How to ruin a brand new down suit

May 30, 2012 Expedition dispatches everest, outdoor clothing, tumblr post 0 Comment

Answer: Try climbing Everest by the North Ridge One of my abiding memories of my descent from Camp 3 on 20 May, the day after we summited Everest, was of a cloud of feathers flying in front of me whenever

A parting gift from the China Tibet Mountaineering Association

May 24, 2012 Expedition dispatches china tibet mountaineering association, everest, tumblr post 0 Comment

I don’t have that many certificates. This one was acquired after 40 days spent camped at the end of a glacier looking up at a quite frightening piece of black granite as it got battered by the jetstream. In true

The world’s most terrifying ridge walk

May 23, 2012 Expedition dispatches altitude junkies, chongba sherpa, climbing fatalities, everest, exhaustion, ian cartwright, margaret watroba, mark dickson, scrambling, summit day, tibet 21 Comments

This is a short post briefly describing our successful ascent of Everest by the North Ridge on Saturday 19 May. I’ll describe it in more depth in a later post, once I’ve recovered from summit exhaustion and had more time

With a little help from my friends

May 14, 2012 Expedition dispatches altitude junkies, everest, everest base camp, sherpas, tumblr post 0 Comment

Very soon we’ll be starting out on our Everest summit push. All our preparations have been done, and from now on it’s just one foot in front of the other; the rest is in the hands of the mountain gods.

The Everest weather window

May 14, 2012 Expedition dispatches altitude junkies, blogging, bottled oxygen, chongba sherpa, everest, grant rawlinson, manaslu, sherpas, summit push, weather 9 Comments

The waiting, the resting and the acclimatisation is over. Tomorrow we move up to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) to get ourselves in position for our summit push. Our exact schedule is not yet confirmed as there still remain a few

Mallory and Somervell, 13 May 1922

May 13, 2012 Expedition dispatches bottled oxygen, china tibet mountaineering association, everest, george finch, george mallory, history of mountaineering, howard somervell, nepal, pumori, tibet 0 Comment

Here on the north side of Everest ropes have been fixed as high as 8300m, and the remainder will likely be fixed when the winds drop on 18th and 19th. If all goes to plan then teams will begin summiting

The Tibetan Village

May 12, 2012 Expedition dispatches acclimatisation, everest, everest base camp, ian cartwright, tumblr post 0 Comment

Climbers on the south side of Everest have plenty of options if they want to descend for a few days to a place where the air is thicker. As snow falls in the Western Cwm many have decided to descend

The North Col and the Ladder of Death

May 9, 2012 Expedition dispatches acclimatisation, altitude junkies, andrew lock, bottled oxygen, china tibet mountaineering association, eric shipton, everest, george mallory, phil crampton, tibet 7 Comments

The route up from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) to the North Col of Everest, up the North Col Wall, differs from year to year. It’s been scene of some famous accidents. The end of George Mallory’s 1922 expedition came abruptly

The mountain gods are mellowing

May 3, 2012 Expedition dispatches acclimatisation, altitude junkies, blogging, china tibet mountaineering association, everest, grant rawlinson, jetstream, phil crampton, sherpas, tibet, weather forecasts 2 Comments

Yesterday afternoon Everest wore the biggest plume of cloud I’ve ever seen, extending the entire length of the Northeast Ridge and beyond. I don’t know what the mountain gods were doing up there, but it was obvious they didn’t want

The Junkies’ shower

May 2, 2012 Expedition dispatches altitude junkies, everest, everest base camp, tumblr post 0 Comment

We have a very comfortable setup here at Everest Base Camp, with all sorts of luxuries people camping for a couple of months beside a glacier have no right to expect. Take our hot shower, for example. The blue barrel

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