Were all Here and Off to Kili Today!

A long flight for the Kilimanjaro Team, but were here and all things are good! We are off this morning for Kilimanjaro. Its still a bit of a journey today, 5+ hours to the start of the trek, then 3 to 4 hours to camp. So the adventure begins! We will be posting a report as soon as we are back here in Arshua after the climb. That will be on the 2nd. Scott Woolums reporting from Arusha, Tanzania.

On the Road to Africa!

John and I just left for Africa. And no, they do not have Moose in Africa, were in St Paul, MN on our way to Amsterdam and onto Kilimanjaro. Its a long way there, 24 hours or so in transit. Looking forward to being there and actually relaxing. Its been an extremely busy push to pull everything together for this, but now its all about going for a hike up Kili and seeing the best of Africa in Northern Tanzania! Scott reporting from another airport somewhere!

Off to Africa in a Couple Weeks!

Quick update on the upcoming Africa trip. The Montana Team is off to Kilimanjaro... followed by a safari to 5 different game parks in Tanzania! This is one of my favorite trips. Exotic, challenging and spectacular! Follow updates here starting October 23rd.  Scott Woolums reporting from Hood River, Oregon

 

Next Year!

Were all preparing now for our next years expedition to Mt Everest! Join us.... on one of the true challenges on our planet!

 

Namaste,

 

Bill Allen and Scott Woolums

 

Thanks to Our Sherpa Team!

We all wanted to say thank you again to our Sherpa team, one of the hardest working teams on the hill! Without them, this really would not be nearly as successful. These guys are some of the most stellar people on this planet! You simply could not ask for a better team for climbing Mt Everest with. I can say over many expeditions climbing with this team, I would not up high without everyone of our Sherpas!

 

From all of us at Mt. Trip, Thank You!

 

Scott Woolums

Celebrations and Congratulations!

Thanks and Congratulations come in many forms!

 

Enjoying Kathmandu!

A quick update from Kathmandu here.  A very busy couple days as we flew out from Base Camp in helicopters down to Lukla, and from there connected (after an extra night in Lukla!) onto Kathmandu. Awesome to be down and celebrating one of the best trips ever.  Now we are waiting for bags to show up for onwards flights home. Lots to do wrapping everything up. Mostly enjoying just being with the team and out for meals. Kathmandu definitely has a festive atmosphere now with a lot of teams here now. Lots more still hiking out. The helicopter option is definitely a good choice as when its time to go out, were there!  Staying at the Yak and Yeti, a good place to decompress (unacclimitize!) while meeting friends and taking care of business in Kathmandu style!

 

Scott Woolums reporting from Kathmandu!

More Photos from Up High!

Wahoo! Everyone is very excited (and exhausted) right now in Base Camp. Its
hard to believe that we made it, all of us. Reality is slowly sinking in. Up
till now we have been just too tired to really appreciate what just
happened! Everyone worked very hard for this goal. Its just simply amazing.
So we have attached some more photos from the summit push. A more few
details. Watching the weather forecasts closely, we made a decision to go up
to Camp 3 on the 21st. Simply perfect day, no wind, everyone moving well to
a small chopped out perch at 24,000 ft. on the Lhotse Face. Beautiful sunset
later, then super cold weather. Next morning looked perfect so off we went
to Camp 4 at 26,00ft., starting very early. Along the way we had to climb
the Yellow Band and the Geneva Spur. These are quite challenging at this
altitude. Quite a few people moved up to high camp on the same schedule as
us. Probably close to 80 people. It's a big mountain though, so people get
scattered quickly. So again, a very good day to move up. Into Camp 4 around
noon, so we had some time to rest, rehydrate and recover some. Then the wind
kicked in quite strong. Over the next few hours we were on the fence if we
would wait till the 24th to go as there were huge streamers of wind and
blowing snow coming off the top and through the South Col. Both Bill and I
were seriously worried about conditions...then the wind just stopped about
an hour before we had planned to leave for the summit. Remarkable and lucky!
So we continued to prepare and were off at 8.30pm on the 22nd for the top.
Yep, that's 8.30pm the day before! A long hard, cold night of climbing up
across the South Col, up the Triangle Face towards the Balcony. It's a night
of fighting personal fears, freezing cold and simply watching a small
headlight beam in front of you. It seems to take forever up to the Balcony
at close to 28,000ft. This is really our first stop in the dark to change
out our first Oxygen bottle. We had a total of 11 sherpa climbing with us,
carrying extra Oxygen which makes life up here safer, warmer and for most of
us...even possible! So from the Balcony we started up the difficult rock
climbing/scrambling towards the South Summit. This is where it slooowllly
got light, then we watched one of the most amazing sunrises over Tibet. We
had been climbing almost 8 hours at this point and those first rays of sun
felt simply amazing! So we now were in good position, winds were still light
and everyone was still moving well. AT the South Summit we again change out
our Oxygen so we have plenty for the climb over from the South Summit to the
Main Summit of Everest. This next section is where the famous "Hillary Step"
is. It's a very narrow, exposed ridge with quite interesting climbing at
well over 28,500 ft. now. After the Hillary Step, it's a slow climbing
traverse up and over to the main summit. Yahoo, we had all made it! As well
as our whole Sherpa team. That's 18 of us total! Top of our planet! The
winds were now blowing maybe 20 mph and it was farily cold, but still more
or less perfect weather for the summit! We spent almost an hour taking
pictures and enjoying the outstanding views all around us! SO then the long
descent begins. Quite a lot of cloud and wind moved in as we reached the
Balcony. This is where we loaned one of our sherpas, Gombu, to help another
climber with possible Cerebral Edema and who was having some troubles (later
this went well and he was evacuated from Camp 2). This climber was not in
our group. Anyways, quite a sporty descent and night as the winds and snow
continued till the next morning. So we had found the small window to summit
in. Not all teams are so lucky!

Now we are in Base Camp and packing everything as tomorrow there will not be
a camp here! Everything is getting loaded into barrils, onto Yaks for the 3
day descent back to Lukla where our equipment will be transferred to
Kathmandu. We have scheduled 2 charter helicopters for the flight out
leaving tomorrow morning. So it will be quite a shock to go from Base Camp
directly to Kathmandu in 1 day! But I can safely say that everyone is very
much looking forward to being back to civilization and everything that
holds! Although Kathmandus more of a transition back. So enjoy the photos,
more stories soon! And then Everest 2011.....

Scott Woolums Reporting from Everest Base Camp

Oh yes and some photos from the descent!

Your only halfway on the summit! Sometime the descent can be quite
challenging. We had some high winds and snow as we left Camp 4, then things
continued to improve. Enjoy!

Scott

Everest Summit 2010!

Yahoo! We are all back safe in Base Camp after a very successful summit on
May 23rd, 2010. We will keep this short as lots going on here in Base Camp.
But we wanted to get out the news that 7 members and 11 sherpa summited at
just after 9am in very good weather. Just a light wind, clear skys and
amazing views! We spent well over 30 mins. On top before starting down to
the South Col. Before getting back near the Balcony, we were caught by the
afternoon convective clouds with higher winds and snow with low visibility.
Back in Camp 4 it continued to snow and blow hard all night. More or less
shuting the mountain down, although we did hear a group made the summit in
poor conditions. Crazy weather, from super good to whiteout and blowing.
Anyways, were here in Base Camp, everyone is doing very well. No injuries,
no frostbite, no worries!

Lots more photos and stories on the way! Yahoo!

Scott Woolums reporting from Everest Base Camp.

High Winds in Camp 2!

5/19

Well its been an exciting day. Beautiful clear weather, just quite windy
this afternoon and tonight. We are planning to leave for Camp 3 tomorrow
morning, so hopefully we'll see less winds tomorrow for our trip up the
Lhotse Face. The weather forecasts have not offered a clear window this
year. Now we are trying to thread a needle (with several hundred other
climbers) between the Jet Stream, which is now very near Everest and an
approaching Cyclone in the Bay of Bengal that is heading our way soon. We
are looking at the 22nd now. Its going to be a windy climb up to the South
Col over the next couple days. We are actually in a very good position to
wait a day in C3 or C4 if conditions are unreasonable. We have lots of
Oxygen for any delays up high and one of the strongest Sherpa Teams on the
hill! Looking forward starting our summit push! Yahoo!

Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2, Mt. Everest.

Waiting in Camp 2

Seriously high winds on Everest. Some of the strongest winds I have seen. We
can hear the jet stream just above us ripping at the summit right now. We
had plans to move up to C3 today, and onto the South Col on the 21st. So
much for that! The whole upper mountain is being raked by winds of 50 to 100
mph. We went for a short walk this morning with hopes the winds could drop,
but only 1 hour out of camp it became quite clear that we were only going
for a short hike and not to the top of Everest this time. Everything looks
better for the 23rd now so that's our new focus. Our forecasts are looking
like the Cyclone will be bringing moisture to the Everest region around the
24 and 25th now. So another rest day in camp 2 playing cards, listening to
the wind and getting ready for tomorrow. Quite a few people moved to
C3today, we counted over 50. Although the winds have definitely increased
now, so our guess is some if not most will change plans and come down today.
Camp 3 is disappearing in huge waves of blowing snow from the South Col all
the way across the Lhotse Face to Lhotse Summit. Very impressive to see, not
to be in!

Photos from below the Lhotse Face this morning.

Scott Woolums reporting from Camp 2, 21,500ft., Everest.

Ready to Go!

Well its been a long trip of preparation, planning, travel, trekking, and
acclimitization to be here and now. Everything is ready to go for Everest.
Now its just a little waiting till we have a solid weather window. Everyone
is watching our forecasts for some break in the high winds that have been
pounding Everest for a week. There is a forecast for the winds to drop
starting the 23rd om May. Right now the Jet Stream is park right over the
mountain and weaving back and forth near the summit. And Everest sits right
up in the Jet Stream so its been quite exciting watching the winds hammer
the whole upper mountain.

Life here in Base Camp is quite comfortable. Cocktail hour at 4 with
appitizers, 2 heaters going off. Supper good shower and lots of interesting
hikes in the area to stay fit and entertained. Today we went up to Pumori
Camp 1 at around 19,500 ft. Fantastic views across the Khumbu Glacier to
Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse. Could see the entire North Ridge on the Tibet
side as well. Perfect day down low here.

SO all is good, will be going up in the next few days and as soon as were
back down, will post hopefully some photos from the summit! This will be my
5th summit if all goes well!

Photo from up on Pumori today!

Cheers to All,

Scott

Waiting in Base Camp......

Back in Base Camp and playing the waiting game now. Have been following all
the forecasts closely. Back a couple days ago from a super good break down
in Dingboche. Right now our Sherpa team is also taking a well deserved break
before we all move up for our summit go. Everything on the mountain is
completely set to go. Very little for the sherpas to take up to be ready for
the summit. So everyone is ready. The team is healthy and strong. So we only
have a little bit to wait as the forecasts are starting to look like a solid
window starting around the 22nd and 23rd. We have no set plans at this point
as we have till 5 days before to commit on a date. Any plans farther out are
more just wishful thinking. So we'll stay here. Everyone here in camp is
looking at a small break in the high winds that have been hammering the
upper mountain starting around the 16th. It does look like a decrease coming
in the winds that may allow some smaller/faster teams to blast up in. We
feel its to small, colder, lower success and higher risk to try with our
team. Patience is important as there is a tremendous incentive to push after
being in camp for a long time. Many teams here arrived in some cases over 2
weeks before we did in Base Camp. That makes for a very long trip waiting.
Today is our first actual waiting day of the expedition. Theres been lots of
stories of destroyed tents up in Camp 2 and from over on the North side. So
things have been a bit on the wild side the last few days. Even here in Base
Camp we had a few gusts approaching 50 shaking things up. We took down our
C2 tents 2 days ago so everything in our Camp 2 is good to go. We have a
Mountain Hardware Stronghold Dome tent in C2 that has proven to be
incredibly strong.

So this is one of the tougher parts of the trip, waiting and watching as the
season gets close to the end. A lot of anxiety watching and waiting. It's a
fine needle to thread between the start of the Monsoon and the end of the
high winds of May. We are looking for the big fluffy pre-monsoon cumulus
clouds to start floating around Everest as the jet stream pulls back. Then
off we go! Stay tuned!

Scott Reporting from Everest Base Camp!