Happy New Year!

Its 2013! Libby and I are heading down to Monjo and then up the opposite ridge to base out of the Kongde vicinity for ice.

Pushups at 5800 meters. Views of Everest, Lhotse, Cholatse, etc...

Yaks, our Base Camp at 4900 meters, the ultimate high-altitude highball with Everest view, and two new ice routes (WI4, 60meters) and (III WI5, 150 meters).

Some video from the trip up to Lumsumna Glacier...

December 19, 2012

Leaving Thame and on to above Arya. This is the last signal for the next few weeks!

Rest Day in Namche

Today Pete and I took a rest day in Namche, the gateway to the Everest region, preparing last minute food items for our continuation onto Thame. While Pete reviewed all our gear, our Sherpa, Pemba, and I escaped to the hills for photographic exploits.

Journey to Namche -- more pics..

YakDonald's in Lukla. Pemba and Gyalpin in Namche. Off brand Marmot in Phakding.

Namche Bazar December 16, 2012

Here's the view from our hotel in Namche. The ice is coming in but it's thin. The famous 800 meter Losar looks really hard!

We leave this morning for Lukla. Very happy to be getting out of Kathmandu fast and into the hills. Here's a few cool resource we found that are very helpful: http://web.mit.edu/~maznev/www/khumbu-ice/ http://www.joepuryearimages.com/Climb-Nepal/Takargo/13540961_2GtHJN#!i=987414740&k=2q5S9bm

I found a trove of Russian made titanium pitons on a dusty shelf in a hole-in-the-wall shop in Thamel.  These baby's--rare in the US--are worth their weight in gold, maybe not that much as they weigh a fraction of the equivalent sized chrome-moly Lost Arrows.

Packing 200 pounds of gear and baggage.

The busy streets of Thamel.

December 14, 2012

Libby Sherwood and I are staying in Thamel, the tourist ghetto of Kathmandu. We've been in Nepal for two days and just arranged our logistics with the help of Osho World Adventure (www.oshoadventure.com). Tomorrow we fly to Lukla and start the seven day hike up the Bhote Koshi Nadi to look for unclimbed ice routes. It will be nice and cold by the time we reach our base camp. I'm looking forward to the experience -- like living inside a giant Frigidaire freezer for a couple weeks.