October 23, 2013
Kangchenjunga (Phil Ershler)
Phil called in this morning at 7:30am reporting that the weather has cleared to allow for more spectacular views and should continue to hold for the next few days. The group is looking forward to a nice mellow day as they will be heading to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute’s base camp. Everyone is doing well.
Tye Chapman
October 22, 2013
Dan reports that he flew today to Bali from Jayapura. Now he is back to the land of burgers, beer, and beaches after a trip to one of the most remote places in the world. The trip went very smoothly, and the team was very pleased. Congrats to Dan, Anthony, Steven, and Nanang!
One correction from my last post: Anthony says that the GPS readings from Trikora and Mandala make neither of these peaks as high as Sumantri, and they may be lower than Ngga Pulu and East Carstensz too. So, it sounds like Sumantri is the second highest peak in Papua (you can read about Dan and Anthony’s climb of this peak earlier this year: Carstensz2013_Trip_Report_Four_Peaks_of_Papua.pdf
After Dan gets home we will take a look at the schedule for next year’s Carstensz climb and get the info posted soon. Thanks for following along on the adventure!
Eric Simonson
October 22, 2013
IMG guide Erica Engle reports that the team had a nice time visiting Tengboche monastery and the nunnery in Deboche, and have now moved up the valley to Pangboche. This is one of the larger towns in Khumbu and is the home of Ang Pasang and many of our IMG climbing sherpas. Visiting Ama Dablam Base Camp is a great hiking destination, but there is still a lot of snow higher up the valley (left over from the storm that followed the recent cyclone). So, rather than sidehilling to the BC from Dingboche (original plan) the team is going to go directly up to BC from Pangboche via the climber’s trail that has been kicked in. It should be a great acclimatization hike!
Eric Simonson
October 22, 2013
Phil called in this morning (evening his time in Sikkim) after a great day on the trail. They got an early start to see the morning views from Danfe Bir pass which is about an hour out of camp. They were rewarded with some more spectacular views of Makalu and Kangchenjunga. The storm that recently passed through dropped a couple feet of snow on the passes, but the trail had been beaten in by some unlucky trail-breakers, which made for some good walking under foot.
After taking in the views and the hundreds of prayer flags that mark the pass, they descended through the pine and juniper forests to their camp near the Yangseb River.
Tye Chapman
October 21, 2013
Crossing the Dudh Kosi at Phunki, below Tengboche (Eric Simonson)
After two days in Namche for acclimatization hiking, IMG guide Erica Engle reports that the team are doing well. Today they descended to cross the Dudh Kosi river, then ascended up and over the Tengboche ridge, before dropping back down to Deboche (about 12,000 feet). This is a small group of houses and lodges situated in the rhododendron forests down by the river. Tomorrow the team will have a full day to explore the monastery area, and some of the members are going to head up at dawn, for the morning prayers. They will also get a chance to do some more acclimatization hiking up the Lhamo Gang ridge toward Kangtega Peak.
Eric Simonson
October 21, 2013
IMG trekker Jacque Brill recounts her climb of Kilimanjaro from this summer. After reading, we all want to go back to Tanzania! Enjoy her narrative as she takes you on a day-by-day trek up to the summit and teaches you are few phrases in Swahili along the way. We say “poa†(cool) to this!
Clarissa Hughes
October 21, 2013
We heard from Phil & the crew over the weekend, all is well! On Saturday the team put in a good 7 hours of walking through the rhododendron forests and up along the ridge that separates Nepal from Sikkim, ending at their campsite on the Nepal side at 12,200′. Perfect weather all the way.
Sunday morning they were rewarded with a view of the sunrise on Kanchenjunga (world’s 3rd highest mountain at 8586m), Jannu (7710m) and Makalu (8481m). With another 5 hours of hills and valleys under their belts they pulled in to the next camp at 13,000′ just in time for a well deserved rest.
Today will be a shorter trek through a wide valley with fantastic views all around.
Everyone is doing well!
Becky Kjorvestad
October 20, 2013
Dan says the terrain on Manndala was similar to these rocky spines seen here near Nasidoma (Camp 5) on the trek route to Carstensz (Jason Edwards)
Dan Zokaites called to report that the team reached the summit of Mandala, the second highest peak in Indonesia. Their GPS had it at 15,575’ which puts it 47’ higher than Trikora. They started before dawn and had a nice sunrise on the climb up. It took 6.5 hours to reach the summit, and by then the weather was starting to cloud in. Not long after that it was raining hard, and also hailing, right on schedule! Dan said the limestone rock was incredible, with holes and caves everywhere. It was not as technical as Trikora, but nonetheless was quite interesting climbing, with lots of exposed limestone ridges which required them to jump from rock to rock, reminiscent of the terrain above Nasidoma on the way to Carstensz. They have the helicopter scheduled to come back at 7am tomorrow morning for the flight out to Wamena, so the plan is to get up early from the high camp and descend to the LZ in time for the pickup.  With any luck, they will be able to fly on to Jayapura tomorrow afternoon.
Eric Simonson
October 19, 2013
From: Erica Engle
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 3:54 AM
To: Eric Simonson
Subject: Namche
Hi Eric,
We had a good day hiking up Namche hill yesterday, everyone moved relatively evenly and no one dropped off the back. Pasang, Mingma, and Gamgyl are all doing a great job too. Today we went to the Saturday market, the museums and Everest viewpoint. Clouds kept the view mostly obscured but offered just enough to fill everyone with excited anticipation. The market was full of interesting things, most notably dried fish on skewers, flanks of meat hanging in the cooling house, and sacks of the dried yeast balls used to make chang. At the two museums, we enjoyed the interpretive displays, the traditional Sherpa house replica and an interesting slideshow about the Khumbu and Sherpa culture. We also persuaded Pasang to let us take a photo of him next to his portrait in the “Everest Summiters Room” at the cultural museum. Now we are enjoying a relaxed afternoon exploring the amenities of bustling Namche. Tomorrow we plan to hike up to Kunde and Khumjung for further acclimatization and exploration before setting off further up the Khumbu the following day. Everyone is feeling healthy and enthusiastic for the coming days!
Cheers
Erica
October 19, 2013
Puncak Mandala in Papua (Indonesia) and international border with nearby Papua New Guinea (courtesy Google Earth)
Dan Zokaites reports that the team was able to spot a landing zone at about 11,500 feet and set down there in the Bell 212 helicopter. They took a recon hike after that to get the lay of the land, and then today they have pushed up a thousand feet higher. Dan reports it was thick brush and they really had to fight their way up the flanks of Puncak Mandala until they reached the timberline where they are putting their high camp. Above here it is mainly slabby rock and the route looks like it will go. We’ll be waiting to hear how they do on their summit bid. Hopefully the mountain says yes!
Eric Simonson
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