The Icefall Route is in!

April 4, 2021

Meeting with Pangboche Lama Ngawang Paljurin Pengboche (Chhuldim Ang Dorjee Sherpa)

IMG Expedition Leader Jonathan Schrock checked in this morning to let us know that all is well up and down the Khumbu Valley with our IMG Teams.Â Yesterday, Team 1 followed the Sherpa tradition of meeting with Lama Ngawang Paljur at the Pangboche monastery for a blessing, before heading on up to Pheriche.Â Today they took a short acclimatization hike up the hill behind Pheriche and had beautiful views of Lobuche and Ama Dablam.Â This evening included a birthday celebration for Karl, which included a freshly baked cake, always an event that you donâ€™t want to miss.

: Phortse with Ama Dablam (Harry Hamlin)

: Thamserku from upper Pangboche (Mingma Tshering)

After three great nights in Namche for acclimatization, Kevin and Team 2 departed Namche and had a beautiful day on the trail to Phortse. Â The trek over to Phortse is one of our favorites, with beautiful views of Thamserku, Ama Dablam, Lhotse and Everest along the way.Â Phortse is home to many of IMGâ€™s Sherpa team and is located in a perfect place for spending a night a bit off the beaten trail.Â Tomorrow, Team 2 will trek the high trail route to Pangboche for their own visit with the Lama, before moving on to Pheriche.

Sonam and Phunuru looking down the valley towards Pheriche_and Ama Dablam (Eric Simonson)

Higher up the valley, IMG Senior Guide Phunuru Sherpa moved to Lobuche Base Camp and reports that our camp site and staff are all ready for the Team 1 arrival tomorrow. Â Â And, even further up the valley, Ang Jangbu moved to Everest Base Camp where he will be working with our advanced team over the next few days fine tuning the camp ahead of our Teamsâ€™ arrival.Â Ang Jangbu also wanted to let us know the Icefall Doctors have finished the route all the way to Camp 2!Â IMG Guides Dawa Tenzing and Sherpa Fura will be departing EBC at 3am to head up the Icefall to Camp 1 and Camp 2 in order to claim our camp sites.

All is well in the Khumbu Valley!

Greg Vernovage

Great news from the Khumbu Valley!

April 1, 2021

Team 2 at the Pasang Lamu Gate (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

We received Â welcome updates overnight from both of the IMG Teams. Â Down in Phaplu the Team 2 was up early looking at the weather and standing by for their helicopter flights to Lukla. Â The team made a great decision to head out of KTM by vehicle in order to get to higher ground and clear skies, and they were rewarded with excellent weather and smooth flights.Â After departing Lukla via the famous Pasang Lamu Gate, the trail slowly traverses and descends to the Dudh Kosi river at Phakding. Â Getting to Phakding is a great feeling.Â The river flowing along with cool and clean air is always a welcome feeling for the first day on the trail.Â Team 2 will head uphill to Namche in the morning!

: Heli in Lukla (Eric Simonson)

: Phakding Lodge (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

Up in Namche, Team 1 had a casual morning at the lodge before taking the short trek up to Everest View Hotel.Â The clouds broke and the team got their first view of Mount Everest.Â Team 1 is feeling great and will head to Phortse in the morning.

Ama Dablam, Lhotse and Everest (Greg Vernovage)

Karma Rita also checked in overnight with some photos of the progress being made at Everest Base Camp.Â The advanced

Storage, dining and cook tents up at EBC (Karma Rita Sherpa)

team has been working hard!Â They now have all of the big tents up including the cook tents, dining tents, storage tents, charging and comms tents.Â They will now start carving out member tent platforms in anticipation of the teams arrival in just over a week.Â It is great to see the Puja Alter ready to go.Â We cannot wait to usher in the 2021 Everest/Lhotse Climbing Season with our entire team.

: Setting up the weatherport at EBC (Karma Rita Sherpa)

: Puja Alter at EBC (Karma Rita Sherpa)

All is well in the Khumbu Valley!

Greg Vernovage

IMG Returns to the Khumbu Valley!

March 31, 2021

: Team 1 ready to hit the trail in Phakding (Jonathan Schrock)

: Team 2 departing KTM (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

Phaplu heli (Jonathan Schrock)

All Teams were on the move today in Nepal.Â Up in Phaplu IMG Leader Jonathan Schrock checked in at dawn to let us know the weather looked good after a night of thunderstorms, and that the team was ready to head for the Khumbu Valley.Â Sure enough our charter helicopters were soon flying and they were off to Phakding (normally the first overnight on the EBC trek, beyond Lukla).Â After a nice breakfast in Phakding, the team loaded up and hit the trail for Namche.Â They enjoyed beautiful weather for the entire day as they climbed above the lowland haze and had great mountain views.Â At Monjo they entered Sagarmatha National Park, then crossed over the classic high bridges over the Dudh Kosi River before tackling the famous Namche Hill.Â They pulled into Namche feeling good and will explore the largest village in the Khumbu Valley tomorrow.

: Crossing the Suspension Bridge to Namche (Jonathan Schrock)

: Team 2 arrives to Phaplu (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

Back in Kathmandu, Ang Jangbu called to report that Team 2 was loading the SUVâ€™s with gear and were ready to hit the road for Phaplu.Â Air quality had improved slightly but the team decided to make the move to Phaplu where their chances will be better to catch heli flights up to the Khumbu Valley tomorrow morning.Â The team will be up early tomorrow morning in Phaplu to check at the weather, and hopefully will soon be following Team 1 into the mountains.

We are so excited to be back on the trail in the Khumbu Valley!

Entering Sagarmatha Park at Monjo (Jonathan Schrock)

Greg Vernovage

Patience and Flexibility for the Everest Teams

March 29, 2021

: Team 1 departing KTM (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

: Team 2 Meeting Photo (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

IMG Teams 1 and 2 have been doing a fantastic job taking care of themselves in Kathmandu as they prepare to head for the Khumbu Valley.Â Â IMG Guides Andy Politz and Kevin Kayl went to the Ministry and have now received the IMG climbing permits for Everest and Lhotse.Â We are official now!Â Team 1 members have all now passed their required COVID tests and are ready to goâ€¦.but wait, there is another challenge for them!

: 2021 Lhotse Permit with Kevin Kayl (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

: 2021 Everest Permit with Andy Politz (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

There have been a great number of forest fires occurring in Nepal as a result of a very dry winter.Â Due to the smokey air, all the Lukla flights have been grounded in KTM for the last three days with little sign of improvement.Â The IMG Leaders put their thinking caps on and decided to pack up, load up into vehicles, and head east to Phaplu where the smoke conditions are better and from where they will have a better chance to fly into the Khumbu Valley.Â It was all smiles this morning as they loaded up and drove out of town.Â Team 1 is now in Phaplu (7,918 ft / 2,413 m) for the night and they will be up before first light to catch an early morning flight into the Khumbu.Â Â IMG Trekking Sirdar Â Sonam Sherpa is now in Lukla arranging porters and he reports some light rain which we hope will help to push down the smoke.Â Â Team 2 will be getting their required COVID tests tomorrow and hopefully will be departing Kathmandu the following day.

: Team 1 departing the hotel in KTM (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

: Dinner in Phaplu (Phunuru Sherpa)

Greg Vernovage

Team 1 arrives in Kathmandu; Base Camp construction continuing

March 23, 2021

: EBC coming together (Ang Pasang)

: Storage Tent at EBC (Ang Pasang)

There is a ton of action going on in Nepal! Â Expedition Leaders Jonathan Schrock and Ang Jangbu report that the members of the Team 1 arrived on time with all of their luggage, which is always great news! Over the next few days they will be keeping busy with gear checks and preparations.

Up at Everest Base Camp our Advanced Team have been enjoying beautiful weather which has allowed them to set up several of the big tents.Â Ang Pasang arrived with his yaks to drop off another load of essential gear and sent us some great photos of the progress at EBC.

: Gear in Storage at EBC (Ang Pasang)

: Oxygen in storage (Ang Pasang)

IMG Guides Kevin Kayl and Andy Politz departed the USA yesterday and are currently in route to Nepal, and the Team 2 will be arriving in the next couple days.

Itâ€™s great to see the expedition teams coming together!

Greg Vernovage

Advanced Team at EBC; IMG Guides arriving to Kathmandu

March 3, 2021

Advanced Team heading to EBC (Karma Rita Sherpa)

There is a lot happening in Nepal now, as we prepare for our 2021 IMG Everest and Lhotse expeditions.Â Up in the Khumbu, the Advanced Team led by Senior Guide Karma Rita Sherpa arrived to Everest Base Camp a couple of days ago and have started building the camp.Â Their first job will be constructing large tent platforms for the kitchen and dining tents, which requires moving a lot of rocks and chopping a lot of ice!Â Accompanying the Team to EBC was IMG stalwart Ang Pasang and his parade of yaks, carrying food, fuel, oxygen and equipment.Â In the coming days Ang Pasang and his yaks will make several more round trips between Syangboche and EBC with additional supplies.

The Ang Pasang Yak Train (Ang Pasang Sherpa)

IMG guides Jonathan Schrock and Ang Dorjee Sherpa departed the USA yesterday and have just landed in KTM with all of their gear.Â They will be working with Ang Jangbu, Pasang and Mohan to prepare for the arrival of our climbers and trekkers over the next few days.

We are excited to have our team together in Kathmandu soon!

Greg Vernovage

Checking out the climbing route for Everest 2021

March 9, 2021

: West Shoulder with ice block gone (Phunuru Sherpa)

: Upper Icefall (Phunuru Sherpa)

Phunuru checked in from Phortse where he has been doing some training with our guide team, as well as recently taking a really incredible helicopter ride up into the Western Cwm. Â He reports that the Lhotse Face is in good shape and he said the precarious ice block that was hanging over the Icefall on the West Shoulder has released.Â Great news!

: Western Cwm 3-9-21 (Phunuru Sherpa)

: Lhotse Face 3-9-21 (Phunuru Sherpa)

: Lhotse Face (Phunuru Sherpa)

Greg Vernovage

IMG Preparations in full swing for Everest 2021

March 1, 2021

Repackaging oxygen for the trip to Base Camp on a yak (Ang Jangbu Sherpa)

Itâ€™s March, and that means Everest season is just around the corner.Â Over in Nepal, after a long hiatus, IMG Senior Guide Phunuru Sherpa and our other Phortse based guides and Sherpas are chomping at the bit to get back on Everest!Â Now, they are preparing to start moving our equipment and supplies up to Everest Base Camp, and our advance Base Camp construction team will soon be moving up to begin building all of the tent platforms.

Phunuru and wife Kancha by their house in Phortse (Eric Simonson)

Just yesterday, the Icefall Doctors, employed by Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) started their trek to Everest Base Camp.Â Their job is to get a head start on the climbers, as they will be building the route through the Icefall in the coming weeks.Â Itâ€™s a difficult task which requiring the installation of many ladders and ropes, and we wish them the best as they start this hard work.Â Back at home here in the USA, our team is assembling the final loads of gear to send over to Nepal and looking forward to getting out the door ourselves.Â We are ready to head to Mount Everest this Spring!

SPCC Icefall Doctors at their Base Camp puja (Phunuru Sherpa)

Greg Vernovage

Mt Vinson January 2022 availability

February 24, 2021

Last steps to the top (Eric Simonson)

There were NO Mt. Vinson programs operated this past season (with any company) due to COVID.Â For that reason there is now a backlog of climbers wishing to climb Mt Vinson for the upcoming 2021-22 season, and there are only a very few seats remaining on the IL-76 flights to the ice. Our IMG November 2021 Mt Vinson trip with Justin Merle is filled. We are currently holding a few additional seats for our January 6, 2022 Mt Vinson trip with Jonathan Schrock. We are quite certain that all the Vinson seats will be sold in the next few weeks (with any operator).

If you want to climb Mt Vinson with IMG in the 2021-22 season, now is the time to commit. Please get in touch ASAP.Â First come, first served!

Eric Simonson

Escape to Bolivia!

February 16, 2021

: Road to Illimani with the mountain in the distance (Harry Hamlin)

: Full moon over Huayna Potosi (Greg Vernovage)

: Pequeno Alpamayo/Condoriri Base Camp (Greg Vernovage)

Legend has it that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made a break for it, escaping the USA and heading to Bolivia to hide out after robbing banks.Â We are all looking for places to go right now and we have a good looking team coming together for Bolivia.Â We do not suggest robbing any banks to go down there but we do think this trip is a great bang for the buck!Â Join IMG in Bolivia from July 18-30 (Illimani Extension July 31 – August 6, 2021)

Shoot us a note if you are interested here. (Get it? â€œshootâ€ us a note)

Greg Vernovage