Trek to Everest Base Camp, April 2010

[He219]

Never did finish, so here it is..
Approaching Everest Basecamp from Gorak Shep:

Nuptse West Face heading up

View up the lateral moraine towards BC and Tibet on the other side of the distant ridgeline

You can just start to make out Basecamp on the bottom left hand side ..


Mount Everest. You can clearly see the South Summit and Hillary Step.




Entering Base Camp and walking through camps of the various expeditions ..


And finally entering our camp with Mountain Trip, greeted by Scott Woolumns and Bill Allen.

Cindy Abbott, poking out of the Dining Tent

Our friends Paul & Denise who summited just two weeks ago

We got red-carpet treatment!

View up the Khumbu Icefall

My tent, 3rd right




The Khumbu Icefall. I just gazed at it for about an hour. It's awesome.

At night you hear the creaking and popping of the Khumbu glacier moving below you. Rocks falling all day and night.



Cindy had this deep cough, but she made it to the summit!


Just missed one of the many avalanches



Some of the climbing Sherpas getting back

We had a Puja ceremony for the safe climbing of our friends. The head Sherpa was also a Lama (Buddhist Monk).

A full rainbow circle formed directly overhead.

Then the drinking began and continued the entire descent


Mountain Trip's Sherpas and our Sidar, Natang

With Pushkar Shah, Everest Peace Expedition 2010.
He rode his bike through 150 nations and summited Everest two weeks after this photo.
Pushkar Shah planted 150 little flags of the nations he visited on top, including the one I'm holding!

[lilbitmo]

Fritz,

Great, great pictures, been waiting to see the rest, nice pictorial, it's been fun seeing all of them, thanks for sharing them with all of us, nice work on making it up there.

[mve]

Once again jaw dropping pictorial!

I was going down the post hoping to see a good perspective shop of Khumbu Icefall and you just nailed it man! Here it is showing tiny little "ants/people" sprinkled all over the frame:



WOW just awesome, huge!

[He219]

Thanks, guys!


There are something like 30+ ladder crossings on the Khumbu Icefall.
Makes the one on the Ingraham Direct route on Rainier that Simonov & I crossed look like nothing!



Some consisted of three ladders lashed together!
'Saw a bunch of broken ladders at basecamp ..

Here's a video of them crossing an easy one using a Hero helmet cam:


Then another 4 days trekking out again ..
Larger
Larger
Ama Dablam down in the distance

All in all it's one of those epic journeys that difficult to put into words.
The sights, tastes and smells can only be experienced in person.
That's why it's difficult to put in words and pictures all that we experienced.
I'm grateful for having been there and having had a great group to share it with.

Congratulations Denise, Paul & Cindy along with everybody with Mountain Trip!
That is one fantastic operation. Five paying clients and 2 Guides, all made the summit along with 11 Sherpas.
The most Sherpa to client ratio on Everest 2010.

Climbing Team:

Vivian Rigney
Cindy Abbott
Denise Fejtek
Paul Fejtek
Ania Lichota
Bill Allen - Mountain Trip
Scott Woolums - Mountain Trip

Sherpas to reach the summit:

Tarke
Pasang Gombu
Sange
Temba
Da Wang Chhu
Pemba Chhotar
Pem Chiri
Pasang Tendi
Sonam Chhiring
Da Kusang
Karma Geljin


Congratulations also to our group of 23 in the Everybody to Everest Crew.
We raised a combined $104,671 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation with this trek to Everest Base Camp!

[mve]

Incredible footage! Simply amazing! Did you notice the constant coughing in the background? Someone was in great pain there. The crevasses are just mind numbing -- it feels as if the ropes and ladders are just barely hanging on. I can't even imagine what the "ice doctors/Sherpas" go through rigging all this up and keeping it from failing throughout the season. My hat goes off to these people.

[Taco]

Awesome stuff, brotha. Say we go back there someday, do some climbing.