IMG Everest 2020 Preparations Under Way

February 4, 2020

We have been working hard on the upcoming 2020 IMG Everest expedition. This will be the 26th Everest expedition that IMG has organized, and we are happy to report that we have a great looking team of climbers and guides from 11 different countries.  Now we are working hard on the preparations for the upcoming Everest programs.

IMG Senior Guide Phunuru Sherpa returned to Nepal in early January from leading our Holiday trip to Kilimanjaro, and went straight back to his home in Phortse to begin organizing the Everest guides.  Phunuru reports that there has been a considerable amount of snow in the Khumbu this winter which is good for the mountain as well as the potatoes!  Up in Khumbu, Phunuru met with our team and has confirmed the staffing for the Everest expedition.  He also had a chance to train with some of our up and coming guides at the Khumbu Climbing School, where he was instructing.  Further up the Khumbu valley, Ang Karma and Sonam Tashi went to Everest Base Camp at the end of January to secure our 2020 camp site.  And, back in Kathmandu, Ang Jangbu and his team have packed up the first batch of loads and these have already been sent into Khumbu.

Here in the USA, our high altitude oxygen cylinders were inspected, refilled, shipped and yesterday they arrived back in Nepal.  Ang Jangbu and his team are now clearing them through Nepal customs and will then be repacking them for the trip to Base Camp.  Now we are assembling our big shipment of food and equipment which will also be airfreighted to Nepal in the coming weeks. We are getting ready!

Everest packing 2020 (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

Repacking food in KTM (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

—Greg Vernovage, International Program Director