48:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Amy, Chris's sister. I spoke with Chris this morning and he sounded good! He wanted me to post an update to say that the entire team has made it to Camp 1 and they plan to go up to Camp 2 in the morning to just touch it and then they will return back down.

hope everyone has a great weekend and I will let you know if I hear anything more!

be well,
Amy

To Camp 1 and beyond

2010-09-14T07:01:00.001+05:30

We are moving ahead of schedule and everyone is feeling great, but a little tired tonight. Since the last installment from Matt we were able to do our Puja Cermony on Sunday Morning. Chhiring contacted the Lhama and he said Sunday was the most auspicious day. During our puja we had two strong signs that we will have a good climb. First we had two ravens land on our altar during the ceremony, and then we had changing weather. Sun, rain, snow, and wind all blessed during the ceremony. Our Kitchen help Carsung is a trained Lhama and he and Chhirning conducted the ceremony. ABC is all set up except for the shower tent, but that will be rectified tomorrow.

Today, instead of just going up to Depot Camp at 5850m we went all the way up to Camp 1 at 6250m. We left this morning at about 7:41 am and got back about 3:30 pm. Everyone did really well moving over the glacier moraine and up the scree slopes to get to Camp 1. I will try and send a few pictures to give you a better idea, but let me try and describe the climb. We leave from ABC and head up a rocky moraine (debris field left by a glacier receding) It has ice and rock stacked up in all sorts of strange configurations, like a two year old trying to build something. So we head out of camp and immediately start descending to the bottom of valley, climbing to the top of a valley, going down the next valley, etc... All the while stepping on rock and ice and slippery mud. It makes for a fun journey. Then we get to the valley that leads up to Camp 1 and start heading up about 800m of scree to top out on the ridge that is Camp 1.

We were foruntate that today was just a trial run without much weight in our packs. But Chhiring did hire two Tibetans who carried about 40 kg of gear up to C1. You do not hit the snow line until about 75m below camp 1 so we are able to wear our approach shoes to that point and that makes a huge difference.

Chris Klinke
ABC Cho Oyu

Cho oyu abc

2010-09-11T18:02:00.001+05:30

Hello Friends,
This is Matt, with an update of our Cho Oyu expedition. We are in Advanced Base Camp, ABC. Our camp is set at 18,300 ft,situated where we can stare down the rest of the route. As I write, what started out as a little thunder has turned into a full on gropple event. Chris and some of the sherpas arrived yesterday, found this site, and set things up. Laurent, Chirring and I came in this morning. Having known Chirring only from summers he spent in Steamboat, it is awesome to see him in his arena. He is so strong, positive, and pretty much has rock star status. He literally knows everyone... And remembers all whom have crossed his path. He can do it all.. Case in point, last night he cooked fried chicken for us.. On a crappy little gas stove. It was the best I have ever had... Ever!! For Gods sake it is all I can do to make grilled cheese at home on thousands of dollars of kitchen equipment, and here he is... The Colonel Sanders of the Hymalya on a cook stove. He is concerned that we maintain our weight, thus we eat well.. Including some form of fried pototoe at each meal. Isn't there some kind of law against that?
It is so cool to have this technology up here... Thanks in whole to Chris. The other night we watched The Best Of Chris Farkey DVD!! We laughed long and hard at "you are going to end up eating a steady diet of Govt cheese, and living in a van down by the river" After hanging out in some of these Tibetan Tea Houses, that sounds kind of appealing! Lots if these tea houses have a tendency to be a little rough.
The Korean team is camped beside us... There are many teams and climbers, but these guys will be entertaining. They appear to be very well funded and organized.. They included in their supplies an Opera singer. Really! For no reason apparent to me he has burst into song today a few times! It was a little startling! His renditions last 2-3 minutes and he sings loud and with conviction! Who knows, I may become a fan.
So, here we sit at ABC.. We will hang for a few days letting our systems adjust. Meanwhile, a shout out to an amazing wife, kids and circle of friends!! Hey SSMS, hope sicence camp is going well... Thanks for the gold watch by the way, it is coming in handy. A sincere debt of gratitude to Eric Meyer for putting Chirring Dorge Sherpa in our lives!!

Regards all, Matt

At Base Camp

2010-09-07T16:27:00.002+05:30

We arrived at Cho Oyu Base Camp yesterday morning. Everything is going great. Tents are up, food has been amazing, and everyone on the team is healthy and acclimatizing well.
This morning we went for a hike up to Palung which is the intermediate camp between the Chinese Basecamp and Advanced Base Camp, BC is at about 4855m and Palung is at about 5400m so it did our bodies some good to get the exercise after sitting in a car for the past 4 days.
Our trip to BC was relatively uneventful. We got stopped by one landslide on the Nepal side of the border and then missed the cutoff time to cross the border. Because of that we stayed in Kodari, Nepal instead of Zhangmu, Tibet. We spent two days in Nylam and I have to say how I am amazed at the new road that was put in on the Tibet side. What used to take 4 hours only took 45 minutes. While in Nylam we hiked up to about 5100m and enjoyed ourselves people watching. Then we moved to Tingri and I found it exactly as I remembered it, dogs outnumbering people 3 to 1, dusty and, a bit trying. We were all happy to depart Tingri and head to BC.
Our plan now is to spend a rest day at BC tomorrow and then head up to Palung on the 9th where we load our 4000lbs of food and gear onto yaks for the hike to ABC, and spend 1 night. We should arrive at ABC on the 10th of September and we will spend a day or two setting up camp and getting ready to start moving up the mountain.
Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu BC

Pictures of the Puja for Cho Oyu Trip

2010-09-01T19:31:00.001+05:30

Tashi, Laurent, Min Badeau, Chris, Chhiring,

and Matt

The Outside of the Monastery

The Color Palette for the inside of the Monastery Temple

Painting the Murals

The Future Buddha stand over 12 feet.

More Mural's being painted

A Buddha Statue in the making, when finished it
will be over 12 feet Tall and be the present Buddha

Getting ready to leave Kathmandu

2010-09-01T13:08:00.000+05:30

We attended a blessing from the Kyabje Trulshik Shatrul Ngawang Chokyi Lodro Rinpoche who is one of the most revered living masters of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the teacher of the Dalai Lama. They are in the process of building a new monastery outside of Kathmandu and it was really quite an amazing site to see the artwork, stonework, sculptors, and masons at work.

I will send some pictures later on this afternoon.

CHO OYU 2010

2010-08-29T10:54:00.002+05:30

Greetings from Kathmandu again!
I am back in Kathmandu to attempt another 8000m peak this year, Cho Oyu. I have attached some information below regarding the mountain, the route, and some maps. I have also added a weather feature at the blog site. If you would like to view the weather at the summit of Cho Oyu simply go to the main blog site.

I arrived in Kathmandu on August 25th and was greeted by the fact that the village where all the garbage is dumped for Kathmandu has gone on strike, and is refusing to allow garbage trucks to pass through unless the government guarantees the villagers jobs driving the trucks. So trash is heaped up at strategic points in the city and the normal smells of Kathmandu which are unpleasant on normal days are even worse at this point.

I have completed all the shopping for the expedition and we shall be eating like kings on the mountains. The team will arrive on August 30th and we plan to depart for the mountain on Sept 2. From Kathmandu we will drive to the border town of Kodari on the Nepal side and Zhangmu on the Tibetan side. We will spend one night here as we transfer gear across the border and deal with the customs and immigration to get into the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The following day will take us into the little mountain village of Nylam where we will spend two nights acclimatizing at about 3800m. Then we drive to Tingri which I pleasantly refer to as the anus of Tibet where we will spend one night. From there we drive to Cho Oyu Base Camp and we will spend about 5 days acclimatizing and preparing to transfer our gear up to ABC. On the first trip we will stop at the midway point called Palung. We hope to arrive in ABC by Sept 10 and start climbing the mountain around the Sept 12.

For those of you who were hoping to be following Robbie, Brad, or Eric I am sad to say they are not on this trip. I believe there is a button at the bottom of the emails you receive if you would prefer not to get these email.Thank you for your support.

Details about CHO OYU

Cho Oyu (or Qowowuyag; in Nepal चोयु, Tibetan in Wylie transliteration: jo bo dbu yag; Chinese: 卓奧有山,Pinyin: Zhuó'àoyǒu Shān) is the sixth highest mountain in the world at 8201 metres above sea level. Cho Oyu lies in the Himalayas and is 20 km west of Mount Everest, at the border between Tibet and Nepal. Cho Oyu means "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan.

Cho Oyu was first attempted in 1952 by an expedition organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee of Great Britain as preparation for an attempt on Mount Everest the following year. The expedition was led by Eric Shipton and included Tom Bourdillon, but technical difficulties at an ice cliff above 6,650 m (21,820 ft) proved beyond their abilities.

The mountain was first climbed on October 19, 1954 via the north-west ridge by Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian expedition.^[1] Cho Oyu was the fifth 8000 metre peak to be climbed, after Annapurna in June 1950, Mount Everest in May 1953, Nanga Parbat in July 1953 andK2 in July 1954.Just a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La (5,716m/18,753 ft), a glaciated pass that serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Khumbu's Sherpas. Due to its proximity to this pass and the generally moderate slopes of the standard northwest ridge route, some climbers consider Cho Oyu to be the easiest 8,000 metre peak to climb^[2], and it is a popular objective for professionally guided parties.

(From Wikipedia.org)

CAMPS

Base Camp- 4,725m (15,500ft)

Advanced Base Camp- 5,630m (18,500ft)

Camp 1- 6,400m (21,000ft)

Camp 2- 7,040m (23,100ft)

Camp 3- 7,470m (24,500ft)

Summit- 8201m (26,906 ft)

The route

MAP

Avoiding Confusion

2010-06-18T20:45:00.003+05:30

I got several emails this morning regarding the previous post "The Final Curtain", this was written by Robbie Klimek and provides a descriptive narrative of his summit push.

Chris Klinke

The Final Curtain

2010-06-18T09:04:00.002+05:30

By Robbie Klimek of the K&K Cafe

The final curtain has been drawn and I now have returned to my more civil life... I am looking back on the expedition with fond memories for life during the expedition was very sweet (tx to Chocolove) We were blessed with everything... (except for good weather). The team's camaraderie and strength were sans pareil. We moved and laughed well together... I didn't get to the summit yet I feel as though I did. I accomplished what I sought out to do; immerse myself into a wild and uncertain milieu, absorb the sherpa spirit and their unpretentious disposition, and push myself to it's, my body's, physical limits... I do love a challenge and I was given more than my fair share for most of the climb... I gave all that I had yet I needed more... I needed more uninterrupted sleep and way more calories... I had been told that my metabolism would be slowing down when I turned 30, that that the metabolic engine brakes would hit. Now that I am 40 I eat more than I have in the past. Go figure. I wish that wasn't the case but it is far better than the bariatric alternative. So, I tried to plump up and by doing so I gave the the expedition members something to behold (esp the French) they were aghast when they witnessed me eat... continuously... I could put down 3-4 dinners per night in addition to the other two meals and treats that were consumed earlier throughout the day... so when I left for Camp 2 (C2) I was fat and happy... that was on the 20th of May. That evening we were hammered... winds to 60 k raged continuously thus hampering our 21st ascent... we stayed in our tents that day and decided to move on the 22nd... Brad and Marty jumped on a lull and move to C3 on the 21st... smart move in my book because I firmly believe that movement is rewarded. The tail end of the 21st was beautiful... skies were mostly clear and the sunset resembled a Georgia Peach being dipped in heavenly whipping cream... I was ecstatic about the days to come... apparently the wind was ecstatic as well and returned once again with even more fervor. I took my normal sleeping agent though it still had on it's training wheels and was not effective what so ever... I thought more would be better but, that was not the case... Morning came early and I was just getting ready to tuck myself in... Klinke was gone, already on the move (damn powerhouse) and the French were slinking up the fixed lines while I was still wiping the benzos from my eyes... @ 6,800 m, the strain of altitude climbing started to take its toll on me... My dinner of Cup'O'Ramen and some Mac-n-chez didn't help matters. I needed a whole lamb, horse, yak, whatever... they say you burn nearly 7k calories per day when you are up that high... I'm frightened to think of how many I may have burned making the push from C2 to C4. I sauntered to C3 passing numerous groups of people and caught up with Mica. We had some tea and treats and reveled in the stark, shear, and winsome beauty of the visage before us... We had a lil tete-a-tete and he told me that that was it for him... I looked @ him and said basically "Ya right..." with my facial expression. He was a strong individual and I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I roused him to continue on and he persevered to C4. As I came into C3 it dawned on me that I hadn't voided since 0800 and it was now close to 1400... I tried and forced myself, in my own macabre way, to get some urine out. I did, though I wish I hadn't seen it. If you can imagine what spoiled sulfur would look like then you get the visual and that is what came out of me... No bueno! I downed my litre, ate a lil pistachio/ dark chocolate energy bar and move on. I was feeling great @ this point. I was now awake and moving rather briskly for 7500 m or 25,000'. I came into C4 with hugs and cheers from a couple of the others and I thought I was setting myself up nicely for a summit bid... Ready for some chow and sleep I settled into camp. Then it happened... another sleepless night with scant caloric intake. We became a nylon boarding house housing three souls instead of a cozy two and that did me in... We departed @ 0230 and proceeded as a group, in the likings of the eclectic troupe of souls from the movie Cool Hand Luke... The rising sun @ 0457 did give more strength but not enough to ascend much higher... the good doctor and I discussed what lay ahead and I thought "Well, maybe now I can cruise up the easy traverse along the fixed lines and get to the French Couloir." Beautiful thinking, but the body and the mind were disenchanted with each other and the mind lost... I moved up the fixed lines for some time and parked it @ a snow stake... I looked down at the stake and new that if I went up any further the chances of me seeing that stake and these fixed lines again was nil. Plastered with fatigue, borborygmus to the point of dryheaving, and now a complete loss of motivation, will and desire, I made the ultimate and most difficult decision a mountaineer will ever make which is look up see the summit so close (yet know that "so close" is still "too far") and head back down to C4. I am glad that I did. Big snows, a lost and presumed dead Sherpa, a crevasse rescue, and our lead Sherpa informing the team that it is too late to continue on three different occasions helped ease my anguish for having pulled a 180 and descend back to C4.
I am now back on the rooftop helo pad overlooking this vast and magical landscape, psyched that I am alive without any deficits (well maybe just a couple small ones) and capable of telling another story about life and how special it can be. Four days post summiting we were informed that a member from a neighboring expedition couldn't make it down from the summit during the same snow storm and perished. Another may have lost numerous fingers from both hands... this all happened the next day. As it turns out our team summited @ 1830ish, 8-10 past the time we had est as our summit time. We also had to wait two hours for Lokpa (our climbing Sherpa) to bring up O2 for one of the French climbers... So, with that said I am glad to be home... Life is "easier" once again though I am longing for another trip... any ideas let me know... Be well all and thanks for all of your support, kind words, and thoughts!

Photo's from the Climb

2010-06-05T10:37:00.002+05:30

Team Photo in Tashigoan

Glacial Lake below Shipton La

Chhiring Dorje with Makalu in Background

Robbie with Makalu in Background

Chris with Makalu in Background

Chris and Ann at Base Camp

Team Valandre

Sunset on Makalu

Cold Avenger Mask Blair Falahey and Eric

Robbie with Lhotse and Everest over coffee at C2

Ice Wall to Camp 1

Our Sherpa Team with Noir Sunglassess

Furtemba with Valandre Combi Suit

View up to summit from Camp 4

Robbie at C4

View down to C4 from Base of French Coulior

Summit Ridge with poor weather conditions

Chris on Summit

Storm Clouds building on Descent

Chris calls home at ABC

Boudha Stupa in Kathmandu on Buddha's Birthday

Chris's Summit Account

2010-05-30T17:03:00.005+05:30

I know many of you have been waiting for the details of Mountain Climbing versus Mountain Summiting, and I am finally going to go through all the gritty details of the summit push. I have been waiting for everyone to arrive back in Kathmandu and to give everyone the chance to put together their own version of events.

The reality is that our summit push started May 20th. I left ABC at 5800m early on the 20th to give myself the best chance at getting some rest at Camp 2 at 6800m. I left ABC at about 6:15 am and started the arduous climb up to camp 2 via the depot camp, the ice fall, and the serac field to reach Camp 2 at about 11:30 am. It was actually one of the best parts of the climb for me because I was feeling strong, healthy, and arrived with enough time to level out our tent at camp 2. One of the interesting things that happens to tents on a snow field is that the middle of the tent melts out due to the solar reflection and heat that collects inside the tent. I call it the bathtub effect, and you get this sloping wall inside the tent not unlike laying in a bathtub. Not real comfortable to sleep in and you either have to move the tent or chip away the ice wall along the sides and then build up the center. This is what I spent the afternoon doing, so that by the time my tent mate Robbie arrived we had a nice level tent again. Which was a great thing because we ended up spending two nights at Camp 2 due to extremely high winds on the morning of the 21st. The forecast had called for moderate winds of 20-30km/h during the night of the 20th and through the morning of the 21st. Reality was that we had winds close to 80 km/h with gusts that were stronger. In order for us to make a successful bid for the summit we would have to leave Camp 2 no later then 9:30 am to head for Camp 4. If everything would have been perfect we would leave no later then 6:30 am to head for Camp 4. It is about a 5 hour climb to the Makalu La and then another two hours past that to Camp 4. We needed to have enough time to get to Camp 4, set up tents, make dinner, brew water, and rest before leaving for the summit. We were up and ready to go at 6 am, but the winds kept howling and a few times I thought the tent would blow down due to the gusts coming off the Makalu La. The winds did eventually die down as they were supposed to but it did not happen until close to 1pm. Therefore we had to delay our summit bid until the 23rd. The winds picked up again on the evening of the 22nd but luckily they were in the 20-30km/h range on the morning of the 22nd when we left Camp 2 and started up towards Camp 4.

The journey up to Camp 4 winds through the upper German Camp 2 and proceeds up the lower rock band, the snow field, and the upper rock band in the Makalu La. It takes about 5 hours to make your way through the nearly vertical rock bands that are layered with blue ice and sugar snow. Once you successfully navigate that area. You have a two hour hike across a snowfield to reach Camp 4 at about 7500m. This is where our journey to the summit began.

On the morning of the 22nd I left at early and arrived at Camp 4 by about 1:30pm. I arrived and helped set up the tents at Camp 4, started boiling water for hydration and food by 3pm. Robbie arrived at about 4 pm and jumped into the tent. Things were going well for our summit push. The winds had died down, their was some afternoon convection clouds happening but nothing that was serious. Chhiring and Furtemba had left to fix a few sections of rope through the serac field that lead to the base of the French couloirs. Brad had made a climbing decision about heading to the summit the day before from Camp 3. Unfortunately his bid for the summit was not successful.(He will tell his tale in a few days). Eric was still coming up to Camp 4. Robbie and I were in the tent resting and getting all our gear ready to head to the summit. For me this included going through my Valandre down suit and making sure everything was in the right pockets. Batteries for foot warmers on inside pocket right side, water bottle on inside pocket left side, Camera, Dermatone Sun Block, Spare Batteries for head lamp, Spare Head Lamp in zipper pocket, food stashed in thigh pocket, Camelback full, Radio, spare radio battery. Then I crawled into my down suit, Crawled into my Bloody Mary sleeping bag, and started to nap for our departure for the summit. Eric M arrived into camp 4 just before it got dark and he started his process of getting ready. Our original plan was to leave for the summit at 12:00am but because so many people had arrived so late in the day we made the decision to push that back until 2 am.

By the time everyone was out of their tents and ready to go it was almost 2:30 am. We headed off towards the summit walking in a single file line through the lower glacier field to avoid crevasses. It always an interesting experience to walk in a line of people through the dark with headlamps glowing ahead and behind you. In the dark you cannot really see anything except a dull outline of what is ahead of you, and you simply hear the breathing of the person behind you. If they happen to be on oxygen then you are pretty sure that Darth Vader is following you in the dark on the way up the mountain. In total their was 11 of us who left for the summit that night. Finjo had returned to Kathmandu because of an illness, Brad had already made his summit attempt, and Mica(a member of the French Team) had felt that he was not rested or hydrated enough to make a bid for the summit that night. So as the 11 of us trudged through the dark we were expecting about a 10 hour push to reach the summit by noon. The reality of a 16 hour push was not something we had considered when we started out, but as the night turned to day it became clearer that was we were looking at.

The glacier and serac fields had fresh snow on top that made some of the traverses a little tricky in navigating. We pushed up through the Serac Fields and reached the bottom of the French couloirs at about 1 pm. The weather was still clear but we had become a stretched out line of climbers. Robbie K had decided that it was not his day due to lack of sleep and food and turned around. So at about 1 pm we started pushing up through the French Couloirs, which is strikingly similar to the Makalu La but starting at 8100m and slightly more vertical. We had Chhiring who was fixing rope in the lead, followed by the Phillipe, Alexia, and Yeti on oxygen, then Andu and Sandrine, and I was batting clean up on the way up. When we were about half way up at about 3:30 pm The weather started to change on us. We started getting some wind gusts, and we saw the sky starting to speckle up with mares tails and when I was looking across at the ridges spind drift was blowing. Yet we continued to push on thinking all the time that we were almost there. We got to the summit ridge at almost 5pm, at which time we were still about an 1 hour from the summit. The sky was white, the wind was up, and spin drift was blowing everywhere. Sun had disappeared and the temperature was definitely cold. We decided to go for it.

The Summit of Makalu is really only about 3 ft wide and it is proceeded on either side by a little tiny ridge that drops off on both sides for thousands of feet. It is covered by ice and corniced snow and you have to traverse past a false ridge to reach it. It is very tricky to reach. So after making our way up to the false summit, and moving across the ridge. I finally reached the summit at 5:59 pm!!! Alexia and Sandrine summited before me, and I was followed by Phillipe. Yeti had made the decision to turn around prior to reaching the summit ridge based on weather conditions which was probably one of the smarter decisions of the day.

As we started making our way down the mountain the weather progressed into real nasty storm. Now we were descending the ropes that we has put up and to add insult to injury, they were difficult to find under the snow that had just fallen. We finally reached the bottom of the couloirs after about 2 hours of descending into a worsening storm. We were all aware of the crevasses that we had passed over to reach the couloirs but none of us were sure of our ability to spot them in a white out in the dark. So we roped up and started our descent. It took me until almost 10:45 pm to reach our Camp 4. And along the way there were a few issues, but in the end we all safely reached our Camp 4 by midnight. Everyone was safe.

In the morning, I headed down to ABC. Being completely wiped out a journey that had previously took me 6 hours ended up taking almost 12.

Then on the morning of the 25th a large part of our group was heading down for a helicopter ride from Yangle Kharka which is about 29km trek from our ABC. They headed out at 11:00am. After they left Robbie, Yeti, and I were planning on leaving on the 26th or 27th from ABC. But at this point they became like caged animals and wanted to leave right away. So they headed out after lunch at about 1pm for Yangle Kharka, and I followed at 2:30 pm. By this point I was wiped out and decided the helicopter was the best way out for me. Robbie and Yeti then went on a death march from Yangle Kharka to Tumilingtar and did the simply amazing feat of completing the trek in two days!!!!

Now we have celebrated Robbie’s 40th Birthday in Kathmandu and plan on doing up a party for Eric tomorrow!!!!

Pictures will follow, I am still waiting for my stuff to arrive from Base Camp!

Chris Klinke, Kathmandu

Brad's Climbing Push

2010-05-30T17:02:00.001+05:30

During the days of May 15 through 18 I decided to escape the wind and doldrums of ABC and hike down to the lower altitudes of Makalu Basecamp for a rest. I ended up staying in the basecamp of Marty Schmidt and Chris Benway. During this time I met up with Marty Schmidt who had been attempting a new route on the opposite, side of the mountain with Chris Warner, but Chris ended up getting very sick and was evacuated from the mountain, leaving Marty without a partner. Marty decided to try and solo the N.W. ridge route that we were climbing on and then is when I met Marty.
Talking with Marty, he and I both knew we did not want to be "guided" up the mountain by Sherpas, nor did we want to get in line and just follow fixed rope to the summit.
May 23rd was the day chosen by our team of Sherpas and climbers to try and summit. The weather was also suppose to be great on the 22nd as well.
Marty and I decided to climb to Makalu La, alpine style from Camp 2 on May 21 ahead of the 14 people going for the summit on the 23rd. This way we would have the first shot at the summit on the 22nd and it would be just the two of us route finding and breaking trail to the summit. We chose to make our summit bid from Makalu La, 7500m, and not from a camp 4 at 7600m. the distance between Makalu La and Camp 4 being 1-1/2hrs.
Although I knew we should depart Makalu La at midnight, we overslept and ended up leaving at 3:30am, already putting us behind schedule.
The night was perfectly calm and stary and not too cold. We climbed to 7800m by 8:30am, then found our way through a very steep broken glacier / ice fall, pulling out of the snow fixed rope from last year and replacing some anchors. This used up valuable time as well.
Once through the icefall we climbed a crevassed slope that seemed to go on forever up to approximately 8,100m where we stopped to rest at 12:30 noon. Being above 8,000m now we both could begin to feel the lack of oxygen, althugh up to this point we both felt strong climbing without bottled oxygen.
Looking up at the summit pyramid, we calculated how many hours we still needed to climb the French Couloir to the summit ridge, then across the summit ridge to the "false summit", around that and the final 100m to the true summit. We decided that if all went well we would need at least 4 more hours. Meaning we would summit around 5:00PM.
The weather was still perfect and no wind. If there was ever a day to push the limits today was the day. We were both worried though, about summiting so late in the day and then descending as the sun was setting and obviously coming back down through the crevasses and icefall in the dark.
We ended up making the deciscion not to continue, which left me heartbroken that we were turning around so high on the mountain and the summit seemingly so close.
Our descent to Makalu La ended up being faster than we thought and the evening weather stayed clear and calm, telling us that all would have been fine if we had been descending in the dark.
As we stood at Makalu La re-hydrating from the days effort, my American and French teammates and the Sherpas, came up over the La from Camp 2 on their way to Camp 4. Some looked stong and ready for their summit attempt and some look exhuasted from the steep climbing with a heavy pack. Two of the French climbers could not make the Makalu La without the aid of using oxygen. By dark they were all in Camp 4, hydrating and getting ready for their summit bid.
At 2:30am they departed Camp 4 and began their ascent. By the time the group reached 7,800m, Robbie and Silvia had already decided that they did not have enough energy to continue. The main group continued throught the steep ice fall, with several Sherpas out front fixing rope as they went. By 11:00am they all arrived at our high point and rested for a long time. Then they al decided to push on, crossing the slope above to the start of the French couloir. Although the Sherpas found lots of old fixed rope in this section, they also fixed their own rope, caused more delays. By mid afternoon they had reached the summit ridge in deteriorating weather. Pushing on the lead Sherpas climbed to the false summit and fixed more rope around this and up to the main summit.
At 4;15pm Erik Meyer and Lakpa Sherpa, both climbnig without bottled oxygen, decided that because of the lateness of the day and because it was beginning to snow, that they would turn around and head down. This was a very difficult decsision only 100 vertical meters from the summit. Ahead of them the two lead Sherpas, two French ladies, one Fench men and Chris Klinke pushed on. Ultimitaley they all summited Makalu between 5:30pm and 6:30pm in a brief window of clear wether, then began their descent.
In the long hours that followed descending in the dark, Lakpa and Erick had difficulties finding the start of the fixed rope back through the steep icefall. In their searching, Lakpa suddenty slipped on blue ice and dissapeared down the ice cliffs to the horrow of Erick. Erick searched for Lakpa for several hourse before the group of summiters had descended to where he was searching. Further searching came up empty handed and they assumed that Lakpa had died in a crevasse. They slowly made their way through the icefall in the dark snowstorm and back to Camp 4, where to their shock and amazement found Lakpa in his sleeping bag in one of the tents. He had miracoulously survived a 250m fall, without much injury or ending up in a crevasse and found his way back to Camp 4. By 11:00pm everyone was safely back in Camp 4 exhausted. That night it snowed all night and by morning there was 18 inches of new snow.
Packing up it took them all day to descend from Camp 4 to ABC in a snow storm and very heavy packs.
It was a big releif to have the entire team of climbers and Sherpas back down from the mountain safe and sound for the last time.
Starting the next day we packed up our equipment and headed 30km down valley to a point where we could be helicoptered out of the mountains and back to Kathmandu.
We are now resting in Kathmandu and eating lots, with skinny bodies and sunburned faces. It was a great trip and we all came back good friends.
Thanks for all of your support and we will see you when we get home..
Brad Johnson

2010-05-27T05:21:00.000+05:30

I just wanted to let everyone know that ALL team members are doing great. Some team members flew into Kathmandu yesterday, and two members are trekking (Rob and Yeti) back and should arrive tomorrow. I will make sure a new post is up by tomorrow regarding the climb itself and the last few days, plus some Pictures......

2010-05-24T06:49:00.002+05:30

There is a reason they call it Mountain Climbing and not Mountain Summiting...

That is the title my brother specifically asked me to lead this post with. Hello, this is Chris's sister, Amy, writing again. I spoke with him around 8:30pm (EST) on Sunday 5/23. He and the team were in camp 4 and 6 out of the 14 (I think I have that number right) summited. He would not specify who summited, and frankly, I was just happy to hear that everyone was happy and safe and well. So in summary, some summited, some did not, and they are all safe and coming back down.

They are heading all the way back down to ABC as I write this blog so they can post their own update and we will hear all the gritty details then.

Thanks for all the good thoughts!

Be well,
Amy

2010-05-21T08:39:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone!

This is Chris's sister, Amy. I spoke with Chris (and heard Rob in the background) They are at camp 2 waiting for the winds to die down and hope to make the summit push on the 23rd. They sounded happy and are looking forward to the summit.

Be well and thanks for sending all the warm and safe thoughts,

Amy

Revised Summit Plan

2010-05-19T07:45:00.000+05:30

Weather is weather and completely unpredictable at this point. After having been informed by the various weather services that the previous weather window was "short lived and dangerous" we abandoned our summit plans and have been waiting. Well, the window was good, and we missed the first one, but we are going for the second one with gusto and commitment.

The goal will be to summit on the 22nd of May. Based on current forecasts it should be a stable weather window starting on the 21st and continuing until the 24th. It gives us plenty of time to get up to high camp in semi-decent weather and have the opportunity to get to the summit on a clear day.

So the question that you may have is what have we been doing in the meantime. Well, not much. We went up to Camp 2 on the 16th which was the start of our previous window and slept a night to keep our acclimitization in order, had a horrible, sleepless night and returned to ABC for breakfast. We have taken showers, shaved (some of us), and done laundry. Life in ABC has not been exciting. Although in the last 24 hours we have arranged a helilcopter for a portion of the team who want to fly back to Kathmandu rather then trekking the 5 days out. There is some logic to this decision. I have decided to trek out because I want to enjoy the fun of seeing green and smelling something other then rock and snow.

So to sum up our plan.We will leave ABC on May 20th and go directly to Camp 2. We will try and arrive early in the day so that we can have plenty of time to rest and hydrate. Then on the 21st we will head up the Makalu La and go to our Camp 4. Again leaving early and trying to arrive in Camp 4 with time to spare for hydration and eating. Then we will leave on the morning of the 22nd at about 1 am to arrive on the summit by 10 am. Then we will return from the summit, break camp 4 and descend to Camp 2 by 5pm on the 22nd.

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home

Chris Klinke, ABC Makalu

May 15th Update

2010-05-16T08:19:00.000+05:30

Robbie K writing the blog for the 15th from ABC. The news isn't too good for an accent up Makalu until later in the month, hopefully around the 23rd of May... The French and the Germans left two days ago for their summit bid and we were to leave today The winds have been ripping for the last week from C1 all the way to the summit. When I say ripping, I mean our flesh would be frozen in seconds without remorse if accidentally left exposed. (Upwards of 100km winds with -28 deg C temps.) We have been diligently watching and getting weather updates from France, Germany, and Switzerland. We utilize as many meteorological resources as possible so that our guessing is minimized and a more calculated decision can be ascertained as to when we should make our way up the hill. The information that we had been originally given gave us a window for the 16th and 17th to make our summit push and we were to leave today. We decided to stay in ABC for the last two days because there were going to be 23 people ahead of us. We wanted some room to play and we wanted to make a speedier accent (3 days). In addition we want to spend as lil time above C2 as possible. But the window is too small and the winds have been nuking since last week. So... the French and the Germans are now heading down because of the deteriorating weather... Right now, outside our fabric walls, we are having a mix of snow and rain. So, we are in a hold patern and we are going to see how the winds and weather fair over the next couple of days. So that is all that we have going on right now. We are relaxing and getting "plumped" up for our attempt. It looks as though we are going be in ABC for a few more days so we will keep you all posted. Again, thanks for all of the comments... And please keep them coming...

Summit Bound

2010-05-14T01:27:00.000+05:30

This morning we awoke to the very familiar winds of the past week, but noticeably less intense. Conditions have been unstable this past week, causing our three consultant weather forecasters in Europe to really scratch their heads about how much improvement there might actually be during the May 16-17th period.

It looks like the jetstream will split North/South around Everest and Makalu as it approaches from the NW. Our weather sages think this will mean a decrease in winds from 60-110 km/hr to 20-30 km/hr from the Makalu La(7400m) to the summit(8467m), with temps warming from from -35 C to around -20 C near the summit the 16th and 17th. We will definitely appreciate the warmth and comfort of the Talus Cold Avenger masks and the Point 6 socks!

So today, the six French climbers of our group, four team sherpas, and Chhiring Dorje left for the summit push, targetting a May 16th summit. Right behind them out of BC was a party of 13 Germans with the same game plan. The four of us haqve decided to hold back our summit departure till the day after tomorrow, May 15th. Our reasons for doing this are that we want to summit on the 17th, avoid crowding(including icefall and rockfall risk) in the technical areas of the route, and since we are not using botttled oxygen, to minimize our high altitude exposure time, skipping the camp at Makalu La with a push from Camp 2 to a final staging camp at 7600m.

The waiting is hard-reading books, watching videos, and going on hikes around BC are a reminder that high mountains are not "conquered", but rather snuck up on, and that planning,preparation, and commitment are keys to a successful summit of an 8000m peak. The reality of the experience is that it's just not possible to get to the top of a peak like Makalu without climbing in at least some bad weather. Communication and trust amongst teammates, continual reassessment of risks and benefits, and conservation of energy, are all really important at this stage.

"dolendi modus timendi non item...
to suffering there is an end, to fear, none..."

Eric Meyer, M.D.

Preparation, Pain and Patience

2010-05-12T23:39:00.000+05:30

Brad Johnson writing from ABC.
We are resting in ABC, for our third day, since our last foray up the mountain to camp II and to Makalu La at 7,475m (24,500ft.) Those 3 days on the mountain were to be our last days of preparation before a summit attempt. Of course we have been preparing for the summit in many ways. Back home training and organizing, then the 9-day trek in to Advance Base Camp (ABC), all fall under the title of Preparation. A few days rest at ABC to acclimatize and then up the mountain to camp I and camp II. It all sounds so easy in our dispatches, Even a climber who knows a little about Makalu would say we are "only" climbing the "normal"or easy route up the mountain. Not something as daunting as the West Ridge. However Makalu is not a mountain that has and easy route to the summit. Yes from ABC to camp II it is non-technical glacier climbing, but each new altitude brought long, uncomfortable nights in the tent, headaches, nausea, cold temperatures and the longing for the sun to return to warm ourselves. The sun also meant we could get out and start moving or climbing again. This movement always got the blood flowing, bringing more oxygen to the brian and the releif of our headaches.

Returning to ABC for a rest, shower, good meals always helped our bodies get ready for another trip up the mountain. Usually the 2nd and 3rd nights on the mountain were not so painful as our bodies were now used to our previous highpoints.Thinkiing we would be ready to go higher we would strike off again for Makalu La, only to feel like we had lead in our legs. Our minds are asking what is wrong with our body, why is it not responding like we think it should. Maybe we had not rested enough in ABC?? and so a few return to camp II to rest and hydrate to try again the next day.

With 3 other expeditions here climbing the same route to the summit, it is usually the first group to arrive that takes on the work of finding the way up the glacier to camps I and II. In addition above camp II, where the climbing really begins, it is their decision to find the best way to climb to Makalu La.

Having been here twice before, both times our expedition was the first group on the mountain and both times we chose to climb the 2,500ft snow couloir from camp II to Makalu La. It was straightforward climbing, allowing the climber to develop a rythim of kicking each step up in the snow. This year the German group arrived first and when they began setting the route to Makalu La, instead of climbing up the couloir, they chose to climb up steep rock bands, mixed with hard ice. Why you ask? Because, that is the way people climbed it last year and the anchors and some rope were still there. Because it seemed less work to fix the route to go this way using what had been left behind.
This year when I saw that the route to Makalu La was through 2,000ft of rock bands, I felt depressed knowing how painful, tiring, and time consuming the climbing would be.

Our expedition of 6 French and 4 Americans, began our first climb to Makalu La on 2 different days. The French team, all of the Sherpas, as well as Erik Meyer, went on the first day, with 3 of the French carrying a tent and sleeping bags to the La, where they spent a cold, windless night. Erik and the Sherpas reached the La for a short visit and then descended to camp II. The other 3 French did not quite succeed in reaching the La because the climbing was too tiring and time consuming and returned to camp II to spend the night.
The following day Robbie, Chirs and Brad climbed to Makalu La, meeting the 3 French who were headed down to ABC for a rest. This day was ecceptionally calm and sunny with great views of Everest and Lhotse and countless other mountains. We reached the La between 1:pm and 2:pm, and took photos of the upper reaches of the mountain. From Makalu La to the summit is now cake walk either. There is still 3,000ft of climbing up glaciated terrain. The final 700ft. Of climbing involves steep rock and ice climbing and a narrow final ridge of snow and rock to reach a summit that can only accommodate 2 or 3 people ata time. We three stood and tried to memorize the route that we will have to climb by headlamp on our summit bid and then we made a hasty retreat to camp II, where we drank and ate. With just enough daylight left in the day we decided to descned all the way to ABC, arriving just in time for dinner, ending a very long, 12-hour day. We all felt the pain of such a push from 22,000ft to 24,500ft and back down to ABC at 18,800ft. It was good to be "home" again and off the snow, where we ate and slept to our hearts content.

We have now had 3, windy rest days in ABC. The top of the mountain is being raked by the jet stream, with winds of 70-mph or more at times and the forecast shows stronger winds to come for a few more days. Patience is now the key to our success. It is obviouse we have all lost weight. Our lips and noses are blistered and chapped. We have more than the "farmers" tan. If we took our clothes off I think we would resemble a turtle without its shell on, a brown head with white meat beneath. We have been in the mountains almost a month now, there is already talk of eating big saladas, hot pizzas, fresh pastries, getting a massage, going to the beach and wondering how much it would cost to hire a big helicopter to fly us out once we have reached the summit and returned with all our digits. Are we putting the cart before the horse too soon? Patience is the key now to wait for the weather to be in our favor.

To pass the time we have been reading and watching DVD's, we even had a coctail party yesterday afternoon and invited a few members of the other groups here to partake.
All the wine and whiskey meant for a summit celebration party ended up being consumed. I guess the party is over and it is time to focus once again.

As is usual, there is a variety of nationalities here in hopes of reaching the summit of Makalu. English, French, American, German, Italian,Turkish, Isreali, Dutch, Swedish and an Austrailian who is back for his second time after turning back 50m from the summit when he realized he had frozen his nose and his toes.

We are as prepared as we will ever be for our first summit attemp. It is going to be painfull climbing to 27,767ft, with or without oxygen and when the weather forecast shows us when the winds will dye down we will let you know when we will make our summit attempt. Until then we hope your day is as sunnny as ours but with less wind.
Have a great day,
Brad Johnson

2010-05-11T17:21:00.002+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Chris's sister again - he called this morning from Base Camp - there are really high winds so they are waiting for the weather to clear to make a summit attempt. They are deciding on an attempt possibly the 16th and 17th, though that is entirely weather dependent.

Email is currently not working. They hope to have it fixed soon, but Chris wanted me to post a brief update to let everyone know they are happy and well and waiting for the summit bid.

Be well,
Amy

Makalu La and back again

2010-05-09T22:21:00.000+05:30

Since the last posting we have gained almost 2000m in elevation, spent 2 nights at Camp 2 and achieved an altitude of 7474m at the Makalu La. My mom had asked me what the route is like up the mountain and since it is Mothers day I thought I would try and describe the route from ABC to the Makala La so that you have at least a verbose description since sending pictures has been rather difficult.

ABC (5600m) to Camp 1 (6400m) (approx 4 hrs)

When you leave ABC you head up a scree and talus field of boulders that is situatued between two ice falls or pentitentes. The ice fall has large blocks of ice and glacier coming down the mountain for about 3 km. In between the ice fall is the scree slope that we actually go up. It is a twisty path of rock sitting on top of ice, so the route changes slightly every time you go up up it. In an earlier post I talked about the two different routes to Camp 1. Now we are only using the route that traverses the Barun Glacier at the top. The 3 km of scree takes about 45 minutes and you gain about 400m in altitude jumping from rock to rock and walking on the gravel and boulders. There are a couple of vertical sections that require you to scramble up the rock walls carved out by the receding glacier but nothing that is all that tricky. Once you reach the tongue of the main glacier we switch from hiking shoes to our high altitude boots, put on our harnesses and crampons and strike out on the glacier. The glacier walk is another 3 km to Camp 1. On the glaicer we have a wanded route to help avoid some of the larger crevases and the challenging section is the last bit which is a semi vertical 250 m ice wall. There is a fixed rope here and it can create somewhat of a bottleneck if there are a lot of people moving up. Currently in ABC there are about 40 people wh are attempting to climb Makalu not including climbing sherpas. So you have to time your ascent to avoid a little crowd. Once you get to top of the ice wall you have about a 20 minute into Camp 1. Up to this point none of us have actually slept at Camp 1, we instead have chosen to go the next 2 km to get up to Camp 2 at 6700m to sleep.

Camp 1(6400m) to Camp 2(6700m) (approx 2 hours)

The route between Camp 1 and Camp 2 is a zig zagging route up through several large seracs (ice cliffs) and crevases. The route heads out to the east from Camp 1 and starts up a steep ice slope. Luckily the ice slope has had a firm layer of snow on it for the past few weeks so it does not require front pointing or even ice tools. You can use the fixed line and just dig your heals in as you ascend. At the top of the ice slope you have a choice of the low road or high road. The high road requires you to make a leap of faith of 3 ft or so over a gap in an ice bridge, but then you have a gentle rolling slope to ascend. The low road does not require a leap of faith but does send you up and down through a series of ice bridges that brings you out onto the high route. It is really about how confident you feel in your footing and making the leap. Most people seem to choose the low road after a fresh snow, but if the wind has been blowing people use the high road because it is shorter. Once you get through the series of seracs you have about an 1 hour journey going up the final 150 m to Camp 2. Camp 2 is sheltered by a series of large seracs and is protected from avalanche and rock fall. From Camp 2 you have an amazing view of Everest, Lhotse, and what seems an infinite number of mountains to the west. The sun rise and sunset from Camp 2 is truly something to see. You also have a great view of the Makalu La. La means pass in Nepali.

Camp 2 (6700m) to Camp 3 (7500m) AKA Makalu La (approx 6:30 hrs)

The crux of the climb really comes into play on this next section. The current route has us going up the rock bands to reach the Makalu La. The distance is probaly not more then 3 km but you gain a significant amount of altitude in short distance and the climbing is technical and tricky. You leave Camp 2 and cross a large snow field to attain the base of the rock bands. As you ascend through the rock bands you are going at an almost 70 degree angle through most of it. You have rock and ice mixed, covered with snow. So you have to place your feet carefully, and make sure you are always in contact with at least two points of your body. You wind your way through the lower rock band and go though the various machinations of your body to achieve the middle snow band. Once you reach the snow band you cross about 1km of snow and ice to achieve the second rock band. Here is where your mind plays tricks on you. You think you should be almost at the top of the La, but in reality you still have almost two hours of hard climbing before you top out. The route through the upper rock band presents several false summits for you as you look up. The route winds it way through the rocks and snow fields in such a way as to be constantly suprising you with a little bit further to go. The time it takes to climb this relatively short section from Camp 2 to Camp 3 is about 6:30 hours. It is vertical and the first time through you are trying to learn the rhythm of the route. Unfortunately the route is as tone deaf as I am and there is not a rhythm to be had on the route. So it makes it very tiring as you climb your way up.

Rob, Brad, and I climbed frrom Camp 2 to the Makalu La and then descended all the way to ABC in the same day taking approximately 11:30 hours to do so Eric had ascended to the Makalu La the day before and came back down and slept in Camp 2.

Yesterday we definitely were feeling the effects of such a strenous effort Currently we are watching the jet stream touch the summit of Makalu and waiting for a weather window so we can put together our summit bid. We have a tenative plan of trying to summit around the 15th of May, but that is entirely weather dependent at this point. The Jet stream is supposed to move away from us mid week. We are resting very comfortably in ABC. This morning the team of Klimek and Klinke made omeletes with cheese and mushrooms, and bacon for the team breakfast. The KK esspresso bar is open, and tonight the French have invited a few other teams over for an Appertif of wine, cheese, and a selection of meats. Last nite we watched a movie with the Andrew Kostners team with their laptop projector. So life is good and everyone is continuing to be healthy if a little tired from recent energy expedentitures.

So please send good thoughts on a weather window opening soon, give your mother a call, and be thankful for all that you have.

Happy Mothers Day to everyone, and especially to Veronica who is celebrating her first Mothers Day.

Chris Klinke, Makalu Base Camp

May 4th Update...

2010-05-04T13:59:00.000+05:30

Where to begin... What a change in biodynamics with a significant gain in altitude and a decrease in temperature. Throw in some inclement weather and dehydrated food and you can see where this blog is going... We are so excited to be resting today post our 2 days @ C2 which is @ 6,642 m. We arrived under azure skies, calm breezes,and pumped spirits. We had stunning views of Everest and Lhoatse to the west, Ama Dablam to the south, and we could see the proposed route above us. We had previously discussed that we were going to head up to Makalu La on the 2nd which would bring us up to 7,400 m That was going to be our greatest acclimitization move thus far. At 0000 hr, unbeknownst to us, a storm building to the southwest was going to slam us @ C2. And it did. I was already struggling with the unfortunate realization that I didn't have enough insulation between me and the tent floor... Those that do know me know that I don't have a surplus in that dept. I slept or tried to without plausible results. I didn't bring my Thermarest so I used coiled ropes and a thin pad to separate me from the glacier beneath me. I was able to get a couple of winks in before IT arrived and what a party THEY had. A well choreograghed blend of snow, graupel, 30 km winds, and our now unfriendly prayer flags beat our tent fly and souls for over 24 hrs. Needless to say we made no progress in elevation. Big ideas and massive progress were thwarted by this storm. The Germans, with whom we hiked up to C2 the day before, were descending (as well as team Marmot)We decided to stay... It was a decision that we felt would better our acclimitization efforts... May 2nd was spent removing snow, pacing, boiling H20, trying to develop interesting conversation, and keeping the aspirational lies to a minimum. I was certain that we were going to go to the La for the weather on May 1st was sans pariel and would continue for the next couple of days so I didn't bring cerebral stimulation devices or read-ables for we would be climbing.... Need to rethink that one!!! Being couped up was brutal, for the mind can travel to locations where not even the bravest Navy Seals would be dispatched... Mountaineers need to be continously stimulated and if not, read the warning label before opening. :) so on the morning of the 3rd, it was determined that we were going to head to ABC to get out of the weather for 24-48 hrs. Collective realizations post trip to C2... Bring your Thermarest, we don't like dehydrated food, bring tunes and something to reign in your thoughts IE: books, Sudoku, etc... It is mid morning on the 4th and we are enjoying some quiet time. We all slept SO well and it's nice to recoup. Tomorrow we are planning to head back up to C2 and start again. We are still pumped and looking forward to making progress again. As stated, we love hearing from you all, so keep the comments coming!!! We appreciate it.
Robbie, ABC

Sitting at 21,790

2010-05-02T15:19:00.000+05:30

We are currently waiting at Camp 2 for a break in the weather to go up the Makalu La. Snow and wind are oour constant friends. Hopfully our better friends Sun and stable air will visit soon.

Chris Klinke , Camp 2, Makalu

Then and Now

2010-04-30T11:32:00.000+05:30

Hello this is Brad Johnson writng. Today, April 30th, is our last rest day at basecamp before going up the mountain for the next 4 days or so. Our intent is on reaching Makalu La at 7400m (24,400ft,) and spending the night there for our final acclimatization bid. Then returning to basecamp for a good rest and waiting for summit weather.

The last time I was here was in 1989 and 1992. Both of those expeditions were with 5 other friends, no Sherpa support and only one other expedition on the moujntain. On each of those trips we did not have the luxury of heated dining tents and satelite weather forecasts to pinpoint our summit windows Instead we relied on our altimiters to watch for the oncoming of high pressure and guessed that it was time to go for the summit. In 1989 we had guessed corrrectly but were stopped at 8100m (26,600ft) by dangerous slab avalanche conditions. In 1992, we waited one day too long to depart basecamp for our summit bid and missed the summit by one day, again reaching 8,100m but turned around due to high winds.

I have witnessed big changes since 1992, not only in the technology world and what people bring to basecamp, but also in the journey to basecamp. On the trek from Tumlingtar to basecamp in 1992 the small hamlets of Num, Sedua and Tashigoan, consisted of 3 - 6 houses, now they are villages of 15 - 20 houses and hundreds of people.
Beyond Tashigoan there was nothing but trail and difficult places to camp. Now there are tea houses and cleared out areas in the forrest to camp.

The biggest change I have seen is that advanced basecamp is located 2 hours walk further up the glacier and several thousand feet higer from where we camped in 1992. The glaciers have receeded not only in length but in depth as well, by as much as 300ft lower in depth.

In 1992 the glacier was smoother and we walked on hard snow, this year the mountain is very dry and we are walking on white ice and sometimes blue water ice on the glacier.
Camp 2 is still in the same place we used in 1992.

I am anxious to reach the Makalu La and see what the upper part of the mountain to the summit looks like from there.

Thanks for keeping track of us on our blog and sending us your thoughts and good cheers.
If you don't hear from us for the next 4 days it is because we are out for a new adventure.
Have a great day and big hugs to you all.

ABC to Camp 2

2010-04-29T15:51:00.000+05:30

The day started sunny and bright, we left camp with loads of food, sleeping gear, and great attitudes. Chhiring had left at about 6:30 am to put in a new route from depot camp to Camp 1. At this point we have two separate depot camps. Depot camp is where we store our light weight hiking boots, our harnesses, and ice axes. No matter what Depot Camp we use it is always a pleasure to arrive. It signifies a transition to actually getting on the glacier and moving up the mountain. The route up to Camp 1 requires crossing the Barun glacier, keeping an eye out for new crevasses that might have opened up and being aware of your surruoundings.

There has been some debate about whether it is easier to climb rock and scree, or hike ploddingly up the glacier to Camp 1. I prefer the rock ands scree because it allows me to put off putting on my heavy mountaineering boots until almost 6200m (high depot camp) versus at about 5900m (low depot camp). The time differential is not that significant, but energy savings is the debate. I like hiking on the rock and jumping from one rock to the next, other prefer to french step up the glacier. I think my preference is ingrained in me from spending my summers in northern michigan at my cabin, which is surrounded by rock.

As we climbed up the mountain yesterday we saw the weather changoing with a sun dog and high mares tails lining the sky. We left AC about 8:15am in the morning and after a leisurely stroll up reached Camp 1 at about 12:15pm. The wind had started to pick up and some light snow was blowing across the top of the Barun glacier and we decided to push on to Camp 2. The route up to Camp 2 takes you up a moderate ice fall, with ice ramps and glacial walls all around you. As we were ascending up to Camp 2 the winds really started to pick up with grapple blowiing and hitting us. Grapple is similar to hail, but it is snow. I can speak from personal experience and say that it hurts when it hits you.

We reached Camp 2 at about 2:30pm and dropped our loads in preparation of spending two nights there when the weather clears. This is a big part of our acclimitization plan that includes us climbing the Makalu La and returning to Camp 2. After that we will decide if we will spend a night above Camp 2 prior to going to the summit. Our French teammates spent two nights at Camp 1 and returned this morning.

We returned to ABC at about 6:30pm last nite, exhausted and happy. We had a fantastic dinner with spaghetti, french fries, veggies, and a fruit cup for desert. This morning I woke up at about 5:30am, went in to the mess tent, and switched the tanks on the heater. Yes, Klinke and Klimek fixed the heater. What an amazing addition to our lives. I made a cup of espresso and wrote in my journal until 7 am, when I did the radio call with the French who were still up at Camp 1. The snow we were expecting did not materialize, although they got about 10cm at Camp 1 and we got about 3 cm at ABC. Then I opened the Espresso bar and made Café Latte's for my teammates in bed. Then since it is a rest day we took a leisurely brunch when the French arrived into ABC. It was then clean up time. The sun was out and there was no wind, so we lined up for showers. It is amazing how a little thing like a shower can make such a difference in your personal attittude. Some people did their laundry others read, then we had lunch. With Sandrine from the French Team providing Foie Gras for the team. What a treat.

Life is great at ABC and we are waiting on the weather gods to provide us with a clear picture of what will happen next.

Chris Klinke, Makalu ABC

April 27th mid morning... ABC

2010-04-27T16:59:00.000+05:30

Good day all, Robbie writing today the 27th of April and it is a windy/chilly morn. Temps are in the high teens (-8 deg C) right now and we received a light dusting of snow. It is supposed to get a lil' warmer before the weather changes. Scuttlbutt around the camps pertains to a weather pattern that is not in our favor for the upcoming three days. Snow and higher winds from the NW are to come in this evening. We we are trying to plan for tomorrows move up to Camp 2 with this in mind. Yesterday was stunning for mountaineering!!!! Too bad we weren't acclimitized for a summit bid for there was 0 wind and Mediterranean skies til 1100 hr... Basically we were climbing thru the pages of National Geographic... We were all able to move efficiently and confidently to camp 1 and all were feeling well. Camp 1 is @ 21,000' & change... It is situated on a spectacular bench that over looks the upper 2/3s of the route... There is a stunning couloir that we will ascend that feeds us to a summit plateau that then leads us to the summit ridge. The climbing yesterday was all glaciated with a section of 100 meters of 65 deg blue ice as well. There were 4 other expeditions ascending /descending which made for rush hr traffic at the fixed lines... Plans are to have a couple of us set up another fixed line system to alleviate the clusters @ the toe/head of the lines just below Camp 1. Highlights are as follows... Heavy laughter with the French (quite the eclectic group of individuals), stunning 360 deg views, route finding discussions and tactics for how we wish to climb the upper mountain, gourmet high altitude pizza, the Klinke/Klimek morning lattes, and lastly,assisting with some altiude related medical issues... Right now we are reconfiguring the mess hall in anticipation of the storm that is coming in. Thanks to all that have written back to us... It is always a pleasure to hear from our friends and loved ones... Keep it coming.

At Makalu ABC

2010-04-25T17:00:00.000+05:30

We arrived at Makalu ABC after a gruelling climb up from Base Camp. It was a sad departure from Base Camp given that Ann, Jim, and Leslie were leaving us to head back to a warmer climate. They had trekked all the way up to 4650m with us and it we were all sad to see them depart. I know Jim and Leslie are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their nephew so hopefully it coincides with them having access to a phone or internet.

When I say it was a gruelling climb up to ABC, I mean it was steep, filled with boulders, and a lot of scree and glacial slopes to walk up and down. We gained almost 1000m in the trek over the course of about 5 hours. But we were rewarded with views of Lhotse star, Lhotse, and Everest as we went up the valley.

Yesterday we spent just chilliing, getting our facilitiies in order. We have an amazing double walled dining tent, but unfortunately our heater for it got damaged. So we are dining at ambient temperatures which is good training for higher on the mountain. We have a stone kitchen area with a tarp for a roof. It is always a great place to go to get a cup of tea and a little warmth. We have a shower tent set up, 2 toliet tents, and then we each have our own tent at base camp. I have mine set up with my Valandre Thor bag which is keeping me toasty at night, but unfortunately my sleeping mat has a hole in it and it keeps going flat during the night. Despite the best efforts of everyone we cannot find the leak.....

We started today with a Puja cermemony conducted by Chhiring Dorje. As Chhiring said himself, he is not a lama, but he knows the gods to pray to. So we sought the blessing of Makalu to tread safely upon her, and we were rewarded with a bird landing on our altar which is a sign of good luck and a blessinig. Then we spent the rest of the day getting gear ready to go up to the mountain. Keep in mind we had a total of 120 porters each carrying up to 50lbs of gear. So we have almost 6000lbs of equipment and food that needed to be sorted and tagged for the different camps. Chhiring has a great crew that was able to get it the group gear done quickly while the rest of us took some time during the day to get it done.

On Monday morning we will do a carry up to camp 1 at 6400 or 6800m depending on how we feel. Then return to Base camp for a rest day on Tuesday.

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home,

Chris Klinke, Makalu ABC

2010 Base Camp Oddyssey

2010-04-22T17:51:00.001+05:30

Seven days of trekking has brought us from the hot lowlands of the Makalu district at 600 meters through rainforest, cloud forest thick with rhododendron in bloom, on up through the subalpine, and finally into the glaciated high alpine region of Makalu Base Camp at 5000 meters. We are psyched to be here!

Our team is healthy and in great spirits, though the day before we learned that one of our advance kitchen staff dropping off supplies at Advance Base Camp (ABC) was being heli-evac'd with pneumonia as a chopper overflew us in the lower Barun Valley. He is now doing well back in Kathmandu.

We are resting today, allowing our bodies to engage in the physiologic process of acclimatization. Lots of changes are taking place in the days and weeks spent at altitude. The rate and depth of breathing increases, the kidneys increase their excretion of bicarbonate ion which slightly acidifies the blood, stimulating respiration. The bone marrow is prompted to start cranking out more oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Blood flow to the brain and lungs rises enormously.

Tomorrow we will make our way up to ABC at 5600m. It's important not to go too high too fast. The symtoms of Acute Mountain Sickness (headache, poor apetite, difficulty sleeping, shortness of breath) are early warning signs that it's time to rest or even descend. If ignored, they can quickly lead to the serious complications of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema(HAPE) or High Altitude Cerebral Edema(HACE). So far, only mild headache has been experienced by a few of our members.

As physician for the team, there have been daily medical and minor surgical issues I've encountered within our team, the porter staff, and villagers without access to medical care. I'm grateful to Adventure Medical Kits for their generous equipment support.

This afternoon we've been playing on the slackline(fortunately no injuries!), and tonight we're invited to the Ukrainian camp for some social time and to check out their sauna which they are firing up. Namaste all!

Eric Meyer, Makalu Base Camp

2010-04-20T17:11:00.002+05:30

One Day out from Basecamp

2010-04-20T16:52:00.001+05:30

We have been moving at a steady pace to Makalu Basecamp. We are camping tonight at about 3950m. Tomorrow we move up to base camp at an elevation of 4870m. We are camping at a little tea hut and I have no idea how to spell the name of where we are at although my best guess is Tadosa. There are waterfalls surrounding us and prompting us all to think about coming back in the winter to do some amazing ice climbs. Eric and Robbie have been been treating a porter a day with a mix of the Adventure Medical Kit and personal medical equipment. Most of the injuries are just minor issues like smashed fingers and wounds that have not healed.

Our days are predictable, we get up at 5:30am with Bed Tea and wash water, eat breakfast at 6:30am and start trekking by 7:30am. The weather has also been predictable. We have sun in the morning until about 11:00am then we get clouds moving in and creating a damp atmosphere and obscuring the amazing views that can be seen in the Makalu Barun National Park. Then we get a few light showers as we are setting up camp. A little rain in the night and then clear by about 8:00pm, so that we can see the stars occassionally.

I need to apologize for a little technical difficulty that we had on the blog. For some reason my computer decided that it liked the year 2005 much better then 2010 and decided to send the last two dispatches under that date. So I am not sure that they have been posted. But my wonderful sister is working to fix that problem for us.

Chris Klinke, Tadosa

2010-04-19T19:23:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,
This is Amy again -I just spoke with Chris - he sounds very happy - so apparently the new posts have been going to 2005 - I have to figure out how to change the dates on this site, and don't have the time to figure it out now - there is a photo - so if you get a chance, go back in time to 2005 to see the photo of everyone -

here are two of the posts that have gone up!

Hello to all, Robbie writing to you on the 16th of April from Seduwa and all is great!!! We have meshed well with our new French friends and we are traveling with great strength and bright smiles. The Nepali children have have helped us along the way and have provided us with some well deserved entertainment... Aside of a lil delay getting out of KTM we finally are hiking in some of the more remote areas of Nepal. We are in the Makalu/ Barun Valley and today was the most strenuous day of the trek so far for we had had to actually hike. Yep, we didn't have jeep support, no really today was spectacular... We are definitely in the thick of the Nepali culture... Broken english is par for the trek and the remoteness and the surreal landscape adds to the journeys mystical milieu... An interesting mix of tropical and high alipine flora.... Thick cummulus clouds obscure the high mountains though for a brief moment we were able to glimpe the lower South Face of Makalu from above Num. We have been blessed with no ailments aside of some low grade Gi issues and a loving leech that afixed itself to Leslie's index finger..Iodine works well for leech removal!!! We are so Psyched that all is going so well and we are hoping that our great fortunes continue for the rest of the expedition...

at 12:55 PM 0 comments Links to this post

new post -

In The Du

Just a quick update to make sure my sat phone and electronics are in working order before going out into the mountains. I had a great flight over, slept soundly, and ready for the days ahead. Today is all about checking the list for the fourth time .

at 5:25 AM 0 comments Links to this post

2010-04-19T18:12:00.000+05:30

Hello Everyone,

just a quick update from Chris's sister, Amy- I received a voicemail from Chris this morning. He indicated he did post an update, but it apparently did not stick - he sounded good and from the schedule it looks like they are still trekking their way to base camp and should be there by the 26th.

hope this finds everyone well,
best,
Amy

2010-04-13T15:35:00.000+05:30

The team has all arrived and it has been a whirlwind of activity. Today we went for a blessing with the Lama Rinpoche, where we received the traditional Kata, a hearty blessing, and an amulet that provides for protection from rock fall, avalanches, and protects the wearer from bad things happening. It seems to work because a gust of wind came up during lunch and knocked an umbrella over, the way the umbrella fell almost took out Robbie because he had taken his off to jump in the pool. We were told that we would have an auspicious climb. After that we came back and finished our packing. I believe it was about the 8th time repacking for me. Then we headed out to the Ministry of Tourism for our briefing, we were introduced to our Liasion Officer and handed our permit in a little ceremony.

Now we have a few hours of downtime and then we head out for a group dinner with the entire team including the sherpas. Tomorrow we will fly out from Kathmandu to Tumlingtar, where we will jump in jeeps for an 1.5 hour drive and set up camp. The next day we will drive until the road becomes unpassable. As Chhiring said today, when the truck starts slipping going up we will start walking.

Attached is a team portrait of the American Team taken at dinner last night, and a picture of Eric Meyer with the Rinpoche.

This will be last update from civilization, I have tested the satellite phone connection and it appears to be working. The goal will be to send an update about every two days.

Chris Klinke, Kathmandu

2010-04-11T21:58:00.003+05:30

The whole team is almost in Kathmandu. Brad Johnson arrived today, Ann Wagner as well. The French Team arrived yesterday, and Eric and Robbie are in the air making their way to Nepal.

I have had a few new experiences this time around in Kathmandu. First and probably the scariest thing I have ever done was ride on the back of a motorcycle( For Cris and Beth, yes the Bitch Seat) through Kathmandu. There appears to be as many of motor vehicles in Kathmandu as people and only about 1/8th of the required roads to accommodate them all. Imagine driving through Chicago with no stop lights, no police, and a mere suggestion on the rules of the road. Riding on the back of a motorcycle while navigating this makes life very interesting for all concerned. Helmets are only required for the driver of the motorcycle. Therefore I had to beg to get a second helmet and the Sherpa’s all laughed at me. I figure that they think if you are going to need it, it will not do any good anyway. So I basically jumped on, closed my eyes, and prayed that I would survive. I actually think climbing a mountain is a safer past time.

The second new experience has been doing long distance night rides on a bike. I was invited out to a few amazing dinners with my friend, Billi, her friends Sam, Maske, Richard, and Stephanie. Maske is an amazing cook, and the meal was simply outstanding. But the real challenge came riding my bike home at 11:30 pm at night without a head lamp. There are no street lamps and the roads are very similar to single track mountain bike trails with potholes, various posts scattered in the middle of the road like big tree roots, and oncoming traffic that sometimes have their headlights on....

Oh and I watched a motorcycle almost achieve a hat trick. It took out two cyclists and himself in quick move trying to dart between the two cyclist. Everyone appeared to have walked away.

The conclusion to this entry is that I have improved my mountain biking skills, reaffirmed my dislike for riding on the back of a motorcycle and am looking forward to get into the mountains.

2010-04-07T15:04:00.000+05:30

Well, I am back in the land of sounds, smells, and climbers, although at this point they are not responsible for the smells of Kathmandu. Give it a few months and it will be all their fault. I have been meeting wtih Chhiring Dorje and his amazing crew gettting all the last minute preparations ready to go. I have been able to meet his family and share a few meals. I have also been staying with my great friend Billi Beirling. She bikes around Kathmandu interviewing all of the teams heading out to the mountains for Miss Elizabeth Hawley who has been chronicling 8000 meter peaks since Sir Edmund Hillary's time. It is really quite amazing the information they provide on an ongoing basis.

The rest of the team will be coming in over the next week and we will be heading out to the Makalu on the 14th of April. I am not sure if my satellite email is working yet, I have tried it a few times and emails are not seeming to go out. So hopefully I can get that resolved so we can keep everyone in touch.

Chris Klinke, Reporting from Kathmandu

2010-04-01T08:15:00.000+05:30

The expedition season is upon us and all over the world, climbers are packing their down equipment, climbing gear, food, and luxury items (toothbrushes, shower bags, and chocolate). The list is being checked twice and most times thrice to ensure that nothing is left behind.

The airlines flying into Kathmandu are dreading the onslaught of overweight luggage, and the climbers are trying to figure out how to make their baggage fit the weight restrictions that are so arbitrary with airlines the world over. If you are coming from the USA and flying a USA based airline it is restricted to two 50 lbs bags, if you are flying an international carrier out of the USA it is two 70lbs bags. If you are coming from Europe you have one 32 kg bag that you are allowed to bring with no charge, and that is true for most of the world. It makes layovers and delays a joy because you now have to learn the new restrictions on your baggage. But all the challenges of preparation are worth it because you get to go pursue what you love.

I am no different I am getting my gear into place and rechecking twice, about to start the thrice. I keep going through it and trying to figure out if I can leave something behind, or should I bring it just in case. A great example is a spare ascender in case someone loses one, or a spare harness in case one breaks, or a spare length of webbing in case we need a really big belay point.

We now have 3 amazing people joining us for the Trek into Makalu Base Camp. I am honored and thrilled that my dear friend Ann Wagner is joining us. She climbed with me in India and is one of the people I credit with giving the lust for the mountains. In addition we have Jim and Leslie Kendrik joining us who are traveling around the world on their honeymoon. They heard from their friend Rob that their was a possibility of trekking into Makalu and they re-routed their tickets to join us. We will have an incredible time trekking into Base Camp.

I have to send a few Thank You's, First to Chhiring Dorje and Rolwaling Excursions for all the fantastic work he has done in making this trip happen. Their is a link to his website on the home page of the blog if you have an interest in doing something unique in Nepal.

Second one is to all the Sponsors who are making this trip happen and providing us with amazing equipment to use: Valandre, Adventure Medical Kits, Talus Outdoor Products, Point 6, Dermatone, and Steripen.

Please visit the newly created Team Page and Sponsor Page!

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home!

Valandre 2010 Makalu Expedition

2010-03-10T00:51:00.000+05:30

Follow the team on their 2010 Makalu Expedition!

The team will be arriving over various dates in Kathmandu from April 5th to April 11th. We will then depart for the mountain on April 14th, 2010 for the trek into base camp. I have attached an itinerary below. I will be posting regular dispatch updates throughout the climb based on satellite connectivity.

Team Members:

Brad Johnson
Robbie Klimek
Chris Klinke
Eric Meyer
Chhiring Dorje

Makalu Facts:

Elevation (meters) 8,462, (feet) 27,765

Other names/spellings: Makalufeng. The name of the mountain was probably taken from the Sanskrit word Maha-Kala, which means Big Black and is a by-name of Shiva - one of the most important gods of Hinduism. Shiva is sometimes an evil, cruel destroyer but at other times he tends to be gentle and kind-hearted. The mountain has another name in the local dialect - Kumba karna, which means The Giant.

Elevation (meters) 8,462, (feet) 27,765

Location: Khumbu Region, Himalaya, The summit ridge is the demarcation point indicating the border between Nepal on the Southern side and Tibet to the North.

Latitude 27º 53' N Longitude 87º 05' E

First Ascent: J. Franco's French Expedition, the climbers Jean Couzy and Lionel Terray, 1955

Convenient Center(s): Hille, Nepal via Dharan Bazar

Makalu is an isolated peak, located just 14 miles east of Mount Everest (8848 m.). Its size alone is impressive, but its perfect pyramid structure with four sharp ridges makes this mountain all the more dramatic.

Days	Date	Activities	Accommodation
01	10.04.2010	Arrival at KTM and Transfer to Hotel	Hotel
02	11.04.2010	Preparation Day	Hotel
03	12.04.2010	Group Briefing at Tourism Board	Hotel
04	13.04.2010	Preparation Day	Hotel
05	14.04.2010	KTM to Tumlingtar by Flight and drive by jeep 1.30hr to Khanbari	Camping
06	15.04.2010	Khanbar to Kuwapani (drive by Jeep 3.30 hrs) after that trek to Num	Camping
07	16.04.2010	Trek to Siduwa	Camping
08	17.04.2010	Trek to Tashi Gao	Camping
09	18.04.2010	Rest at Tashi Gao	Camping
10	19.04.2010	Trek to Khogma	Camping
11	20.04.2010	Trek to Numbur	Camping
12	21.04.2010	Trek to Yangle	Camping
13	22.04.2010	Trek to Jag	Camping
14	23.04.2010	Trek Makalu BC	Camping
15	24.04.2010	Rest at Makalu BC	Camping
16	25.04.2010	Trek to ABC	Camping
17	26.04.2010	Climbing start	Camping
47	26.05.2010	Climbing End	Camping
48	27.05.2010	Makalu BC	Camping
49	28.05.2010	Trek back to Jag ( Yangle Kharka)	Camping
50	29.05.2010	Trek back to Khogma (Dobato)	Camping
51	30.05.2010	Trek back to Tashi gao	Camping
52	31.05.2010	Trek back to Num by jeep 3.30 hrs	Camping
53	01.06.2010	Trek back to Kuwapani and drive by Jeep (3.30hr) to Khanbari	Camping
54	02.06.2010	Khanbari to Tumlingtar drive by jeep 1.30 hrs and Flight to KTM	Hotel
55	03.06.2010	Rest at KTM	Hotel
56	04.06.2010	Departure Sponsor

Final Update

2008-10-05T21:25:00.001+05:30

Here is the final installment in the K2 Blog. I am attaching links to a couple of articles that have been done, written by people I know. The facts are pretty much in order, and they both present a good overview.

The first article is by Michael Kodas, writing for Outside. Outside decided to put the article online and I am not sure if it will be in the magazine.

http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200809/k2-disaster-eleven-climbers-die-1.html

The second article is by Matthew Power, and will appear in the November issue of Men’s Journal.

http://www.mensjournal.com/k2

I contributed photo’s for both pieces. I also believe Rock and Ice will be doing a piece, but I have not heard of the publication date.

Thank you for your support during the climb and after. As with anything in life, you never do it alone. You might be on the mountain by yourself, but there is a team that is supporting you. The encouragement, thoughts, and prayers I received during the climb were absolutely essential to my success, and my decision to turnaround.

The question I keep receiving is what is next? That is a great question and one I hope to have an answer for soon.

Climb Hard, Climb High, COME HOME!!!

Chris

The Summit Push and Rescue

2008-08-16T13:11:00.000+05:30

NOTE: ALL OF THE CONTENT IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT

August 1, 2008

All I can do is share with you my perspective of the events that happened, and my role within them. My intention is not criticize or be critical of anyone, in fact I hold all the people who were involved in the deepest respect. The last that most of you know we were on a summit attempt.

Our target summit date was July 31st, but we were delayed in Camp 2 by high winds. On July 30th on the way to camp 3 I was hit in the helmet by a chunk of ice that stunned me for a moment and perhaps knocked me out. I am not sure. The winds were really bad at camp 3 as well, and I do not think that many people had a good nights sleep. Our summit team which consisted of Fredrik Strang, Eric Meyer, Chirring Dorje, and myself left Camp 3 on the morning of July 31st to head up to camp 4. After about an hour of hiking on the way to camp 4 I started to have a headache and felt it was best I turn around and see if the headache would go away. I went back down to camp 3 passing the Norwegian team on my descent and crawled into our tent at Camp 3. There I drank a liter of water and slept for two hours. Upon waking up I felt great and headed up to camp 4 and made it there in three hours.

It was about 2pm in the afternoon and we started to get our water and food ready for our summit bid. The plan was that the lead team would leave at 10 pm and would start fixing the line in the bottleneck. Most of the members of the lead team were planning on being on oxygen except for a few people. Meanwhile, our team would and leave approximately 3 hours behind the fixing team to begin our summit bid. We would not be using oxygen although we had a bottle with us in case of emergency. So our original plan was to leave at 1am and start our summit bid. We figured it would take us approximately 5 hours to reach the bottleneck traverse section, putting us there at 6 am as the sun was hitting it. Then it would take two hours to traverse the bottleneck, and an additional 5 hours to reach the summit. Putting our upward push to the summit at 12 hours. The descent we figured would take approximately 6 hours. Putting our total summit day at 18 hours, and getting us back into camp 4 safely before dark. The lead team did not depart C4 until almost 12:30 am and there appeared to be confusion surrounding the equipment used to fix the route. At this time we decided a 1 am start was not a good idea for us and we pushed it back to 3 am. We heard the lead team leave, and Chirring Dorje decided that his help would be needed in securing the route and he decided to leave with the lead team. At approximately 1:30 am we heard several other teams leaving, we assumed it was the Dutch and Korean teams leaving. We also heard another team leave around 2am and we assumed it was the Norwegians. We decided to push back our departure time again because we did not want to get stuck in a line behind all the teams. We finally departed camp 4 at 3:30am. It was a risk because even if everything went perfect we would not be returning to camp 4 until after dark at 10 pm. But I was figuring that we still would be able to start and finish the bottleneck before dark. Which to us was the most critical aspect of the climb.

Even though I was not on O2, I was feeling strong and making good progress up to the bottleneck. I reached the other teams in approximately 3 hours at the start of the Bottleneck Colouir. At this point I turned around and saw that Fred and Eric had turned around and headed back to camp 4. I still felt good about my summit chances and I was not in radio contact with Eric and Fred. I was within speaking of distance of Chirring. Chirring and I were both carrying radios for the team. Eric and Fred carried Sat Phones. Since Eric and Chirring had been climbing together and Fred and I had been climbing together we figured this insured our ability to communicate with the others. Since they had departed together and gave no signs that they were in any distress I continued on my way.

When I had reached the other group, I realized that there were some logistical issues with rope and I started sending up rope from the lower and gentler slopes up to where it was needed. I tried to count the line up of climbers ahead of me and realized that it was over 20 climbers. The line was at standstill and I waited for almost 2 hours. At this point the sun had come out and it was beautiful and hot day at 8100m. I unzipped my down suit and took off the top and wrapped it around my waist. I continued to climb for about another 45 minutes. It was at this point that I realized a few things. One that the line of climbers was not moving in an expedient manner towards the summit, and that the there was no way I was going to make my 5 hour cutoff to be in the bottleneck. I looked at my watch and realized that it was almost 10 am. Much to late to be able to cross the bottleneck, reach the summit and return to the bottleneck before dark. I also started to have a slight headache, which I attributed to the sun beating down on us. At this point, I made the decision to turn around.

I believe I was around 8150m. My upward progress was not happening because the line of climbers in front of me was waiting for the line to be fixed. I turned around and started heading back to camp 4. On the descent my headache grew worse and started to become a pounder. I continued to descend as quickly and safely as I could. I reached C4 about 11:30 am and talked with Eric our team doctor and made the decision it would be best for me to continue to descend. At about this time we heard from Roberto that there was an accident and that he saw someone fall. It was about another 20minutes when we learned that a Serbian climber had fallen. Eric and Fred took off after we received a report on the radio that the Serbian was moving to see if they could be of assistance.

I continued to hydrate in the tent and started to prepare for descent in case I had AMS. Roberto with the Italian team also was having some issues and we decided to descend together for safety. Fred and Eric meanwhile were continuing the ascent to the fallen Serbian climber. Who was 2-3 hours above camp 4. Roberto was packing, so I watched the slow progress of the climbers up the mountain. At this point it was about 1 pm and there were one or two climbers who had completed the traverse. Two Serbian climbers had descended to help the fallen climber and one Pakistani high altitude porter (HAP) had also descended to help. The remaining climbers continued on their ascent to the summit. The line through the bottleneck seemed huge and choked with climbers with dangerous seracs overhanging the route.

About 1:30pm Roberto and I took off to start our descent. We descended to camp 3. At the midway point I looked up and saw that the line of climbers was still in the bottleneck and commented to Roberto that it was taking them a really long time and that there was no way they would be back to that point before dark. I continued down to camp 2 and met with Mike Farris as I was descending. He offered me some water and informed me that the Serbian was dead and that the Hap had fallen to his death as they were trying to lower the body. I was shocked at the sudden loss of life, but it was merely foreshadowing for what was to come about in the next 24 hours.

I continued my descent with the plan of reaching ABC before dark where Deedar our cook was going to meet me with tea and food and help me return to base camp after the long descent over very technical terrain. I reached ABC at about 7:30pm, where I changed boots, drank tea, and packed up some gear to return to BC. We reached BC at about 9:30-10:00pm.

Where I met with Chris Warner and learned that Chirring had not yet returned from the summit. I am not sure if Chris told me about Rolf (Norwegian) falling to his death or not. But I know I learned that shortly after arriving in BC. It was not until later that I learned that it was an avalanche that had taken Rolf and also severed the fixed line within the Bottleneck. I decided it would be best to wait up and see when Chirring returned to C4. At about 11:30pm we received a radio call from Chirrring stating that the fixed lines had been severed in the bottleneck. He stated that he was going to continue down the mountain to C4.

I radioed Eric and Fred and asked them to stick their heads outside the tent and see how many lights they could see. They said that there were at least 9 above the bottleneck that they could see. I asked them to start searching c4 for rope and oxygen and to see if it would be possible to mount a rescue with rope and supplies to the bottleneck. There did not appear to be any rope in c4 at that time. In fact no additional rope was to be had at C4.

I and Roeland (Dutch started having a discussion about what would be the best course of action to get more supplies up the mountain. )I tried to raise the Singaporeans at C3 but there radio was off. At this point we were in the tent with the Koreans and also monitoring their broadcasts. We were asking them if they had any additional rope at C4 and they did not, and if they had oxygen which they did. At about 12:30 am Chirring radioed and said that he was in the couloir descending to C4. I radioed Eric and Fred at camp 4 and told them to start brewing. We received a radio call at 1:30 pm saying that Chirring and Pemba were approaching C4. We did not know that Little Pasang and Korean Chirring were also with them at this point. Roland was anxious about his other teammates. At about 2:00 pm we received word that Cas was approaching C4 and we told him to knock on the American tent for hot water. He went to his own tent and started brewing to await the arrival of the others. At about 3:30am Roland received a message from Holland saying that Wilco, Marco, and Gerard were Bivying above the bottleneck together for the night. At this point I could no longer keep my eyes open and went to bed for a few hours. I awoke the next morning at 5 am and woke Roland up and started to try and figure out where everyone was on the mountain.

August 2, 2008
Roeland and I went to the Korean Tent to see if they had any news from anyone on the mountain. At that point there was no new information. At about 7 am we received word from Holland that Wilco and Marco were on the move and descending through the Bottleneck together.(This later turned out to false) This was received via a satellite phone call. I decided that we needed to set up a Base of operations for what apparently was going to be an extended Rescue operation on the mountain and we picked the Dutch Base Camp because it was Central in the camp. We set up several radios to monitor all the different frequencies that groups were operating their radios. We radioed to Pemba and our team and told them that Wilco and Marco were descending. They were looking for them to come down, but clouds had started to descend and visibility was not as high as the day before. Earlier we had received an update there was still 8 people above the bottleneck.

Around 10 am we received we word that Marco and Wilco were through the bottleneck and were continuing down the mountain. Somehow the two of them got separated and the next message we received said that he was below camp 4 in a colouir and moving south at about 7800m. My times times still need to be confirmed so that I can insure accuracy on the sequence of events, but they are roughly accurate. The next significant movement came as two Korean sherpa's were going up to try and help those stuck in the coulior. They found Marco lying in the snow. Pemba and Cas went up to help Marcos down. He found Marco lying in the snow at about 2:30pm. He got Marco up and moving and as he did so a chunk of ice came flying down and hit Marco in the back of the head. Pemba was able to keep Marco moving, but he also observed that in the avalanche debris was Big Pasang, Jumiq, and a Korean Climber. Pemba informed us that there was a large serac avalanche that had happened and that three people were dead. He tried to raise Wilco on the Sat Phone and reached him. Wilco said he was okay but that he was at 7800m according to his watch and still moving south. At base camp we are radioing and trying to figure out where the remaining members are at this point. At this point we had 5 dead confirmed by eyewitness. 3 that we have no word of where they are on the mountain, and 3 we know where they are in theory but not updates on their condition, 1 that is being transported to C4, and 1 lost on the mountain but in contact.

Roeland and I start gathering people together to figure out who is in a condition to go back up the mountain. At about 5:45 pm the clouds lift and I am able to spot Wilco on the mountain on the south face underneath a snow coulior. I call everyone over and we confirm that it looks like Wilco but because we do not have direct contact with him we cannot verify that it is him. We radio Pemba and Cas at C4 and they start preparing to descend the Spanish route to try and intercept and signal him over to the correct route. Meanwhile our team is arriving in C2 and descending as a group. We continue to watch Wilco through the telescope until it is dark and start getting updates on Marco's condition. It appeared that Marco might have frostbite and a laceration on the back of the head. We start trying to figure out how many people are still in C4. We have 6 Koreans and 2 Korean Sherpas. Pemba and Cas are leaving for C3 on the Spanish Route, and they’re two Italian HAP's with Marco.

The Koreans state that they will leave in the morning with the remaining members and Marco and his HAP. It is from the Koreans that we learn that two other members of their team are dead. This is about 7 pm. We also get confirmation on the two Sherpa's and 1 Korean that Pemba reported earlier in the day. We still have no word on the Frenchman, Gerard, and Karim. At this point we start watching the descending headlamps of Cas and Pemba coming down from Camp 4 and we are trying to communicate the last known position of Wilco on the south face. We also start trying to formulate a plan for finding the other members who are not accounted for at this point .I dispatch our cook Deedar to head up to ABC with Bashir our waiter to help our team descend. Chris Warner also goes up to ABC to await their arrival. The American team from Broadpeak also shows up to help at some point, which consists of Andy, Chuck, and Dave. Our team arrives into Base camp at about 2:30am in the morning. Shortly before they arrive Pemba radio's me and tells me that Cas has not come into Camp 3. This was the first that I knew Pemba and Cas were not descending together. Pemba meanwhile tells me that he can hear Wilco's sat phone ringing but it is out on an avalanche prone slope and he does not feel safe crossing in the dark. I concur with his assessment and encourage him to get some sleep. At which point the lights in C3 go off for the night. I stay up with our team until 4 am and then await the arrival of dawn to see if I can see Wilco on the snow slope again and possibly Cas.

Aug 3rd, 2008

At about 5:15am there is enough light and I spot Wilco about 300 meters to the west of C3 and 100 m above. Jose from the Serbian Team spots Cas descending the fix lines above C3. We try and awake Pemba but his radio is off at this point so we simply wait for Cas to reach C3 and wake Pemba. When Cas reaches the tent we start radioing them again. We ask them to start yelling Wilco's name and when they do we see Wilco respond by standing up. We start directing them to his location because they still are not in line of sight of each other. Wilco is proceeding across the snow slope above the Serac by punching his fists into the snow, and front pointing across the slope. He is moving in the direction of Cas who has started out across the snow slope. Pemba is getting dressed to go out and help him. They come together about 150 m from C3 and we get a radio call that Wilco is okay but may have frostbite on his feet. Cas at this point also has frost bite on his hands. Wilco gets into the tent and we await more updates on his and Cas 's condition. Meanwhile we get word the Koreans have left C4 and started and started to descend to the mountain. Marco and his 2 HAPS also left but are moving much slower. It is not until the early afternoon that we realize Marco will need more help to get down the mountain. I ask the group who is able to go up and George Dimerescu says he can go and he might be able to get his two sherpas to go with him. He decides he will leave that evening with two bottles of oxygen and his sherpas. Wilco, Cas, and Pemba meanwhile have started to descend the mountain under their own power and feel that they can make it down without additional assistance. But we will need to fix about 400m of line below camp 1 to help them in their descent. A team of Roeland, Chris Warner, Yelled(Dutch), Jose (Serbian), and one other leave BC with rope to fix the lines. Meanwhile I start setting up the Dutch Tent as a triage center to treat their frostbite, Eric Meyer prepares a new drug to help treat their frostbite, and we await their arrival. George decides to leave early the next morning because of the Koreans descending and the risk of rock fall is so high on the Abruzzi route.

The great news is that Marco, Cas, and Wilco got down to base camp and were treated for their frostbite. We had set up a Triage Tent for the Dutch, and were able to help them get comfortable to await their helicopter transport. Almost our entire team went up to help Marco down from ABC to BC. We also treated him for his frostbite and then he was coppered out the next morning.

The unfortunate news is that at the end of 3 days, we had 11 people who had died on K2. The cause of death for some is still unknown and may never be known. For others they experienced Mother Nature at her worst and paid the highest price. The lesson I have learned from this experience is that even when things are perfect, i.e. the weather, there are still many other things that can go wrong. Serac falls, avalanche, and other things that extend beyond your control. You must always be aware of your surroundings. I am incredibly proud to be part of our team, and to know that we extended all ourselves and our resources to others on the mountain to help in a time of need.

MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT

Update

2008-08-11T23:25:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Amy, Chris's sister again. I wanted to write a brief update and I sure Chris will write a long one soon.

I just spoke to him and he has safely hiked out of base camp and is in Skardu. As many of you have heard or read in the news, August 1st was a very sad day on the mountain as11 climbers did not make it back down.

Chris woke up in camp 4 that morning with the intent of getting to the summit. After climbing and getting to about 8100 meter's he made the decision to turn around to summit another day. He made this decision based on timing and the people conditions. He felt the conditions were unsafe and did not want to make the attempt and then have to descend in the dark.

As Chris descended down the mountain he started getting a really bad headache and decided to continue all the way down base camp. By the time he was in camp 2 he heard about what was happening on top of the mountain and helped to lead the rescue efforts for the next four days from base camp.

He is deeply saddened by the loss of life and his sympathy goes out to the families and friends of those who are not coming home. Please continue to keep those families in your thoughts.

Chris should be in Islamabad by August 14th and his flight back to States is on August 24th.

Best,

Amy

International K2 Team Safe

2008-08-03T12:26:00.000+05:30

Everyone on our team is back in base camp and is healthy and safe. Our thoughts and prayers are going out to those teams who are not safe yet.

International Team safely at Base Camp

2008-08-03T02:29:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Amy again, Chris's sister. I just received a brief voicemail from my brother and he wanted to post a short note on the blog to assure everyone that the international team is safely back in base camp. I expect he will post something more soon.

thanks for the good thoughts!

Best,

Amy

Another Update

2008-07-29T18:25:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Amy, Chris's sister again - I suppose it will be me until they get back down from the Summit. I had a voice mail this morning from Chris (I left something inside my house this morning before work and left my cell phone in the car and missed the call - Ah well) - I had a voicemail that I believe said they are staying one more day at Camp 2 because of the high winds up to camp 3. I am not sure if you all remember, but camp 2 is a very uncomfortable place to hang out - they barely had enough room for 2 tents and the wind blows hard all the time. They had to build a snow cliff so the tent could be somewhat flat on the side of the mountain. So I am sure they are anxious to move ahead. Meanwhile they look forward to the climb up to camp 3, which I understand involves climbing up a technical bit called the black pyramid.

So stay tuned and hopefully Chris will be able to continue to communicate. Again, he sounded really good and strong! Keep the good thoughts coming to the team! They are working well together!

Be well,

Best,

Amy

Back at Camp 2

2008-07-28T18:47:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

Chris's sister again sending a quick post. I heard from Chris this morning and he sounded great. He sounded strong and excited. They are at camp 2 and hope to climb up to camp 3 tomorrow if the winds stay calmish. (I think calm winds is probably a relative term up there) I am not sure how often he will call to update, so I would assume, no news is good news, but please continue to send them safe thoughts! They are 10 hours ahead of Ann Arbor time (EST) - I don't know why I find that important, but it helps me know when they are climbing.

I hope this finds you all well and that the summer is treating you well!

Best,

Amy Klinke

Weather Window

2008-07-27T04:46:00.000+05:30

We are looking at weather window starting the 29th of July. I will be going up the mountain to see what happens and see if we might be in a position to go for the summit. I will be out of touch and no blogs will be posted until at least August 5th. I will be leaving base camp on the 27th of July.

Keep in mind that other sites might be posting information. Please do not believe everything you read and wait until you hear from us to know what happens with us.

Climb Hard, Climb High, COME HOME!!!!!!

Base Camp Life

2008-07-22T19:42:00.001+05:30

Right now we are stuck at base camp for an indeterminate length of time due to the weather being a bit fickle right now. So I thought I would write about daily life in Base Camp. I typically wake up when light starts hitting my tent at about 6 am. I get up out of my warm sleeping bag, and walk to the cook tent where Bashir, Sayad, and DeeDar are waking up and boiling about 10 gallons of water for the day. They fill up two big thermos'. One for hot drinks and drinking water, the other for the wash water. Sayad is starting to mix flour and water to make chapatis for breakfast, and Bashir starts setting up the dining tent for the breakfast meal. Our breakfast is typically, porridge, eggs, and chapati's. Quite a nourishing breakfast. Typically on a weather day we hang out in the dining tent starting at about 8:30am. And ending as we each come up with something to entertain ourselves. Yesterday it was moving my tent platform with the help of Chhiring. We have to move our tents about once a week, due to the glacier melting out from underneath us. The glacier melts about 5-6 inches a day, so after about a week our tents our sitting atop a pile of ice and rock that is about 2 feet higher then the surrounding area. And the edges are drooping over the edge of the ice pillar. We try and stop this by piling rocks and gravel around the edges of the tents so that the solar heat does not directly affect our platforms But it does not help all that much. So we repostion our platforms on a regular basis. It only takes about two hours to make a good solid platform. You chip out ice with your ice ax and move rocks and gravel with a shovel and your back. I had good training hauling rocks at an early age so it is fairly familiar.

Then it is a break for lunch at about 12:30pm typically pokara or samosa's which are tasty. Then it is figuring out what we will do for the afternoon. Yesterday, a group hiked over to Broad Peak Base Camp to socialize, while I stayed here to sort some stuff out for a summit attempt if the weather ever breaks. But ended up entertaining a group of french trekkers, climbers from Broad Peak, and several climbers from the camp. It seems everyone is a little restless waiting for weather and the big question on everyone's mind is what will happen with the weather. I also provided some photo's of the route to a french journalist, who knows my pics might end up in a french climbing magazine.

So my afternoon was full of visits and updates on what is happening on other mountains. Then it was dinner, which was pizza with hand made dough made by Sayad. Delicious. Then there was a rumour that our cook, DeeDar was going to turn out dining tent into a disco for the evening. But it ended up being a rumour. The party was held at the serbian tent with porters playing music on home made drums. Typ;ically we might have amovie nite where 8-15 people crowd into a cook or dining tent and we all watch a movie off a computer.

That is typical day in Base Camp as we wait for the weather to break.

Climb Hard, Climb high, Come Home
'
Chris

Base camp from Camp 2

2008-07-21T18:12:00.000+05:30

To Camp 3 and Back.....

2008-07-19T15:46:00.001+05:30

Well we have had a few fun action packed days getting up to establish Camp 3. Eric and I left base camp on the 15th of July to head directly to camp 1 We had both found that going directly to camp 2 from Base Camp left us a little tuckered out for any activities beyond that point. On our way up we passed Mike F, Chris W, and Paul on their descent from Camp 2. Where they stayed in miserable weather for two nites.

Eric and I spent the night at Camp 1 awoke in the morning refreshed and ready to go up to camp 2. We started up at about 8 am arriving in Camp 2 at about noon. Where we started brewing up and getting the camp site ready for Fred and Chirring who were coming directly from Base Camp. The winds were increasing to the point where one of our tents was uninhabitable for two people. The reason being that the winds were coming directly into the vestibule of the tent and did not allow us to cook. We would have to used the hanging kit inside the tent that was supplied by Jetboil, but the tent was not big enough to hold two of us and cook inside safely. So we jumped into the Italian tent where we could sleep and eat. In payment, I gave the Italians one of the salami's that Annette procurred for me.

In the morning we awoke to a beautiful calm morning, and we started moving at around 4 am to take full advantage of the day. Keep in mind that once you start moving at 4 am you are lucky to be on the trail by 7 am. First you have to start melting snow to make water to make your first hot drink. Usually I leave a pot full of water at night so that the first pot is already in a semi liquid state. Most of the time it is just a block of ice that needs to be melted. Once you have your first pot of hot water, you have your morning tea. Then you start your next pot so you can make your oatmeal, or what have you. Then you have to start melting water to fill your camel back or nalgene bottle. Hopefully one of them is already full from the nite before. If not you have to figure you have to melt 2-3 liters of additional water for each person going up that day to avoid dehydration. So it is about 3 hours of melting snow and getting ready to go before you are out the door. Then you have to dry out your sleeping bag from all the hoar frost that forms inside the tent and starts to drip and snow on you as you move about in the morning. Then you have to dump your pee bottle, get dressed, put on your harness, your boots, your crampons, and make sure that everyone else in your party is ready to go. Standing outside waiting on other members is one of the biggest drags you can have, because you are bound to be cold and frustrated by the time the last person is ready to go. That is why it has been great travelling with Eric, Fred, and Chirring. We all seem to get ready at the right moment and start off at the same time.

The climb to camp 3 was definitely difficult. The first thing that made it hard is that it is a long day. Meaning it took us on avg 8.5 hours of consistent and constant climbing to arrive at camp 3. Second the difficulty of the climbing was harder then anything I have experienced at altitude yet. There were numerous rock pitches that needed to be climbed in crampons, and they were harder then anything I experienced on Everest. Then there were long snow couloir's that had to be waded through with pitches up to 70 degrees Then when you finally thought you had arrived at what should be Camp 3, you realize you are still two hours away from actually reaching camp 3. And you had to keep climbing a long snow slope to reach it.

Once you arrived at Camp 3 though, the views were amazing. You could see deep into China, and all around the Karakorum. We had a calm beautiful day, with Norwegians coming up in our fresh tracks and dropping a load off. We chose to stay 4 people in a three person tent. One of the worst nites sleeps of my entire life. Between Fred snoring, Chirring trying to get comfortable, Eric rolling over which would cause me to wake up, and I am sure I added to everyone elses discomfort in some way it was a horrible nite experience by all. When we awoke in the morning it was cloudy and snowy and we made the decision to go down rather then try and make it to camp 4. It was a great decision on our part, because as we started to descend the winds were getting stronger, and by mid afternoon it was really quite nasty out.

We arrived into Basecamp after descending all the way from Camp 3 which was at about 7400m. Base camp is at 5040m. So we descended almost 7500 feet in a day which is really quite tiring. Now we are enjoying a rest in Base Camp, with nasty weather happening on the mountain. Based on the forecasts we will probably not be going anywhere real soon.

Hope all is well for you!

Chris

C3 Pics

2008-07-19T15:46:00.000+05:30

Pics from 3

Back at Basecamp

2008-07-18T19:45:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This is Chris's sister, Amy - I heard from Chris this morning and he and his team are back down at base camp after a successful climb to Camp 3. It was hard to hear everything he said, but I believe he said they had beautiful weather for the climb up, but had bad weather on their climb back down to base camp.

I think their maybe some bad weather coming in so I think they will rest up in base camp for a couple of days before heading back up the mountain. Hopefully Chris will post more later today - but I know I was very excited to hear his voice and to hear they are safely back down so I thought I'd send his blog a post. Chris sounded in good spirits, so keep the positive thoughts going their way! PS - I know they all enjoying getting email up there, though its hard for them to respond -so if you get a chance please send emails to the guys!!!

best,

Amy

Dispatch from Camp 1

2008-07-15T18:48:00.000+05:30

Eric and I are sitting at camp 1 enroute to camp 3. Chris W, Mike F, and Paul all passed us on their way down from spending 2 nites at C1 and 2 nites at C2. Great job guys.

Hope all is w ll in the world, how is Obamaa doing against McCain in the election? Any Veeps yet?

Camp 2 Again

2008-07-13T11:43:00.000+05:30

We returned from Camp 2 yesterday. This was the second trip for Fred, Eric, Chirring, and I. It is part of acclimitization schedule that we are trying to mainitain so that we can be in a position for a summit attempt towards the end of the month. Right now we have two tents set up at camp2 and they are fairly bomber proof. We have pitons, snow stakes, and snow chutes holding them onto the mountain. The views from Camp 2 are really spectacular and when it is clear it is supposed to be amazing. I have yet to be up there when it is clear.

We came down yesterday for a bit of R and R, and plan to head back up the mountain on the 15th to get all the way to up to camp 3. It will be a 3 days to get to camp 3 and the hope is that the weather provides us with a great day to make the climb through the feature known as the Black Pyramid. We were thinking about attempting this yesterday, but we received over a foot of new snow and there is some minor avalanche danger in the black pyramid. Hence, we moved down the mountain instead of up.

Right now Mike, Paul, and Chris W are at Camp 1 and heading up to Camp 2 for the first time today. The weather today is very nice and it should be a great trip up for them. In fact the weather today is what we were expecting yesterday.

Climbing is all about having the mentality of being focused on what is you are doing right at that moment. If it is clipping a carabiner onto a line, securing a tent anchor, or placing your crampon on a rock to ascend a narrow chimney. If you do not have that focus then you should always make the decision to stop climbing at that particular time. Most people think that climbing is a physical activity, but in truth it is entirely mental. Without the ability to focus to the exclusion of all else you will not have success. So as people are climbing and making decsions to stop climbing most of the time it is a mental hurdle that they cannot overcome,not physical. There are all kinds of distractions that can creep into a climb, being seperated from your family and loved ones, business issues, physical issues, and a host of other things. That hard part is deciding which things you can exclude out of your mind for an extended period of time. Because the one thing you have on an expedition of this length is time to think. You have the hours lying in your tent waiting to go to sleep. You have the hours when you wake up early in the morning, and you have all the time when you are climbing. An ipod is not an option while climbing on K2 because you need to be constantly aware of your surroundings, who is above you, who is below you, and if you there is any rockfall danger. There is so much time to think it is hard to remained focused on what is right in front of you.

Thanks for all the offers of Coke and Pringles upon my return, but I will probably be a little burnt out on it by that time.

Climb Hard, Climb High, COME HOME

Chris

Camp 2

2008-07-08T15:48:00.000+05:30

Fred and I spent the nite up at camp 2. We had a super long day, starting from ABC and heading all the way to camp 2 for the first time. Averaged about 10 hours on the way up, which was nothing compared to our Speedy Nepali (Chirring) He made it up from BC to Camp 2 in a total of about 8 hours. That is how big a difference acclimitization can make in your performance. Camp 2 is nicer the camp 1 but it still not a very nice place to hang out. Most tents are set up on the piles of old tents that have been destroyed by the wind over the years. Fred and I spent a very unrestful nite as the wind kicked up and spindrift pelted the side of the tent. In the morning we tried to establish a second tent platform, but every time I got one half of the platform dug out the wind had filled up the other half. So I gave up on that idea and decided to head back down to BC, where I had my special post climb recovery regimine. A coke and pringles. Normally, I am not a big pringle fan, but something about the salt combined with the Coca Cola makes it very good for recovery. Luckily I brought a six pack of coke from Skardu for just this purpose. You can in fact by a coke at BC from visiting porters, but the price tag is about $15 USD for a liter. Even I in my desperation will not buy a coke for that much.

Right now we are on a weather hold for a day or two. The weather reports we have been getting from Jamie McGuiness have been right on target and have been a huge help.

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home

Chris

The Climb to Camp 2- Eric Meyer and Chirring Dorje

2008-07-05T15:49:00.000+05:30

After resting for a day in BC, Chhiring and I left for camp I, with a weather forecast suggesting favorable conditions for the next few days. We made the trek to ABC, where we stopped to brew up tea and organize our loads. Trying to think several days in advance, and predict what supplies are needed most at a camp or two above is sometimes challenging, but on this demanding mountain, it really pays to be as efficient with what you choose to carry up!

The climbing up to Camp I is pretty straightforward steep snow, which we found in good condtions, and so far rockfall hazard minimal to none. Some years this can be extremely problematic on the Abruzzi. Reaching Camp I, we were extremely grateful for the Mountain Hardware Trango 3.1 tent Fred and Chris K. had put up. We were able to spend the rest of the day hydrating and taking in awesome views of Broad Peak, Skyang Kangri, and Gasherbrum II from this airy perch. So much so that we rigged a section of climbing rope to be used to traverse the steep snowslope over to where we created a toilet site!

The next day, we shouldered packs that seemed too heavy and made our way up the 600 meters to Camp II. The weather started out nice, eg., calm, and the climbing enjoyable. There was mostly steep mixed climbing following fixed ropes along a rib of alternating snow and rock, with a few sections of ice

House's chimney

2008-07-05T15:48:00.000+05:30

Camp 1

2008-07-03T21:06:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, Fred and I did what is known as the long snow slog to reach Camp 1. Fred and I left Base Camp at about 7 am and headed to ABC. Upon arriving at ABC we swiftly repacked our gear with the necessary equipment we would need to establish Camp 1. We packed ice screws, tents, snow stakes, gas, tent chutes, sleeping bags, stoves, and food. We were both carrying about 25 kilos so that we could get the camp set up.

Camp 1 is not known for its ease of setting up camp. In fact there is only 2 good camp sites. Both of which have been taken for the past 2 weeks. So we spent the afternoon hacking out a semi flat spot out of the ice and rock so that we could have a secure platform for our tent. We arrived at Camp 1 about 1 pm and then spent the next 4 hours creating a platform for our tent. We secured it to the mountain with ice screws, and pitons, and 25m of rope. The snow chutes are used on the corners of the tent you pack them with snow and then stomp down on them so that there is compression and snow melt, and then it becomes a bomber anchor.

We spent the nite at Camp 1 and listened to the snow be blown all over the slope by strong winds. The winds were pretty strong, but the winds did not budge our tent. So we had a great success.

This morning we headed down to Base Camp and went through the ice fall one more time. The interesting thing about glacvier travel is that every time you crosss it, it is different. Whether it is from snow melt, snow accumulation, water erosion, or simply foot traffic, it becomes a different trip. It really makes it quite interesting.

Tommorrow most people reading this blog will be enjoying Independence Day and shooting off fireworks. We will try and do something here as well, even if it is only taking a sip of whiskey.

Enjoy your holiday!

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home

Slept at ABC

2008-07-01T17:59:00.000+05:30

Well yesterday we went up top ABC at 5375m to sleep and try and identify the route we willl take to go up to camp 1 tomorrow. We were successful. Tomorrow Fred and I will head up the fixed ropes put in by the Korean sherpas to set up our Camp 1. We will spend the night and then return to BC the following day. The hike to Camp 1 is up a long snow slope at about a 45 degree angle or greater through a rock band and then after 600m of vertical we should be at camp 1. The weather has been overcast, we have not had much snow so that is good for us.

I will touch base after arriving at back at BC.

Climb High, Climb Hard, Come Home

Chris

First Carry to ABC

2008-06-27T23:55:00.000+05:30

Today we headed up to ABC through the ice fall. Not that difficult and route finding proved to be the biggest challenge. The route was wanded at one point but the sun melts the wands out pretty quickly. We saw the start of our route this morning, and the best description to Camp 1 is a long hard slog up a snow slope. It is fairly protected and we will probably not be heading up that way until sometime next week. It will be dependent on when our additional loads arrive and the weather. We plan on doing another carry of our personal gear to ABC tommorrow to help us in our acclimitization process

K2 Base Camp

2008-06-26T04:29:00.000+05:30

We have arrived into K2 Base Camp, some of us in better form then others. I had the inevitable bout of lower GI issues on the walk from Broad Peak Base camp to K2 Base Camp. Luckily it was intense and quick, and now I feel so uch better.

The last two days of trekking were simply spectaclur. We arrived in the The Throne room of the Mountain Gods, also known as Concordia. The views are amazing with K2, Broad Peak, G4, and so many other peaks to gaze at it simply overwhelms a person.

The first view of K2 was impressive with a clear blue sky and our route partially visible. K2 is more imposing in person then from any picture and you have ever seen of it.

The team spent today improving our base camp, expanding our dining tent, installing a toliet tent with running water(thanks Chirring) the running water is actually a glacier run off stream. The glacier has two sides, one is the bathroom side(outgoing) and the other is the ingoing or drinking water side. We also put up a shower tent, and installed the banners and flags of our sponsors, Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalal.

We had a great lunch with pokara, and we are getting the gear we have on sight organized. Unfortunately most of our high altitude kit is still on its way up from Askole because it was delayed getting through customs.

Overall things are going great. There are several other teams already working on establishing the route. The Koreans have sherpa's setting up camp 1 and 2 on the Abruzzi and we have been watching the Dutch put in their camp 2 on the SSE Ridge. Base camp is a friendly place and we will be making the rounds getting to know the other team. The weather has been great so far and we hope it continues.

If anyone would like to send me an email you can do so at:

chrisk2@goalexploration.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

On a personal note, thank you to everyone who send their thoughts and sympathy regarding my grandmother. She has been in my thoughts and it has been a tough thing to go through on the mountain.

Climb High, Climb Hard, Come Home,

Chris

Urdukas

2008-06-22T02:55:00.000+05:30

We had a long day of hiking today up the Baltaro glacier. Lots of ups and downs but amazing views. We were able to stare at the Trango Towers as we hiked up the glacier, and even got a glimpse of Broad Peak. It looked so close, but is still a three day hike away. We are all feeling pretty good, although a bit tired. I got my usual set of blisters and I am nursing them tenderly. Fred has been battling the scourge of Pakistan with some lower gi issues, but he is doing well none the less.

The rest of the team is moving well and we all just want to arrive at base camp and escape the braying of the donkeys that happens every nite. I am not sure which team hired donkeys but they should be severly reprimanded. The braying is a constant throughut the nite.

Hopefully I will be able to send a few pictures once we reach base camp.

Climb High, Climb Hard, Come Home!

Rest Day in Paiju

2008-06-21T00:22:00.000+05:30

We have arrived in the little oasis known as Paiju. We hiked two days from Askole to arive here after spending on night in Jhula. Paiju is an oasis with trees and running water. It will probably be the last time we see trees for quite some time. The team is doing well on the hike, and eventually we will figure out the procedure for getting the choice camp sites. We had a restful nite with a light rain. It helped to keep the dust down. Although the donkeys braying in the night was a little annoying.

We are about a mile below the base of the Baltaro glagcier. We are going to spend the day resting and the porters will take care of their meat rations The chickens and goats that have been travelling with us will no longer be on the trek, except in our bellies.

On Saturday we will hike to Urdukas which is about an 8 hour hike up the side of the glacier. Spend the night and then move up to Goro 2, then onto Concordia, then base camp. We have been moving quite well, and the porters are helping out tremendously. We have 110 porters carrying about 25kg per person. That is not all our own food and gear, but they are also carrying the food that they need for a 11 day hike for all those people as well.

We have been fortunate with weather, which has been cloudy an overcast in the afternoon with a little rain. Which helps keep it cool, and keeps the dust down.

A few stomach issues have been happening, but nothing that is not expected.

A personal note, my grandmother passed away on Wednesday afternoon. She and my Grandfather just celebrated their 65th anniversary a few weeks ago, and many of you sent them cards for that amazing milestone. I want to thank you for that, it provide a big boost for my grandmother to receive cards from all over the world. I think it helped motivate her to keep going until that celebration. I am thankful she had a great life, full of love and kindness. She is in my thoughts and prayers. If she could be in yours as well I would appreciate it.

"It is a fearful thing to love which death can touch." Anne Smith

All the Best,

Chris

2008-06-15T10:34:00.002+05:30

Morning

We arrived in Skardu on Saturday morning, and for some unknown reason the pictures went through to the blog, but none of the text.

The really BIG NEWS is that we are now SPONSORED by WARID TELECOM AND BANK ALFALAH!!!! I cannot begin to express enough thanks to Shahzad Rauf, who is a my friend as well as my sisters, for his untiring efforts to help us make this happen. We are incredibly excited to have them as part of our team, and we are going to post their Logo's and Banners just about everywhere we go. We did a photo shoot before we left Islamabad and you can see the Team Picture with the ZEM logo on it, which is a product of Warid Telecom. Zem is Warid Telecom's prepaid cell phone product, that we have been fortunate enough to be able to use while in Pakistan. I know I have been able to make calls all over the world with it at an amazingly low cost.

Shahzad has been a tremendous host, putting us up in an incredible place in Islamabad. We had amazing meals, excellent service, and beautiful surroundings. He has made our arrival into Pakistan a truly remarkable experience and we have received so much help in securing our last minute items in Pakistan from Shahzad and his staff. You can see the back of the house in one of the photo's from below. It resembles an English Manor house with the groomed lawn which made a perfect place to set up the tents to check them out. The tents will be our home far longer then guest house. It is a great study in contrast.

I think that good spirit has helped us on our journey and made our transition into Skardu truly effortless. We made our flight on the first attempt, which saved us a bone jarring 33 hour drive. Instead we had a flight that was 45 minutes that allowed us to get great views of the Karakoram. In fact, the pilot even let us into the cockpit so that we could take pictures of the range. You can see one of those photo's below.

Our gear will be arriving today, after the 33 hour drive, and this afternoon we will be sorting it all out into 25kg porter loads. It is interesting to reflect on the journey that it has taken as well, and where it will go. So much of the gear consists of the things that are necessary for us to survive us we go higher, and some of it is purely for comfort. I can remember going through my list 5-6 times to make sure that I had enough food, clothing, and climbing equipment, and yet you still remember items that you would like to have with you. I purchased an umbrella for the trek in to help provide shade on sunny days, and protection from the rain. The amount of electronic equipment is a bit overwhelming with the team having several satellite phones, camera's, computers, and solar panels. All so that we can provide updates to those who are following us at home.

But in the end we are here to climb a mountain for ourselves first. It is the challenge and simplicity of the mountain life that I am looking forward to although the luxuries that we have enjoyed up to this point have been wonderful.

I want to finish by again saying thank you to Warid Telecom and Bank Alfalah for their support of our climb. I think it is a truly unique situation with two Pakistan companies providing sponsorship to an international team of climbers, to climb the highest point within their country. All of the people we have met have been warm, inviting, and gracious. It is an amazing country to visit and one I would recommend to anyone.

More Photo's

2008-06-14T17:42:00.001+05:30

Greetings from Skardu

2008-06-14T17:39:00.001+05:30

Oops, I Did it Again

2008-06-12T21:49:00.002+05:30

I am in Islamabad, and guess what?

If you were thinking that there is a major political event unfolding in Pakistan you are absolutely correct. This seems to be a trend with me. I arrive in a country just as things are starting to change. I might actually start hiring myself out to countries to facilitate change. They overthrew the Monarchy in Nepal while climbing Everest. A coup in Thailand while I was there. New government in Chile, etc....

Friday there will be a huge political demonstration by the attorneys and judges within Pakistan. They have been marching across the country for a few days and converge on Islamabad on Friday. From what I understand they are trying to change the constitution within Pakistan to have the less power within the executive branch and more power in the legislative branch. We will see if it has any impact.

Our plan is to lay low in the Warid Telecom Guest House that we are being hosted at by my friend, Shahzad Rauf, and his company, Warid Telecom.

This has affected our plans slightly, but not significantly and everything should be back to normal by Saturday. We will fly to Skardu on Saturday, spend a few days there sorting gear, weighing loads, and preparing for the trek. After that we will start our trek into Base Camp from Askole which will take us about 7 days.

The team is strong and excited and we are all looking forward to getting in the mountains, although we will miss the plush accomodations of the past few days.

Again, no need to worry, we will be safe and sound in our guest house.

Climb High, Climb Hard, Come Home

Chris
Islamabad, Pakistan

At the airport

2008-06-09T05:41:00.000+05:30

I am sitting in the airport, after mastering the rules of excess baggage. I had a total of 4 bags of gear. 1 bag of food(about 70lbs), 1 bag of group gear (including 12 jetboil stoves, I left a few behind, expedition shirts for the team), 1 bag of personal gear, and 1 bag with boots and such. The total weight is about 240 lbs for the bargain price of $420.

A calm is descending upon me as I prepare to depart the hectic frenzy that has ensued my life over the past few weeks. The frenzy of packing, buying, and double checking everything. There is only one thing that I have forgotten that I can think of and it is not essential.

I am excited, nervous, and full of anticpation. I just spoke with my friend Beth G on the phone and she said have fun. My comment was that mountaineering is not fun while your doing it, but exhilarating in retrospect. Very similar to Mark Twains comment about travel. And K2 is travel to the extreme. My goal is to be safe, be calm, and above all else come home.

Climbing is a solitary experience undertaken with a team. Only you know what you are feeling, what you are thinking, and how much your body can take. The team enables you to perform at a higher level then you could by yourself. And that is what I am hoping to experience upon meeting the team in Islamabad. That together we will be able to perform this extraordinary feat together.

My thanks goes out to all my family and friends who have supported me in this project and my thoughts are with them.

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come HOME!

Chris
Sent via BlackBerry

Getting Ready to Go

2008-05-22T09:10:00.000+05:30

I am a little more then two weeks away from departing to Pakistan. I have been busy packing, weighing, and buying. Right now I have about 250lbs of gear that I need to transport to Pakistan. Including 15 stoves and pot sets (THANKS LISA at JETBOIL), 50lbs of food and drink, three sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, 3 ice axes, crampons, medical kit, repair kit, clothing for 3 months(of course it is not that much and will probably stink to high heaven by the time I find a washing machine!), and so many other little things that make life bearable on the mountain.

I am looking forward to celebrating my grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary on the 31st of May. It is an accomplishment that is far harder then climbing K2. They were married during WWII in San Antonio, Texas. They are an example to follow in life and relationships. Always be happy with where you are at in life, and do not waste your time wishing for what you do not have. It does not mean you do not strive for something better, but simply realize that you have control of your emotions and where you are going in your life. Celebrate everything that you do have and revel in the joy’s of your family. That point is being struck home right now because my grandmother has been in the hospital the past 10 days with an E-coli infection. It has been a touch and go process, and I am very thankful that I am close by to support them. My Grandmother keeps telling the doctors she needs to get out because she has a party to go to!

After that celebration, I will drive to Michigan from Tahoe City with my sister, unpack my trailer, repack my storage unit, and get everything weighed and loaded into 4 bags. Whew, I cannot wait to get onto the mountain where life will be simpler, but certainly not easier. My life has had many changes in the past few months, and I can only anticipate that it will change more over the course of the climb. I am looking forward to this climb as a time of personal reflection and pushing the limits of my ability at high altitude. But the key to any climb is to do it safely and be aware of your environment. No climb is without risk, and this one has its set of challenges.

One of the most common questions I am asked is how I train for something like this. I have been focusing on cardio workouts and altitude gain. I try to do 1-3 hours a day of running, biking, or hiking with a pack. Truth be told, my strength lies in my ability to keep walking all day with a heavy pack. I have never been a gym rat, but I do love going outside and experiencing a good runner’s high. My ankle has healed very nicely thanks to the ART treatment that I got from Dr. Karen Slota. It allowed me to start running again after my ankle surgery. Unfortunately, I waited almost a year before I sought her treatment.

I do want to thank all my family and friends who support me in this endeavor. I know it is a hard thing to experience from their perspective, and not many people understand. But to those of you who have given me your unconditional support I thank you.

Climb Hard, Climb High, Come Home!

Chris

2008-04-30T07:41:00.002+05:30

Greetings, I am in the process of training for K2 and part of the training is making sure I can update people efficiently on what is happening. Right now I am living in Tahoe City and taking full advantage of the altitude.

2005-06-15T12:55:00.003+05:30

2005-06-15T12:55:00.002+05:30

Hello to all, Robbie writing to you on the 16th of April from Seduwa and all is great!!! We have meshed well with our new French friends and we are traveling with great strength and bright smiles. The Nepali children have have helped us along the way and have provided us with some well deserved entertainment... Aside of a lil delay getting out of KTM we finally are hiking in some of the more remote areas of Nepal. We are in the Makalu/ Barun Valley and today was the most strenuous day of the trek so far for we had had to actually hike. Yep, we didn't have jeep support, no really today was spectacular... We are definitely in the thick of the Nepali culture... Broken english is par for the trek and the remoteness and the surreal landscape adds to the journeys mystical milieu... An interesting mix of tropical and high alipine flora.... Thick cummulus clouds obscure the high mountains though for a brief moment we were able to glimpe the lower South Face of Makalu from above Num. We have been blessed with no ailments aside of some low grade Gi issues and a loving leech that afixed itself to Leslie's index finger..Iodine works well for leech removal!!! We are so Psyched that all is going so well and we are hoping that our great fortunes continue for the rest of the expedition...

In The Du

2005-06-05T05:25:00.000+05:30

Just a quick update to make sure my sat phone and electronics are in working order before going out into the mountains. I had a great flight over, slept soundly, and ready for the days ahead. Today is all about checking the list for the fourth time .

At Base Camp

2005-05-18T18:52:00.000+05:30

We arrived at Cho Oyu Base Camp yesterday morning. Everything is going great. Tents are up, food has been amazing, and everyone on the team is healthy and acclimatizing well.

This morning we went for a hike up to Palung which is the intermediate camp between the Chinese Basecamp and Advanced Base Camp, BC is at about 4855m and Palung is at about 5400m so it did our bodies some good to get the exercise after sitting in a car for the past 4 days.

Our trip to BC was relatively uneventful. We got stopped by one landslide on the Nepal side of the border and then missed the cutoff time to cross the border. Because of that we stayed in Kodari, Nepal instead of Zhangmu, Tibet. We spent two days in Nylam and I have to say how I am amazed at the new road that was put in on the Tibet side. What used to take 4 hours only took 45 minutes. While in Nylam we hiked up to about 5100m and enjoyed ourselves people watching. Then we moved to Tingri and I found it exactly as I remembered it, dogs outnumbering people 3 to 1, dusty and, a bit trying. We were all happy to depart Tingri and head to BC.

Our plan now is to spend a rest day at BC tomorrow and then head up to Palung on the 9th where we load our 4000lbs of food and gear onto yaks for the hike to ABC, and spend 1 night. We should arrive at ABC on the 10th of October and we will spend a day or two setting up camp and getting ready to start moving up the mountain.

Chris Klinke
Cho Oyu BC

Of Monsoons and Sutures

2005-05-09T21:36:00.000+05:30

We awoke in Seduwa just inside the Makalu Barun National Park at 5:12 AM -- 18 minutes earlier than was hoped -- to the sound of a barking dog. The dog beat our alarms to the punch. Still spirits were high; the weather wasn't perfect, but there was no rain and we had a relatively easy day in front of us. The hike was beautiful through the cloud forest and we came across many smiling faces along the way. The team members all made the hike to Tashigaon before lunch and we were glad for it as the clouds began to descend. During lunch the rains came. We were sheltered, but many of the porters had not yet arrived in Tashigaon and were not so lucky. But a little rain didn't slow them down and they carried thier heavy loads down and up the steep valley sides.

Shortly after lunch Eric and Rob broke out the medical kit to treat a Sherpa who had an open suturable lac approx 5cm from a mishap with mini sledge while pounding a chisel. The Sherpa, Lakpa, had sustained an injury that received sutures approx 3 weeks ago and now he had cellulitis. The sutures were removed and the wound was once again dressed, though this time it was left open. Cleaned, dressed and PO antibiotics, we sent him on his way to be seen again on our return trip out.

This was all made a bit more interesting as the weather continued to intensify and the monsoon rains came in sideways mixed with hail. Lakpa successfully patched up, he headed into the yard to show off his new bandages to his friends.

The rains (and hail) did let up a bit. Brad and I enjoyed watching about a dozen Sherpas chasing tonight's dinner (chicken) through town. Coops may be a bit easier, but this was certainly more entertaining for chasers and onlookers alike (if not for the chicken). So now we sit awaiting dinner and our sleeping bags that will surely follow closely on dinner's heels. Tomorrow is our first long, hard day. About eight hours of hiking and lots of steep ascents away, Khongma awaits.

- Jim Kendrick (with help from Rob)
17 April 2010

pictures

1980-01-01T15:38:00.000+05:30