Everest 2007 Expedition News

The Team Leader : Dave Pritt and Robin Beadle
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Team: Keith Armour, Carrie Gibson, Daniel Tebay, Chris Harling, Graham Blackmun, Andrew Wilkinson, Anthony Williams, Paul Taylor, Lloyd Best, Ian McKeever
Sherpas: Nuru Wangchhu , Surrendra, Pasang, Dorjee, Lhakpa

25th May 11.00am: All the team are now back in the UK.

22nd May 2.00pm: All the team are now back in kathmandu. The group are hoping to change their flights in order to get back early. All being well they will arrive back in the UK over the next few days.

May 9.30am: All the team are now back at BC. Ian is feeling much better. They will leave for Kathmandu tomorrow, and all being well will get to Kathmandu late tomorrow, if not then the 22nd.

19th May 11.00am: Andrew, Anthony, lloyd & Keith are now in Kathmandu ready to watch the match. Ian & Dave will be heading down to BC tomorrow Ian has got his vision back but his eyes are still quite sore. The rest of the team have headed down to BC to today. They will now leave for Kathmandu on the 22nd.

18th May 2.29pm: All the team are now down at ABC. They will head down to BC tomorrow and all being well will be back in Kathmandu on the 21st May.

17th May 4.00pm: Carrie & Paul have now arrived at ABC. Robin is on the North Col and will wait there for Chris, Graham and Ian to arrive in a couple of hours. All 4 will spend the night there and head down to ABC tomorrow. Andrew, Anthony, Keith & Lloyd have returned to BC and should be in Kathmandu some time tomorrow.

17th May 11.30am: Dan has arrived at ABC apparently looking very fresh all things considered. Paul & Robin are currently at the North Col and will be heading down to ABC shortly. Carrie & Chris are on their way down from 7800m to the North Col, all being well they will arrive down at ABC by the end of today, if not they will spend the night at the North Col. Graham is at 7800m with a couple of the Sherpas he’s going slowly but is on Oxygen, he will spend tonight at the North Col. Ian is also at 7800m he is suffering from some snow blindness, which should clear in a few days, and is being assisted down by some of the sherpas. Ian will also spend the night at the North Col. The top camp has now been cleared as the sherpas descend.

16th May 3.30pm: Our final news update for the day. Graham, Nuru & Pasang have safely reached the high camp at 8200m where the’ll spend the night.

16th May 2.00pm: Ian & Chris are safely back at High Camp while Graham is making steady progress downwards guided by Nuru & Pasang. He’s about an hour above camp but should still arrive before dark. The weather is still fine and folk will be getting ready for a well deserved nights rest. We anticipate our next update being tomorrow morning when they’ll all continue their downward progress hopefully all the way to ABC. Well done to everyone for an amazing day.

16th May 11.30am: Paul & Robin have now arrived back at the High Camp planning to descend to 7800m while Ian & Chris with Pasang are within sight and have around 45 minutes to go. Nuru as our stongest Sherpa has dropped back and is now climbing with Graham. Dan is well on his way to the lower camp (7800m) and Carrie is preparing to leave for her descent. The weather is still looking good with light winds and minimal cloud Anthony, Lloyd & Andrew have now all descended to Base Camp while Dave has stayed at ABC to coordinate the climb.

16th May 10.00am: News is slightly harder to come by at present as everyone is concentrating on getting down safely. We will keep updating this site as the news comes in. Carrie and Dan have safely reached the high camp at 8200m. The plan is for them to descend to to Camp 2 after a brief rest and a drink. Everyone else is now below the Second Step, the hardest part of the whole climb and moving steadily downwards.

16th May 6:34am: Graham and Pasang have reached the summit of Everest, they arived on the top at 10:30am Nepali time. It will be a short stop on the top, just time for some photos and then they will need to head back down to camp. So all 12 that left for the summit from Camp VI have reached the summit and are now heading down.

16th May 4:41am: After six years working for Adventure Peaks, working his way up from cook boy to cook, Surendra has achieved his life ambition of standing on the summit of Everest. He has worked extremely hard this year acting as cook and then replacing one of our sherpa’s, who suffered a pulled muscle, at short notice. A big congratulations from all the AP staff. Graham is still heading up with Pasang Sherpa, hopefully he can make it before the turn around time draws to a close.

16th May 4:19am: Chris & Paul along with Nuru Wangchhu Sherpa have reached the summit. Graham, Surendra & Pasang Sherpa are still on their way to the summit and all being well should reach it within the hour. The rest of the team are progressing back down along the NE Ridge.

16th May 3:18am: Ian, Robin & Dorjee Sherpa have reached the summit. Carrie, Dan & Lhakpa Sherpa are on their way down. Chris, Graham & Paul are not too far behind, nearing the summit ridge.

16th May 1:43am: Dave has just received a radio call from the summit. Carrie, Dan & Lhakpa Sherpa have arrived at the summit at 6:23am Nepali time. The rest of the team are still on their way and are within an hour of the summit.

16th May 12:36am: Dave has just received a radio call from one of the sherpas. The team have reached the Second Step, some above and some below, there is virtually no wind and no cloud. The team are going well, and we expect the first members to reach the summit within the next 1 – 2 hours.

15th May 12:30pm: After a night at 7800m the team have headed up to the top camp at 8200m. Keith has now returned to ABC after feeling dizzy and suffering a slight black out, he reached an altitude of 7945m on the North Ridge. The rest of the team have now arrived at 8200m and will rest until about 10.30pm Nepal time when they will then make their bid for the summit.

14th May 3pm: Andrew, Anthony, Lloyd & Dave have returned to ABC, all the other members of the team have now reached Camp V at 7800m.

14th May 10am: The summit bid is on. The team are now aiming to summit on the 16th May. Yesterday the team stayed at the North Col and today they are heading up to Camp V at 7800m. Unfortunately whilst progressing up the North Ridge Andrew Wilkinson became ill and decided to turn around. He is now back down at ABC and feeling Ok. After spending the night at 7800m the team will then start to use oxygen to move to Camp VI at 8200m. At Camp VI they will rest on Oxygen and prepare to leave for the summit that night.

8th May: The acclimatisation process is nearly complete and thoughts are now turning to the summit. There is a weather window forecast for the 14th – 16th May so potentially we could see an attempt on the 16th. The full compliment of 12 climbers and 5 Sherpas would climb to the North Col (7000m) on the 13th, upto Camp 2 (7800m) on the 14th and Camp 3 (8200m) on the 15th. Everyone will usually be on oxygen above camp 2 to conserve their strength for he task ahead. After a few hours of rest and rehydration at the high camp it is usual to begin the final climb around 11pm. This is the most technical part of the route with the infamous First, Second & Third Steps. If everything goes according to plan they should summit around 8.00am or 3.00am BST on the 16th. We’re closely monitoring the weather and the final decision will be made in the next few days – Watch this space…

3rd May: The whole team are now all back in synch and going well. Everyone apart from Carrie spent Monday and Tuesday nights sleeping on the North Col. Everyone then climbed above 7000m on the Tuesday with Robin & Chris reaching the top of the snow ridge (7500m) before descending safely to ABC and Base Camp for a well deserved rest. Carrie joined Ian & Dave and completed her two nights on the North Col one day behind the rest of the team. They’re due back to Base Camp later today.

27th April: Keith walked to the bottom of the fixed lines today, they will head up to the North Col tomorrow. The other members will go up on Sunday hoping to spend 2 nights sleeping there to aid their acclimatisation.

24th April: Paul went halfway to the North Col the day before the other members went to the North Col. He decided not to make another attempt on the Col and waited for the others before heading back down. Keith & Andrew didn’t make an attempt on the North Col due to illness, they headed back down to BC to rest before coming back up on Thursday to have another go at the Col. The rest of the group made it to the North Col and have returned to BC. They will go back up to ABC on Saturday.

16th April: A few thoughts from Chris & Carrie on arrival at Base Camp – “After 5 days through Tibet with a diet of non stop Chinese food for 15 meals in a row, I think everyone was dying for the legendry base camp food. Chips formed part of the first lunch here and they were devoured to the sound of a chorus of pleasurable groans from the mess tent!!! Its taken a few days to get acclimatised fully to BC at 5150m, and feeling hungry is a positive sign that the body has caught up.Now we have to repeat the acclimatisation over and over for each progressive height gain – this involves putting up with mild headaches and lack of appetite – being able to force food and litres of drink down against the wishes of your stomach is key to keeping strong. Basecamp area is a huge flat expanse, immediately below the snout of the Rongbuk Glacier – its like a great big stony beach. Some of us have taken great pride in creating paths between the tents and even building patios!! Now the novelty of BC and its food is beginning to wear off we are all keen to begin the journey to the foot of the mountain, about 14 miles away, and get up close and personal with Everest…” Chris

“Well what can I say? – you know me I’m never speechless but I have to say when we came round the corner in the land cruisers, Everest was there looming large in front of me and although I had seen Everest before this was it for real! I suppose the hugeness of the mountain is equal to the size of the task in hand. At base camp we were greeted with hot lemon and then chips! I’m sure that will be everyone’s comment but ahhhhhhhhh after almost a week of rice where I had to quickly learn to eat with chopsticks (a slow process!) songs of “hope its chips its chips” could be heard. So far I’ve got my tent all nice and girlie and even started to cut the guys hair but to keep an equal balance I built a patio which has Robins seal of approval.” Carrie

13/04/07 – 4pm GMT:

The team taking part in the Puja. The blessing for a safe expedition.

12/04/07 – 1pm GMT:

The team will spend the next few days acclimatising on the surrounding peaks from Base Camp, before heading up to ABC.

10/04/07 – 11am GMT:

Message sent by email today by Dafydd Morris (Lhakpa Ri & North Col Leader):

The Everest Summit, North Col and Lhakpa Ri Teams have all successfully made it to Base Camp. All members are acclimatising well and are enjoying the BC atmosphere. Everest is truly awe inspiring! The food is fantastic as are the Sherpa support team. We’ve been busy organising kit and setting up the Comms, which all seems to be working well. Weather is very cold with northerly winds, which has brought cloud obscuring Everest. I will send team photo tomorrow once we have some views. Daf

2/04/07 – 11am GMT:

The team will be arriving in Nepal this afternoon. They will have a couple of days to explore the vibrant city of Kathmandu before travelling to the border and crossing into Tibet.