17th Nov, 2011
Ben just called in from Dingboche with the great news that all 6 members of the team summited Island Peak today and are all safely back down!
Island Peak Summits
They left Island Peak BC on a crisp and clear morning at 2am and topped out at 9:30am with perfect views of Lhotse, Nuptse, Ama Dablam, Baruntse, Makalu and more. After many days with clouds and snow they were treated to a great day for a summit push. Ben said they climbed well as a team and were all really happy to make the first of hopefully two summits!
Island Peak summiteers are:
Benjamin Kane
Siddhi Bahadur Tamang
Brad Jackson
Meeagan McGrath
Bryson McLellan
Colin Carnahan
After enjoying a celebratory rest on the top they made their way back to base camp by noon and decided to make a good push towards Ama Dablam BC. The happy team had a well-earned lunch, packed up and tromped for another 5 hours and arrived at Dingboche at 7pm by headtorch! They all really wanted to get back down lower for a good sleep and to make the trek back into Ama Dablam BC tomorrow an easy one.
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| Looking back to Island Peak from near Dingboche. Everest is lurking somewhere behind the massive Lhotse wall on the left! |
Ama Dablam Next Up
With just 3-4 hours of easy going tomorrow they will pull in nice and early and begin a few days of rest before making an alpine push on Ama Dablam. Hopefully the clearing weather will stay for a while and make their summit bid on Ama Dablam a beautiful one. Likely at this point they will rest on 18 and 19 and head to C1 on 20, c2 on 21, c3 on 22 and summit on 23. After they have arrived at Ama Dablam BC and had a chance to rest up the team will formalize the plan and let us know.
Dingboche is one of the most beautiful places in the Khumbu with spectaular views of Ama Dablam, Island Peak, Tawoche and the Lhotse wall. We visit Dingboche each year on our Everest BC treks, Khumbu Peaks & Passes trips and of course on our Ama Dablam and Island Peak climbs. Often if there are some spare days at the end of an Ama Dablam trip members will come down and spend an extra night in Dingboche to enjoy the high part of the Khumbu before descending to Namche.
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| Ama Dablam, has an even more intimidating appearance from near Dingboche and looks at seldom tried routes which are highly technical and are attempted only by small and elite teams. |
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| The route from Dingboche over to the town of Pheriche is adorned with stupas and prayer flags the whole way. Pheriche is the site of the Himalayan Rescue Medical outpost which is worth the visit as well! |
1 comment:
Well done Ben & team on Island Peak - looks beautiful. Stay strong. Be following you on Ama Dablam.
Much love from Australia & UK.
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