Today is our last day in Kathmandu. Early tomorrow we will fly to Lukla and begin our trek to basecamp. We are all very busy today packing our bags again and buying the last minute things that we think we can’t live without. Our climbing gear, food and clothes are packed into their own bags […]
Mount Everest 2012
This morning Charlotte and Paul arrived in Kathmandu. They are our two basecamp trekkers and old university friends of Hugo’s. They live in Bath, UK with their two lovely daughters Georgia and Annie (who are being looked after by relatives.) We celebrated everyone’s arrival by having dinner together at one of the best restaurants in […]
Kathmandu is a wonderful, sprawling, bustling city and I always enjoy being here. One of the things I don’t enjoy are the internet cafes. This is the fourth time I’ve tried to write this blog entry. we’ll see if it works! We spend a few days in Kathmandu before starting our trek to basecamp. We […]
As you begin the climb out of basecamp you immediately have to tackle one of the most dangerous parts of the entire route – the Khumbu Icefall. the Khumbu glacier moves slowly down the western cwm, but suddenly it plunges over an enormous cliff, this causes the ice to rupture, splinter and form a jumble […]
Here’s a little background on Nawal, one of the climbers. If you ask Nawal where he grew up he will tell you “all over India”. His dad was in the Indian Army and they moved around alot. After school Nawal went to England and joined the Merchant Navy. He spent many years after that on […]
International airlines have a love-hate relationship with Everest climbers. They love that we bring lots of baggage, usually oversize and overweight, and they can charge us ridiculous sums of money to transport it. I’ve often heard climber discussing the ways that they managed to get their bags to Katmandu without extra charges, things like wearing […]
Already some of the expedition teams are arriving in Kathmandu. There are many reasons for arriving early: more time to acclimatize, perhaps its easier to find just the right spot at basecamp or maybe teams want to be ready for an early summit window. At HAEX we believe the best chance for a successful summit […]
Packing is an inadequate term when used to describe the preparations needed to get ready to climb Everest. I took over the spare bedroom weeks ago and began laying out all the clothing and equipment I might want to take. Now that room is full and I’m spilling over into the office and garage. It […]
In recent years the clothing that we wear on the mountains has been revolutionized. New fabrics, new manufacturing processes, new materials. Add that to lighter weight, better performance and what I will be wearing on Everest will be very different to the clothing I was wearing 15 years ago. Everything except socks – until now. […]