Makalu 2011: End of Expedition and accurate reporting from Exweb

I am back in Kathmandu, it is good to eat yummy food and see some friends from other expeditions. I received a few emails to clarify the last few days on Makalu.

The most accurate reporting I have found is from www.explorersweb.com dated May 25th 2011:

(Newsdesk) Asian Trekking reports to ExplorersWeb that a Swiss 33-year old female member of the Makalu Spring Expedition 2011 was found dead after summit inside her tent at Camp 3 on May 22.

"The news seems confirmed by Fabrizio Zangrilli in a broken voice dispatch over satellite. On his website today, Martin Ramos issued a statement along with Jorge Egocheaga saying that Joëlle Brupbacher died on Makalu La at 7,400 m on May 22 at 11.30 pm.

Slovak Peter Hamor, Romanian Horia Colibasanu and the two Spaniards Jorge Egocheaga and Martin Ramos summited Makalu on Saturday, May 21, at 1 pm.

The climbers shared permit with Joëlle Brupbacher, Oscar Fernández, Peter Hámor, Gia Totladze, Kinga Baranowska, Oxana Morneva and Fabrizio Zangrilli.

In place were also a number of Slovenian climbers, American Steve House, and commercial expeditions Jagged Globe (and Kobler according to ExWeb's list of expeditions).

Martin Ramos says that after their summit he and Jorge met Joelle in the French corridor at 8,200 meters around 2.30 pm and advised her to turn around due to the late hour. She pushed on with her Sherpa Pasang and the climbers met up again in C4 about 10.30 pm that night.

Checking with Pasang that Joelle was OK, Martin and Jorge continued descent to BC the next morning. Joelle became unable to move in camp 3. Pasang was with her, along with Peter and Horia, radioing down the mountain for help.



Unacclimatized and unfamiliar with the route, Jorge's and Martin's cook Migma (a close friend to Jorge) climbed up with the bottle and left it between C2 and C3 (at about 7,200) until asked at 10 pm by Jorge to turn back .



Jorge then turned to Fabrizio, Steve House and Marco (Prezelj) who left for C3 after midnight and reached 7,100 meters at 6 am. Unfortunately, the climbers descended with Horia and Peter, after Joëlle had died of exhaustion in camp 3 at 11.30 pm. "

After this I rested one day, then Kinga and I started up for a summit push. It was equally a beautiful and horrific experience. Beautiful as we had the whole mountain to ourselves, as we headed up from base camp our friends departed base camp, we were alone. Makalu is a big mountain and we felt the energy of it. It was beautiful. It was horrific as I had agreed to bury Joelle in the camp 3 area. It was very sad for me as we had been on Makalu together the year before. It never get easy. Kinga and I continued onwards and upwards the next day to Camp 4 and awoke to a perfect night and headed towards the summit. After 350 meters I was too tired to continue. The winds had blown away all previous tracks and mid calf deep snow the rest of the way to the summit - over 450m vertical away - was just not safe for me anymore. We tried. Now it is time to think to the future.....more to come.

My thoughts are with Joelle's family and close friends.

Makalu 2011 Acclimatization in Khumbu photos

We finished our acclimatization in the Khumbu very successfully. We climbed Island Peak with our friend Justin and had a fun time all around. Luckily we got to spend an evening with another friend Brian who is headed to Everest, and met a few other very nice people. The most interesting group has been a school group from New Zealand, visiting nurseries and schools all part of the Hillary Trust - some of which like the Khumjung School celebrates its 50th anniversary this May. Impressive. The kids are all between the ages of 15 and 19 and seem to be very amazed by the huge differences between their home lives and that of rural Nepal (however rich the Khumbu is by comparison to the rest of the country).

All lodge owners and perhaps the guy who has the most accurate finger on the pulse of the number of tourists in the Khumbu, Santosh from Namche Cyber Cafe is reporting the number of tourist is very low. It begs the question that when Nepal launches a Year of Tourism again does it scare tourists due to expected big crowds, or better yet, what is the incentive for coming? Do peak fees drop? Will they wave the visa fee for return visitors? There should be something, not just saying it is the year to visit Nepal - which kinda happens every couple of years. We will start posting from Makalu very soon. Oh yeah, happy Easter!

Here are a few photos from the trip so far: Photo at top is of a monk at Pangboche monastery.

Even the horses are hungry at the bottom of the hill in Phunky Tenga.

The Pre Island Peak Beer Justin bought, thanks!

Mani Stones line the path to Everest.

Kinga and Justin nearing the top of the face on Island Peak. It is steeper than most expect.

Me at the Kukuczka Memorial Chorten halfway between Dingboche and Chuckung, Kinga is a representative of his Foundation, we filmed there for a bit.

Yak bells, Made in Premana? No, few know that CAMP has for over 100 years produced the cow bells heard across the Alps.

Rice and other ceremonial items at the Pangboche Monastery.

Yaks in Dingboche during an afternoon snow storm.

Santosh, the Man at Namche Cyber Cafe.

Happy Easter!

Makalu 2011 Expedition: Flying:here we come: first flip flop ascent?

It should all be easy once you have checked in, kick back, relax, read, watch a few movies and sleep your way around the world. But sometimes it is not so easy, nobody is sure why, but I cannot check my bags all the way through to Kathmandu, if I get to Singapore and have to pay excess baggage charges again then I will be leaving most of the bags in Singapore and will be making the first ascent of Makalu in a pair of Scarpa Blitz, jeans, Vars Hoody and a Centaur 38 liter pack. Light is right? Well I don't want to be that light.

The past few days have been hectic, I spent alot of time with the Crew at Ripstop adjusting some stuff for filming, Jesse and Glen at CAMP/Cassin figuring out ways to lighten up my bags or hardware - which we did very successfully! - Chris spent some time with me molding boot liners at SCARPA in the 65 degree heat in Boulder on Friday, the Fed Ex man and I got to know each other quite well as he repeatedly showed up with the latest and greatest from Andy at Marmot. Both locations (Estes and Boulder) of the House for Wayward climbers were as good to me as usual as my bags repeatedly exploded for repacking sessions late into the night.

Spring skiing is amazing in Colorado right now, I was very sad to say goodbye to my new fat skis, luckily the snow will be around for a long time and again next season.