Ama Dablam 2005 Home

Field Touring on Ama Dablam 2005

We had a very experienced group headed to Ama Dablam in 2005 season with high hopes for a successful trip. We climbed on the South West Ridge which follows a fantastically exposed line of rock snow and ice. Our members came from Australia, Canada, Norway, South Africa & USA. Our team also included two sherpas and 2 wilderness EMT's from SOLO Wilderness Medicine. In the end we placed 11 of 15 team members on the top and had a great time with each other and on the mountain.

We hope you enjoy looking through the dispatches and images below and we look forward to having you follow our next trip to Ama Dablam. Visit the home page for Ama Dablam for links to this years trip.

skip to the dispatches!

Team Bios

Stuart Remensnyder(USA)
Expedition Leader & Base Camp Manager
After many years of personal climbing and working as an instructor for Outward Bound Stu began international guiding in earnest 4 years ago with FTA on Aconcagua. Since then he has led two more successful expeditions to Aconcagua including a climb up the center of the Polish Glacier in 2004. As well stu reached 8000m on Broad Peak in 2003 while helping to manage an FTA expedition. Stu has made many visits to Nepal and Tibet including trekking and climbing trips. Treks include Langtang, Annapurna, Gokyo and Mt Kailas. Climbs include Mera, Lobuche E and Tharpu Chuli (Tent Peak).

For more about Stu and our other guides see our staff page.

Anthony Geoghegan (Australia)
Anthony is an Australian who enjoys rock, ice and alpine climbing, skiing, and marathon running. He has been based in Europe for the past 3.5 years working in his profession as an Aerospace Stress Engineer. He has climbed in New Zealand, Australia, Africa, European Alps and Scandinavia.

Sue Large (USA)
Sue says: "I became interested in backpacking 10 years ago after hiking up Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevadas. From there it's been a long, slow process of learning the mountaineering skills needed in becoming a competent, self-sufficient climber. This has been quite a task given that I live in the flatlands of Ohio. Began climbing after cutting my teeth on Mt. Ranier, which eventually led to Mt. McKinley in Alaska, Mts. Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and Iliniza Sur in the Andes, and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. In between climbs I've done many, many smaller mountains in the US plus rock and ice climbing throughout the states. This will be my first Himalayan peak."

Vanessa Wills (AUS)
Taking a year away from home to travel and climb all over the world. This year alone Vanessa has made her way to NZ (Mt Cook), Argentina (Aconcagua by Polish Direct), Chile (Villarica), Peru (Tocllaraju), Canada (Bugaboo Spire), USA (Tetons, City Of Rocks, Smith Rock and much more), Chamonix (Weissmies traverse) and still has 3 months left. In each country she climbed numerous routes in addition to the highlight noted. Most of us are exhausted just reading her climbing resume!
(You can follow her travels at www.CragX.org)
Vanessa will arrive early, sprint around the Annapurna circuit and warm up on Island peak before meeting up with the team in Namche.

Marcus Dell (Canada)
Marcus is an accomplished alpinist who has climbed some of the highest and coldest peaks in North America. His credits include Mt. McKinley (Alaska), Mt. Logan (Yukon Canada), Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina), Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), and many peaks in the British Columbia Coast Range.

Brad Jackson (AUS)
Brad will be the standard by which all others will be judged to have or not have any altitude related disorders. Anyone as disoriented as Brad will be asked to descend immediately! A rare sense of humor belies a climber with a solid background and an aspiring Himalayan mountaineer. In his days past Brad has climbed glaciated peaks up to 6280 m in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Brad will be heading to Nepal early to trek about the Khumbu and attempt Island Peak in preparation for our climb. Click to see Brad with LACE

Sophia Danenberg (USA)
Fresh from an attempt on Mount McKinley Sophia has had Ama Dablam in her sites for some time. Her background in mountaineering is extensive and includes summits of Aconcagua, Iztaccihuatl, Mount Katahdin, Illiniza Norte, Longs Peak, Mount Shuksan, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mt. Kilimanjaro and attempts on Mount Kenya, Cotopaxi, Illiniza Sur, Aconcagua's Polish Direct and Mount McKinley's West Buttress

Brent Hamblin (USA)
Brent will be returning to Ama Dablam armed with three more years of knowledge and experience. Among Brent's climbs are Lobuche in Nepal, Mt Rainier in the US and peaks in Peru. Brent spends time climbing and backpacking in the Tetons and the Wind River Range of Wyoming.

Brad Boehringer (USA)
Assistant/Guide-in-training/Expedition Medic
Brad brings a wealth of wilderness medicine experience with him to our expedition combined with his solid climbing skills we expect that Brad will add a significant element of safety to our team. Brad has traveled and climbed in Mexico and Chile and this will be his first Himalayan climb. Brad is now a qualified nurse but has worked as an EMT-I and taught wilderness medicine for SOLO for many years.

Michael Leyden (USA)
Assistant/Guide-in-training/Expedition medic
Mike is an avid climber with a background in managing the huts one of New England's most frequented ice climbing site, Huntington Ravine on famed Mount Washington. Home of the highest wind speeds ever recorded on land and a balmy arctic environment most of the winter it has served as Mike's classroom for rescues, climbing and surviving. Mike has climbed outside the US in Mexico and this will be his first Himalayan adventure. Mike works as a paramedic and teaches wilderness medicine for SOLO

Herb Sayers (USA)

Herb has successfully summited Cayambe, Cotapaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador in addition to various climbing trips in North America. While most have been of a rock climbing nature< Herb has also spent time ice climbing in the Sierras.
Herb notes "I feel a real draw to the Himalayas and am anxious and excited, as this will be my first Himalayan expedition."

Marc van Reenen (South Africa)

Marc has climbed all over the globe and counts among his climbs: Aconcagua 6959 M – Argentina (Summit), Mt Kenya 4985 M - Kenya, El Misti 5822 M - Peru (Summit), Cuerno 5480 M - Argentina (Summit), Villarica 2847 M - Chile (Summit), Mt Kinabalu - Malaysia (Summit), Mt Kilimanjaro 5,985 M - Tanzania (Summit), Mt McKinley 5,200 M - Alaska, Western China (South African Kuksay Expedition) & Mt Elbrus 5642 M (Russia)).

Lyngve Skrede (Norway)
Lyngve recently arrived home after a four months and 6300 kilometers long bicycle expedition through Mongolia, China, Tibet and Nepal, including a detour to Everest Basecamp (Tibet-side) on very rough roads. But he has no intentions of bringing his exhausted bike to Ama Dablam Basecamp. Instead he will pick up his climbing gear home in Norway, and bring it to Nepal together with years of mountaineering experience. He has previously climbed Island Peak, Lobuche East, Mont Blanc, Matterhorn and Zinalrothorn. All together more than 60 peaks above 4000 metres in addition to 215 lower peaks. When he's not traveling or climbing mountains, he works as a Business Controller in order to finance his next trip. You can find more information about his trips on his website www.distantpeak.com

Nepali Team Members
Parsu Ram Rai Climbing Sherpa
Lhakpa Sherpa Climbing Sherpa

Nepali Cook Staff
Ratna Man Gurang Base Camp Cook
Narayan G.C Base Camp Cook
Ram Bahadur Tamang Cook helper

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Dispatches

Quicklink to dispatch dates: Sept 21, Oct 2, 3, 5, 9, 10 , 11 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 23 , 24 , 28 , 2 , 7 , 11

11 November, 2005

Hello to all of the family and friends following our expedition this season on Ama Dablam!

A quick summary as it looks as though the Satellite phone has been cutting out:

Overall we had 9 members and 2 Sherpas reach the summit in 4 different waves, Vanessa first (with Tom from RFM), Marcus, Lyngve and Stu some days later (the 3rd), then Brad, Brad, Marc, Sophia and Lakpa (the 4th) and finally Anthony and Tsering on the 7th. Sue made her way to camp 3 before turning back and Mike and Herb reached as high as camp 2 on the 6th while both battling sickness and simply running out of days.

I am happy to report that all of our members have safely reached Namche Bazaar and are in good health and spirits. Anthony has a sore toe and Stu has old achy knees but otherwise we seem to have returned unscathed! We cleaned our base camp yesterday with a flurry of activity on a clear and cold morning and headed out for a final time. The weather has been increasingly cold in the last week and it was with considerable joy that we descended into the warmer climes of Thangboche and the late fall crunch of the rhododendron leaves underfoot. Peeling layers as we went and enjoying the lack of sharp wind and the easy conversation which always emerges without the cessation of constant threat of summits, rock fall, steep snow and frostbite which has held our thoughts for the last three weeks.

As Anthony and I walked we joined up with Bob Manthy and Greg Keith of the RFM team (who had decided to escape the cold winds of Gorak Shep) and we eased into the tea shops sunny garden in Thangboche where we ate and drank leisurely. Sitting next to us was Inaki Ochoa de Olza who I had met on Broad Peak in 2003 (he summitted with FTA member Alex Txicon) and we had a fine time catching up on 2 years of climbing. He is a Basque from Navarra and one of Spain's truly great climbers and had recently attempted Shishapangma, Dauhlagiri and others and he kept our attention recounting his escapades. His girlfriend Corrine was just on the FTA K2 basecamp trek led by Casey Henley and was enthusiastic about her experience on the trek including a crossing of the gondogoro la. "It's a small world" seemed inadequate to describe the moment!

The walk to Namche seemed longer than any of us had remembered and we ended up arriving by moonlight walk in Namche where the team was all assembled at the Himalayan Lodge for dinner. Along the way we had a fine time watching the last sunsets on Ama Dablam, Lots and Everest. The colours on the mountains and then the colours behind the mountains kept our attention for a god our as reds, pinks, purples and blues danced and shuffled. In Namche our cook staff had prepared a fine meal of Yak curry, fresh steamed vegetables and hot pineapple and we stuffed ourselves accordingly. After dinner a small group headed out to a local pool hall where a few beers and a tough local pair conspired to keep us from winning many games!

In a few minutes we will all depart from Manche for the final walk to Lula and a morning flight to Kathmandu. We find the talk of home and family an food and comforts driving us more rapidly than ever to say our thanks to the Khumbu and get on with gift shopping and flight arrangements. Little things like the 20 minute gas powered hot shower in our hotel give us tastes of the ease of things to come!

Hopefully more from Lukla.Kathmandu including a few pictures. While we have email here the upload time is a bit slow! Time for a final cappuccino and pastry at the Everest Bakery!

til next
Stu

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November, 2005

Hi everybody this is Stu calling in from camp 3 on Ama Dablam

Good news is that following on from the wave of summits yesterday (names not all intelligible) we have had more today. Sophia, Brad, Mark and Marcus all summitted this morning and have returned safely to Camp 3 to rest for the night.

Mike and Anthony have moved up to Camp 2 today and will go on to Camp 3 tomorrow with an attempt on the summit on Sunday with any luck

Herb reached camp 2 but was feeling decidedly unwell and has now descended to camp 1 after a 5 hr down climb which ended in darkness.

He is OK but very tired and will go down to base-camp with Sue in the morning.

SIGNAL LOST

Note from office:
We understand a large number of the team (up to 70% or so) have reached the summit so far. Sorry for the bad communications, we will definitely be switching to sat email for future despatches!

Dave Hancock

2 November, 2005

Greetings all, this is Stu Remensnyder leader of the FTA Ama Dablam expedition 2005 calling in from a wonderful birds nest at Camp 2 on the hill.

Tonight we have 5 members at Camp 2, Sue Large, Brad Jackson, Marcus Dell, myself and Lyngve Skrede from Norway, Our plan is to move on up to C3 tomorrow and then try the summit the following day. that will have us making a summit attempt on hopefully the third of november

Brad Boehringer, Sophia Danenberg and Mark are below us at Camp 01and will move into our tents here at C2 in the midday, and then bunny hop on through to C3 behind us the following day. That will put them on schedule for a shot at the top on the fourth.

The final wave consisting of Mike, Herb and Anthony are at BC tonight and will join the trail up tomorrow moving to and sleeping at camp 01. Their summit attempt should take place on Saturday or Sunday.

Everyone is well, the exposure on the route is unbelievable, it is a phenomenally crazy climb! The ice and snow conditions are exceptional, and we have been blessed with unheard of good weather, it has been clear and pretty much calm for a large part of the last 2 weeks.

Team members Vanessa Wills summited a few days ago along with Tom Matheson, they are now resting at BC and quenching dry throats. The pair had the benefit of previous acclimatisation from their earlier treks and climbs on and around Island Peak and quite literally shot up Ama Dablam

Brent Hamblin suffered some vertigo and loss of balance and decide it was too risky to return to high altitude. We miss him very much he was a very very friendly and laid back guy and we wish him well for the tip out and hope to see him again in the future.

We will be updating again in 24-36 hrs

Stu Remensnyder

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28 October, 2005

We have had a very busy few days at Ama Dablam, and apologise for not getting news out sooner, but have had a few struggles with the technology and getting things to work on time, or even at all! Our sherpas have established sites at ABC, Camp 1 and Camp 2, and our entire team have occupied all 3 camps. Most exciting Vanessa has joined with Tom Matheson at camp 2 and quite remarkably they are collectively contemplating a summit attempt tomorrow.

Brent Hamblin has decided to end his trip after a short but significant problem with the altitude reaching ABC. Brent suffered from typical AMS symptoms and it was jointly decided that it would be better for him to stay down for the immediate time being. After much discussion, and not generally feeling a whole lot better, Brent left us yesterday to return down the trail to Lukla. An easy going and very friendly natured guy, he will be much missed by the whole team, but we hope to see him again down the valley.

Today we had a fun practice session, going through the basics of rappelling, and staying secure on fixed lines. Over the next several days we will break down into sub groups and start heading back up the mountain above us

(Office note: Stu made note of several names and whom was where, but it was mostly unintelligible with the signal dropping out!)

Tentatively, while we expect to be in many places, we do expect multiple summit bids from most of our team by the 2nd or 3rd of November.

Signal Lost.

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24 October, 2005

On the 24th the entire team made a carry up to advanced base-camp, with Brad and Vanessa spending the night up there.

Signal lost..

The route takes our breath away, and we are encouraged from the reports of plentiful summits The Team from Boulder Colorado are doing well and have moved up beyond C1, and plan to come down tomorrow for a rest day

Signal Lost.

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23 October, 2005

Hello and welcome to ama dablam bc. Sorry for the delay in bringing you news, but we have been wrestling with the technology! We have just finished our 3 day trek in from Namche Bazaar, and today most graciously have arrived at Ama's very pretty base-camp under a fully blue and very sunny sky. Most of us have flopped onto the grass and are enjoying a well earned rest, some have already found their BC legs and are taking small walks around the area. Tomorrow we will have a Puja ceremony to bless us for the climb ahead and keep us safe.

Subscribers: Please note we have sent a message to the team and hope to receive further replies from BC via email sat rather than voice sat, which is proving very difficult to discern - sorry for the lapses in communications, Dave Hancock

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21 October, 2005 from stu in namche

The entire FTA team is headed out in a few minutes for Deboche. Our route will take us across the Dudh Kosi where we will have a hot lunch before heading to Thyangboche and then dropping down 15 minutes to Deboche and our camp for the night. All members are well and we have a better day today and hope for a clearing trend as we approach basecamp tomorrow.

20 October, 2005
from stu remensnyder, Namche Bazar, Solo Khumbu, Nepal

It has been an eventful few days for our team here in Namche as we have gathered in our remaining members, seen Ama Dablam with our own eyes for the first time and acclimatized very well to around 3800m!

On the 19th Brad and Vanessa officially joined us after a successful climb on Island Peak whcih saw Brad reach the summit ridge and Vanessa tag the top. Both are feeling like the air here in Namche is a bit thick and ready to get back to the rarefied air of basecampo and beyond. Brad was abel to enjoy his day off by reperating his earlier bout of GI distress in the evening...clearly soemthing in namche he just should not be eating or drinking! (I suspect the milkshake is the culprit)

Herb awoke yesterday feelign quite poorly and rested up whiel the rest of the team took a stroll up to the Everest View Hotel and then ate mildly undercooked pizzas at the famed Everest Bakery in Kumjung. A few mld headaches but otherwise a good showing for the team on a lovely day. As we broke the crest from teh bowl of Namche we were treated to Ama Dablam rising above heavy low clouds and rather nasty lenticular clouds caping Everest and Lhotse. Ama Badlam looked to the be place to be and we spent a good hour videoing, photographing and binocularizing the route from C1 to the summit. We could make out tents at C3 and tiny figures coming abd going from C3 as well. We have heard of 4 expeditions that have reached the top and this bodes well for us! No doubt Ama Dablam cuts a striking pose and appears for all the world to be vertical from c3 on though we know that just not to be the case. Gets the old heart rate up thinking about bashing into the snow and ice at 6800m!

The 20th found brad and Herb both feeling much better though Herb opted to have a relaxing mornign followed by an afternoon walk for acclimatization. Vanessa joined the rest of the gang and we set out ostensibly to reach the monastery in Thami (or Thame) at 3920m or so. The three and ahalf hour walk took us past a major hydro electric plant for the khumbu and several Sir Edmuund Hilary intiatives including a lovely tree nursurey to counter the effects of years of building tea houses and cooking for trekkers. OIur weather deteriorated as we reached the toewn of Thami and blocked our view of the ancient trade route which makes its way from thami to tibet. We cought glimpses of the pass and it certainly evoked memories fo the scenery in "The Man Who Would Be King" as they cross into Kafiristan [it is a must see movie!].

We retired to a small tea house to drink "big pot hot lemon" and warm up from the raw half rain half snow we had trekked in for the morning. As it was my 43rd birthday today i treated the team to 2 big pots and we recooped quickly. Luckily the weather turned to pure snow for which we were all better dressed to handle and 5 of us made our way up to the monastery to light yak butter candles for our family and friedns and see the insides of a lovely monastery.

Early on in the hike Anthonly and Lyngve had turned off to try to gain some altitude more rapidly and after reaching near 4300m ran in to a small monastery and were treated to a hour long rest with tea by the local monk. They noted that all the time they were there the monk's mother was turning an exceedingly large prayer wheel and they were inpresed with her stamina and reckeoned she would be a great addition to our team!

Our return walk was cold and damp and upon returnign to namche we quickly putr oin dry clothes and retired to the warmth of the tea house. A fine dinner of pasta followed up with a truy deliciuous chocolate cake topped off a fine day. While the singing of the timeless classic 'happy birthday' lacked discernable notes it was nonetheless a nice celebration.

Tomorrow we will begin the journey in earnest as we leave the realtive comfort of Namche and move the Deboche, a small village below Thyangboche Monastery, situated at 3850m. We will send our next dispatch by satellite phone when we reach base camp the 22nd.

stu
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The fellowship of the ring by Brad Jackson
october 19, 2005 Namche

And so it came to pass under a golden halo sky that all members of the ama dablam quest came to meet in Namche bazaar unimpeded by the ever-present windstopper ninjas.. Vanessa bought up the rear and despite her humble denials, credible reports have surfaced that she came to Namche fresh from summitting two further 6000m peaks. In a unique nepali twist, this was achieved with a 3 year old yak strapped to her back for a bit of extra resistance after her effortless ascent of island peak.. In namche after being paraded in front of the group I think I grudgingly met their approval and it is at this point that I would like to apologise to Michael to previously checking his profile against the FBI's most wanted list. In my defence it was a scary looking passport photo that Mike first submitted.

In other thoughts, Stu in my mind needs to dress in long flowing cape, carry a staff and ride a horse called Shadowfax to complete the image of being the wise and omniscient Gandalf the Gray of the group.

While most of the group spent the day reconnoitering the arduous path ahead, Herb and I tasked ourselves with the noble pursuit of the purchase of down booties. We both agreed that putting on down bootees at the end of a grueling day is almost as good as the thing that mommy and daddy do when they love each other very much. After much prodding and pressing and ruthless examination, a fine golden pair of booties were chosen to accompany Herb on his ama dablam attempt. During a break in the quest for down booties while drinking a coffee I noticed that I had almost unwittingly positioned myself to catch a view of the effects of the cool Namche air on the unsuspecting and generally unsupported german frauleins heaving up the hill next to the cafe. A disturbingly refreshing sight after 2 weeks adrift in the down clad upper khumbu.

Brad

18 October, 2005

We had a wonderful day today walking from phakding up to namche and allmembers are feeling well and looking forward to a good sleep tonight!

We arrived yesterday from kathmandu to lukla by a 35 minute flight which brough us over small villages and within a few feet of the wall of the himalayan massif before swinging sharply into a ravine and heading directly for the opposite wall. As we neared the wall it resolved as asmall town with brightly colored roofs. Suddely there were house windows flying by my view and a gentle lift in the plane and we landed without barely a bump on the inclined tarmac of Lukla.

AS many as 25 flights managed to come in reload and depart that morning and it was fun to see the planes do a circle dance in the small area near the terminal. We remained at a tea house nea the terminal for a few hours while bags were counted, porters contracted and lunch was served. We got our first taste of the cooking we are to have for the coming weeks and curried beans and carrots, chapatia nd fried strips of spam hit the spot for all of us.

At 11:30 am we headed off through the busting town of lukla where one could easily outfit for an expedition in fleece, down and soft shell clothing. It felt good to breath the fesh air after a few days in kathmandu dodging taxis and we walked with no urgency to our desination of phakding some 2-3 hours away.

The farming plots and tea houses dominate the scenery low down while pine trees, cascading waterfalls, sheers cliffs and a few shining white peaks greet the upward eye. We ambled into phakding and found a flocko of yellow northface tents awaiitng us at one tent per person. Tea time gave way to a nap and then soup tiem and then dinner of dal baht finsihed us off and we retired early (8pm) too our tents.

Being greeted at 6am by a bright "good morning" and a hot black tea is a really good way to start a day and such was out good fortune today. After savoring the hot drink we all prepared our bags and met for a robust breakfast of eggs, chapati and cereal accompanied by the usual supsects of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Today was our big day to pass thorugh the last of the red tape and enter the Sagamartha Narional Park. Nima filled out the foms with Mike while the rest fo us sat by baskign in the warm morning sun. Without a hitch we continued on our way around the corner where our cook staff greeted us with a hot lunch. After our decadent break we left for the true work of the day-an 800m climb to namche on a gently graded pedestrian highway. Our greatest concerns today were the altitude gain and avoiding and close encounters with the yak/cow combo the dzo who's horns look very sharp up close. In particular the bridges present a great challenge as they are long spans and if a dzo enters from the opposite side you have two choices 1) press youself heavily against the edge and pray the yaks stay the course (brad's choice) or 2) turn tail and out run them while filming the whole time (stu's choice) the bridges were a hih point as the bouncing and wiggling a few hundred feet over the Dudh Kosi (Milky River) made or great photography and exhilarating walking.

All of us arrived in Namche within a few hours of each other and we lazed by our camp site until the bags all arrived and the tents began to go up. Our team RFM friends were not to be seen until late in the day and they had gone for a great walk up to Kumjung and on the hill above. They intend to hike to Deboche tomorrow and take a big walk the day after from there. We shared a carbo loading dinner of pasta with a side of potatoes followed by hot peaches in syrup. All of us are groggy and looking forward to another 10 hours sleep.

We will head to kumjung tomorrow for an acclimatization walk and pizza and we'll write more in the evening tomorrow. g'nite from namche.

stu

Team Boulder Dispatch: Technology is in the hills, but it is not disruptive as I had feared...and I get the chance to say hello. Boulder RFM left the fly-in villiage of Lukla and hiked directly to Namche Bazaar on our own in 5-1/2 hours, skipping the intermediate stop. The intermediate villiages were so amazingly beautiful and everything immaculately clean. These people have tremendous self respect. I'm feeling well and everyone is strong. As in Colorado, here Team Boulder RFM still is quick and we pass everyone.

After staying in the lead Sherpa's uncle's lodge, we walked over the hill to Kundjung -- a spotless villiage at 12,000' that features the Hillary School. Very beautiful with Ama Dablam towering over it (10 miles away to the East). The we got the bug to climb and headed up a mountain to the North. We wound up tagging a minor peak at 15,100 on a 19,000 foot mountain, beautiful clouds whirling all around. At the summint the clouds parted for an instant showing only the summit of Ama Dablam, then closing like the mists of Avalon. A special moment just for us. We had absolutely no problem at 15,000 so tomorrow we head on to the Thangboche Monastary where we will sleep at 13,000, then we are off to Ama Dablam base camp at 15,000 the next day. The Field Touring folks arrived in Namche this evening and fed us well. They will send our bags up tomorrow for us, so they will arrive in Base Camp when we do -- they are being wonderfully accomodating. After a day in Base Camp we plan to go to Camp 1 at 19,000 for a day trip, then decide on a plan of attack either staying at Ama Dablam or going to Island Peak first. Field Touring will arrive at Base Camp two days after Boulder RFM, so there will be no opportunity for additional dispatches until then. And if the equipment doesn't work, it might have to wait until we get back to Namche on 14 Nov!!! Let's hope all works as planned.

Bob Manthy, Team Boulder RFM

17 October, 2005

Yesterday morngin Mike, Marcus, Sue, Brad, Heba and myself left Lyngve sleepign heavily in teh hotel for a mornign ride to Nagarkot to see the sunrise on the himalyas. We had a cool mornign with light cloud cover which cleared as the sun rose giving us a fine view of the rnage from Annapurna 1 to our left all the way to Makalu to our right. Langtang stands out as a shark tooth and the most impressive moutnain from Nagarkot. We were jjined by 40 people from Bagalore india and it was a fun switch to have other people tryign to take out picture and wantign us to stand next to them for portraits!

We returned to the hotel to enjoy a buffet feast and then spent he mornign shopping an dsleeping til midday when we headed out for lunch. In the early afternoon we had a our meetign at the misitry of tourism to sign documents and drink tea with high level officials. The parchemnt of the permits are lovely and rough and the red ink has the look of ancient printing methods. The otehr documents are depressingly modern photocopies so we will treasure the delicate permits as testqment to the ancient nature of the kingdoms and mountains of nepal.

Marc and Sophia and Anthony arrived yesterday and joined us afor a nice afternoon of sitting it the hotel garden discussing the details of the expedition. We then headed out for a glorious roof top supperat the Third Eye restaurant. We had clear skies cool weather and spicy tikka masala. We finished supper at 11pm and all returned to he hotel for a heavy and well deserved sleep after a truly full day.

Team RFM from colorado all arrived yesterday and a are in fine shape and high spirits. They intend to hike straight to Namche and stay in a tea hosue as they are already acclimatized to 12000ft. They took a awalk thsi am with three of our team (brad, marc and sophia) and were apparently walking as fast as most of us run!

today we are all making final purchases in preparation for an early morning fligth to lukla tomorrow. Nima (our grouhnd manager) has been a marvel in organizing detailsa nd cutting red tape at every turn. he has already mananegd to ship 900kg of our personal equipment up to lukla as we are only allowed 25 kg on our own flight and each come with 50kg minimum. He has us scheduled fro the earliest flight tomorrow to ensure that if there are delays we will still be the most likley to reach lukla that day. AS such we will beout of the hotel by 5:15am and on our way.

We will trek to Phakding and then on the 18th we will reach namche and send anotehr update.

All memebers are healthy and well and we hope to avoid any major tummy/gi problems ahead!

17 October, 2005

Our last member to arrive Brent Hamblin looks a little tired from his travels but very enthusiastic and well prepared to go. Anthony was waitgin for a bag that did not make it yesterday and it seems a good sign that it arrived today before we hit the trail! Speakign of good luck we had a great blessing to day with one of the three rinpoches for the entire sherpa community who is living in Kathmandu as his area is too complicated with maoists who frown on religion. Our luck though! He chanted and tied knots and placed katas on our shoulders and blessed three nice bead necklaces and one picture of my daughter Madalyn!! We were treated to a full moon over the town section of Boudnath and alpen glow on the himlayas beyond. All in all a fine everning! We are wearign our knots around our necks for now though i suspect we'll tie them to somethign other than our necks when we begin climbign.

We spent a lot of the day searchign for the perfect cheese and salami and would recommend to future travelers to bring your own prepack\aged cheese wheeels or the wax covered gouga/bonnie bells. We finally found some yummy tasting local goat cheese and are carryign ampple chunks to base camp where we will inspect them for the first time. Hoping it stays fresh!

Kathmandu has as always provided a wild smoprgasbord for the senses and we will leave in the morning behind honking horns, tinkling rickshaw bells, blaring indian music, hawkers offering cheap prices for fine tigerbalma nd following up rejection by whispering in our ears "smoke hash?" whiose rejection leads to the start of the offers all over again!

While our ears, eyes and noses will miss kathmandu i think our respiratory tracts will relish the clean cool air of the Khumbu as most of us are already developing the classic kathmandu kough.

The Boulder RFM climbing team arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday afternoon after 24 hours in Bangkok. Both Bangkok and Kathmandu are places of sensory overload. So many people in such noise heading in so many directions. Entropy is winning here. Everyone is very friendly and fun nonetheless. We've walked much of the city in a single day, from visiting the monkeys at dawn at Swayanbunath, the "monkey temple", to almost being arrested by the tourist police, then at sunset being blessed by the lama and receiving our silk katas and the red cords that will be our "safety" lines up the mountain!

Tomorrow we have a 6am flight to Lukla, following our gear, and we'll start walking to Namche Bazaar. It'll be good to be in the mountains after the cacophony of the city.

We will report in namche next which will be our first real step into the world of high altitude. Cheers til then,
stu

11 October, 2005

From our ground team in Pakistan:

Greetings from Pakistan!

Thank you very much indeed for your messages concerning Saturday's horrible earthquake in Pakistan in which thousands of human being have lost their precious lives. The major disaster occurred in Kashmir and Northwest Frontier Province. It is a natural disaster beyond our control. In Islamabad only one building collapsed as it was not constructed according to required strength.

We express our gratitude to all our friends who are concerned about recent earthquake and have sent messages of sympathy. We wish to let you know that all members of ATP (office and field staff) including our family members and friends are OK.
Thanks a lot once again for your thoughtfulness.

With best regards,

Ashraf Aman/Naiknam Karim
Adventure Tours Pakistan
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you would like to help by donating to groups working in the earthquake area consider the following:

World Vision Australia
http://www.worldvision.com.au/appeals/pakistanearthquake/
Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/

or click here to visit a list compiled by CNN

For more news visit www.k2climb.net

 

10 October, 2005 From All of us at Field Touring

Field Touring has many friends in Pakistan and we are saddened by the terrible news of the earthquake. We hope and pray for the safety of every one of them and their family and friends. We hope to find links to the best sites for people to donate money. Please look for those links coming very soon.

9 October, 2005

From Stu Remensnyder in the USA Office,

Vanessa has reported in from Namche and is headed off to meet up with Brad and attempt Island Peak. Her trip around the Annapurna Circuit was successful and she promises more details along the way. She did observe that "the change in the tourist population in 2 weeks is enormous. Dashain is happening, most obvious to me by the 50 000 goats I had to pass on the last few days of the Annapurna circuit as they were being driven to Pokhara."

You can follow all of her exploits from the year at www.cragx.org in the trip reports section. She notes that she is on the lookout for the windstopper ninjas.

The rest of us are all in last minute packing and shopping and arranging our lives to be away for 4 weeks. Most of us have rooms bursting with mountains of freeze dried meals, plush polypro, sharp metal objects, toothpaste and dental floss, Snickers bars, pop tarts, sleeping bags, backpacks and more. Some how all of this will fit into two duffle bags which will make their way to Kathmandu and then by plane and porter to basecamp. Looking at the piles of things I am always amazed that it all will somehow fit, but with a little sweating and grunting and judicious elimination of a few bulky items it does.

It is in these moments that I am acutely aware of the number of people it takes to make it possible for the few of us to head off to Nepal for the expedition. From co-workers covering/altering work shifts to family members kicking in to help out with a myriad of things we are all indebted in some measure to friends and family. For some of us it as simple as collecting our mail and paying bills, for others it may include helping care for a child or parent or being especially attentive to the spouse/partner remaining at home. In any event we all have someone to thank and I hope that we properly thank you all ahead of time for enabling us to venture off to Nepal to follow our dreams. Field Touring Ama Dablam 2005 would not be possible without you.

October 5, 2005

From Brad Jackson in Namche

A few more things before I head off in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. I will get an early start and try and get ahead of the windstopper ninjas. These are hordes of men and the occasional women who roam the streets of namche wearing tight black windstopper clothing. I don't think they are dangerous but I am not taking my chances.

I guess like much mountain weather it seems really clear in the morning with clouds starting to appear just before midday. I got up and (hopefully ) took some great pics of Namche with the peaks glowing gold behind it.

I finally found a really good equipment shop. IME Inc run by kami doma sherpa. His e-mail as per his card is k_ime@hotmail.com. He imports heaps of stuff from the US at the same prices as I bought from REI and backcountry.com. He also had quite a selection of freeze dried food. He is the first shop that I have seen that sells real marmot, mountain hardwear stuff etc. In other window shopping news, It seems that the going price for the cool nepal/tibetan fleece lined beanies are 200 rupees and not 600 as I was quoted for and purchased in KTM.

Was quite a drizzly day in Namche today, so just loitered around Namche avoiding the windstopper ninjas. I taught Devi, the porter accompanying me how to change lenses on my slr and took a few pics of him In front of the camera we are still working on his modeling expressions. Devi has perfected the deadpan look (might possibly excel as an undertaker)and in the upcoming weeks we will work on smiling, excited, happy etc.

Once again look forward to catching up on the 19th or 20th.

Have fun
Brad

October 3, 2005

From Stu Remensnyder, USA Office

Brad writes from Namche at 3445m and even the novice can detect AMS in the works is this far-from-lucid report. Once again Brad is able to communicate a visceral experience without sugar coating it. Read on only if you really want to know what travel in Nepal is like.

Brad writes:
Greetings from Namche.
I heeded your advice and spent a night in Phakding and to compensate I wore a full pack to Namche as a bit of training. Almost killed me. I must admit the teahouses are so much better than I thought, my own little room each night. I got my first dose of Khumbu surprise and almost achieved take off on the toilet seat in Phakding but a bit of chemical plug [ed.note = loperamide] soon saw an end to that and now I feel great. I hope and think that was just a one off.

I plan to write more tomorrow. Please remind everyone to have their photos to be attached to the visa on arrival form or they have to go join the loser-forgot-the-photo line and get a photo taken in another area. I am as proud as punch to say that I actually remembered mine.

Namche has a great little supermarket with heaps of trekking/hiking food but I haven't seen any freezedried food since 1 shop in KTM. I advise everyone to bring freeze dried with them.

Have fun
Brad
p.s. forgive my swearing but the landing at lukla is #$%^&ing awesome, I could do that all day.
p.p.s cant wait to see you guys I seem to be surrounded by very serious east europeans. Save me !!!

 

October 2, 2005

From Stu Remensnyder in the USA office

Brad Jackson made it safely to Kathmandu a few days ago and headed out to Lukla today for a preparatory trek. We'll hope to have word form him when he arrives in Namche. We particularly look forward to Brad's observations of Nepal and our expedition as he has an uncanny ability to see the light side of things. Enjoy life through Brad's eyes!

Brad Jackson writes:
Arrived safely in KTM and everyone was so nice, 723 people offered me the use of their taxi which I thought was great service. The hotel is nice and beds quite firm. In my zeal to check the beds mattress, I did kind of a body slam thing and put out my shoulder as I went thunk on the mattress but its ok now.

I think managed to corner the market in dutch/german freeze dried food. I decided not to purchase the 57 packs of chocolate mousse for sale , so there up for grabs. As you are probably aware there is a very well stocked supermarket close by where you can gets nuts/tuna/noodles etc. Other things I will mention there is a glut of hiking poles and normal ice axes plus quite a lot of semi-technical short axes on the market. I haven't used these before (the poles that is) and to me they are just a stick. I wish I hadn't bought a new one and instead picked up a pair here.

I plan on being in Namche tomorrow afternoon. From there I shall report on what's happening so far.
Have fun
Brad

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

From Stu Remensnyder, USA office
Our expedition begins in earnest today as our first member to reach nepal, Vanessa Wills, heads off for an acclimatizing trip to the Annapurna Circuit. Brad Jackson will arrive 2 weeks early and will join Vanessa on an attempt of Island Peak. They will constitute a strong element on our team being so well acclimatized and both have already made promises to carry loads for the oxygen deprived members to arrive in the Khumbu on the 17th of October!