Cho Oyu climbers on the move to ABC

September 3, 2010

Mike Hamill reports by sat phone that the climbers had a good night at Interim Camp (IC) and now they are on the way to Advanced Base Camp.Â Everyone is doing well, the weather remains good, Â and they expect to reach ABC later today.Â Interim Camp, as the name suggests, is only used for one night. Â Situated on the east lateral moraine of the Gyabrag Glacier, it has a good water source and space for camping.Â In recent years the Chinese have built a rough jeep road all the way to IC which is useful for emergency evacuation, but our climbers are walking from Base Camp. After all, they are trying to get acclimatized! Â Â The yak drivers will also stay there and go up to ABC and back tomorrow,Â so they donâ€™t have to haul extra yak food up to ABC.

Eric Simonson

: Ang Passang negotiating yak loads

: Yak teams heading to Intermediate Camp

: Intermediate Camp

Kili Team At Machame Camp

September 2, 2010

Kili team at Machame Camp

IMG Guide Olivia Cussen, one of the few IFMGA fully certified guides here in the US, called in again this morning to report that all is well on Kilimanjaro. The group knocked out 4000 vertical feet of trail yesterday, one if the harder days on the mountain, so it’s great to have that behind them while they continue to acclimatize to the higher elevations.

They’re at the Machame Camp now; tomorrow they’ll move through the “zone of weird plants” which are native to the high mountains of Africa en route to the Shira Plateau (12,000) where they’ll make camp.

All is well…

Tye Chapman

Kili Team Ready To Go

September 1, 2010

IMG Guide Olivia Cussen called in from the Keys Hotel in Moshi, Tanzania to report that all is well. The team arrived on schedule and have already knocked out their equipment check. They’ll enjoy a nice dinner this evening (they’re +10 hours from us here in PST) before leaving the hotel tomorrow morning at 7:30 to start their journey to the top of Africa.

Tye Chapman

Torment-Forbidden Traverse Trip Report

August 31, 2010

IMG Guide Justin Merle

Torment-Forbidden Traverse Panarama. (Photo by Justin Merle)

On August 16^th I met Ari and Brook in the town of Marblemount to prepare for 4 days of challenging alpine climbing.Â Looking at the great weather forecast, we pared down our gear to make our packs as light as possible.Â Our objective was to climb Mount Torment, then traverse the mile long alpine ridge to Forbidden Peak.Â The route involves a lot of 4^th and low 5^th class climbing in an awe-inspiring alpine setting.Â We planned to spend at least one night and possibly a second on the ridge.

After sorting out our gear we drove to the trailhead, enjoying the great views of Mount Johannesburg across the valley.Â The trail gave us a taste of the classic North Cascades approach.Â Below treeline the vegetation was abundant, and the trail was slightly overgrownâ€”at times it felt like we were walking through a tunnel.

After spending a night in Boston Basin, we started our climb toward Torment, over glacial moraine, polished granite slabs, and finally the Taboo glacier.Â Our route on the South Ridge of Torment involved several hours of climbing over varied terrain: solid rock, 4^th class heather, and some loose climbing.Â As we reached the summit of Torment, we saw the spectacular views to the north that would accompany us for the rest of the traverseâ€”turquoise lakes in the remote Thunder River drainage, broken glaciers and icefalls, and of course, the knife-edge ridge connecting Torment to Forbidden Peak.Â A bit of descending brought us to an exciting rappel across a gaping bergschrund to the north side glacier, after which we decided to bivy.

Torment – Forbidden Traverse. (Photo by Justin Merle)

We started early the following day, traversing the snow until we could regain the rock farther east.Â Fun, blocky, 5^th class climbing took us back to the ridge crest, where we climbed for the bulk of the rest of the day, opting to take the more challenging climbing over some easier options to the south of the ridge.Â The climbing was exposed, fun, and physical.Â The weather was perfect.Â Rather than trying to cram it all in to the one day, we bivied again at the start of the West Ridge of Forbidden, saving this classic climb for the final day.

We woke with the dawn to a cooler and windier dayâ€”ominous lenticular clouds would build over the peaks, then disappear.Â The weather was still good, but we wore all our clothing to stay warm as we climbed.Â The climb to the summit of Forbidden was the perfect way to endâ€”great climbing on more solid rock to the summit of one of the more sought after peaks in the Cascade Range.Â After a few hours of descent, we were back in lower basin where it was warmer.Â We were tired, but psyched to have completed the Traverseâ€”three full days of fun and challenging climbing.Â Like horses to the barn we scrambled down the trail toward burgers and beer.

Thanks for a great climb guys!

-Justin

All Is Well At Base Camp (15,500ft)

August 31, 2010

Loading a yak - what a view!

Mike Hamill reports from Cho Oyu BC at about 15,500 feet that everyone is doing very well. Today the team took another acclimatization hike and the Sherpas continued to pack up yak loads and get ready to move to Advanced Base Camp (ABC).Â Later in the afternoon they had some rain with some fresh snow on the higher hills above camp.Â Overall, however, the weather is quite good on the Tibet side of the range (unlike Nepal where the monsoon is still going strong).

IMG Sherpas Mingma Tenzing, Mingma Dorje, and Nima Karma and the Tibetan yak drivers made it up to ABC with 30 yaks today and are working to get that camp established. Â Each yak can carry about 60 kg (in the autumn season, when they are strong from summer grazing) with one 30kg load on each side.Â Tomorrow the yaks will come back down to Base Camp and then the next day (Sep 2) the members and remaining Sherpas will move to Interim Camp (IC), and then to ABC the following day.

Eric

Cho Oyu Climbers Reach Base Camp

August 30, 2010

Yak drivers dividing loads.

IMG Cho Oyu team leader Mike Hamill reports by sat phone from Cho Oyu Base Camp that the team is doing well and the base camp is looking good after the Sherpas went ahead and got it established. After travelling halfway around the world the team is all looking forward to spending a few days at BC relaxing, acclimatizing, and getting organized.

Mike says that it rained last night and today it is clear, with fresh snow on the hills above BC.Â Â They are doing an acclimatization hike today.Â Â Tomorrow the yak drivers will start hauling loads up to ABC with the Sherpas so that camp will be all ready to go in a few days when the climbers move up.Â The only other climbers currently on Cho Oyu are a large Chinese expedition.

So far so good!

Eric Simonson

Cho Oyu Climbers Reach Tingri

August 28, 2010

Tingri with Cho Oyu in the background.

Mike Hamill reports that the team had two good acclimatization nights in Nyalam with a nice hike yesterday.Â Weather is good.Â Today the climbers reached Tingri (over 14,000 feet) and the Sherpas continued on and have now established the Base Camp.Â Other than a few small headaches, the team continue to acclimatize well. After two nights in Tingri and some more acclimatization hiking, the team will head for Base Camp.

Eric Simonson

Cho Oyu Team Arrives In Nyalam, Tibet

August 27, 2010

On the road to Nyalam

Our IMG Cho Oyu Sirdar, Ang Passang, called at 07:30 Nepal time this morning to inform everyone is doing well and that they haveÂ now reached Nyalam (12,300 feet) where the members will spend two nights to acclimatize. Tomorrow the Sherpas will push on to Tingri, to get in position to start working on Base Camp.Â So far everyone is doing well.

Eric Simonson

Wildflowers At Their Peak On Mt. Rainier

August, 26, 2010

Mt. Rainier moonset and spectacular wildflowers (Photo by Rick Saez- JanSport)

Guest Blogger Rick Saez from JanSport dropped us a line this morning with a sweet photo taken inside Mt. Rainier National Park earlier this week so we asked him to crank out a blog post for usâ€¦ Mt. Rainier moonset and spectacular wildflowers (Photo by Rick Saez- JanSport) Derrick and I had a great meeting with the IMG Team Monday. We spent some time getting feedback on the JanSport Tahoma packs theyâ€™ve been and using for the 2010 Rainier Season. The overall feedback was very positive as everyone that used the pack felt it is a great pack for Rainier as well as other Alpine environments. They gave us some terrific ideas for improvements too.

We also discussed the Salish and Talus and got great reviews on them as well. We then spent some time discussing future ideas, which of course I canâ€™t tell you about other than to say there will be some cool stuff coming soon!

After the meeting the guys gave Derrick and I a great tip on a short hike we could do with our limited time left that afternoon. We raced up the hill to Paradise and hiked up the Deadhorse Creek trail. The wildflowers were at their peak. I got up early the next morning to go back up and photograph the moonset, which was awesome!

Thanks guys!

Rick Saez
JanSport

Machu Picchu Trek Wraps Up

August 26, 2010

Cusco (Photo by Eric Remza)

Phil called via sat phone from Agua Calientes, where the team enjoyed the night cleaning up after their successful trek.Â After some last minute shopping this morning, they will hop a two-hour train heading towards Cusco, then connect with their private bus to finish the trip.

A great end to a great trek!

Phil Ershler

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