Entries from Guide News
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News Everest
Elevation: 22,965'
Hello,
This is the Shishapanga team with a new update. Camp 2 (22,965') has been established and the team is starting today to do some rotations and the weather forecast for the next few days is good.
We will try to push it a little further to Camp 3 (24,278') with some carries and get acclimatized.
Everybody is doing pretty well and we are excited and in very good spirits. The team is working well together and despite the hardness of Himalayan climbing we are having a really good time.
So that is it for now and we’ll be calling soon with a new update. Take care and hello to everyone.
RMI Guide Elias De Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from Camp 2 on Shishapangma.
Hello this is the Shishapangma Team calling from our advance base camp. This morning we woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground here at 18,400' and it seems as though the storm left a few feet on the upper mountain.
Part of the team is finishing their first rotation through camp one up near 21,000’ and will be descending either tonight or tomorrow. It seems as though we will be sitting here at our advanced base camp for a few days resting and then hoping for clear weather to go up on our next rotation. Everyone is doing well and climbing strong. We will call back in a few days and check in then.
Bye!
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Shishapangma Team Checks in from Advanced Base Camp
Hi guys!!! keep on the way!! do not give up and good luck!
Posted by: jorge de andres on 9/25/2011 at 1:09 pm
Posted by: Jake Beren
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News Everest
Hey guys, this is the Shishapangma team. We are just calling to check in. Everybody is well. We did feel the big earthquake the other day. Both our team up at Camp 1 and our team at BC are just fine.
We are going to send another team up in the direction of Camp 1 later this afternoon. We are going to start our rotations a little higher up. All is well here. We are waiting for a weather window and just hanging out.
So, we hope all is well back in Ashford. We’ll be giving you a shout when we have a little more to say. That is all from Tibet.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Posted by:
Categories: Guide News Everest
The Shishapangma team left a voice mail message with the RMI office yesterday saying everything was going well. It was a little hard to decipher which is understandable coming from half way around the world via satellite. Here is what we were able to understand:
“Hey guys it is the Shishapangma crew. All doing well here at Basecamp after carries from/to Camp 1. Heading up to Camp 1 again in a few days. Wanted to let you know we are well. We will be heading up again soon.”
It has been a monumentous week for RMI Guides Paul Edgren and Billy Nugent. Paul reached the Mt. Rainier summit for the 100th time on September 11th and Billy on September 15th!
Congratulations Paul & Billy!
Hello, this is the Shishapangma team calling from 17,000’ in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau on the way to Advanced Base Camp (ABC). We have spent three days at Chinese Base Camp at 16,000’. The team is doing really well. We actually went for a nice, leisurely one-hour run, which was a record for everybody, yesterday. And we are really excited and having a good time. We hope to call in the next few days after we have set up camp at Advanced Base Camp. That is all for now.
Hello everyone from Tibet.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from 17,000' in Tibet.
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News Everest
We are in Nyalam, our last stop before the Chinese Base Camp. The drive through Nepal to the border with Tibet went pretty well and the border crossing itself was smooth. We bypassed the town of Zangmu straight to Nyalam. This afternoon we will head for a hike to stretch the legs after the trip and start the acclimatization process. We have a scheduled departure for Chinese Base Camp for tomorrow around noon. The team is in really good spirits and looking forward to putting a foot on the mountain.
Regards from Tibet,
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
We have arrived today the 5th in Kathmandu. The trip, rather long, went smooth. Tomorrow we are going to do some shopping for personal food and logistics and we plan on leaving for Tibet on Wednesday.
We will keep you posted!
RMI Guide Elías de Andrés Martos
Bridget and Elias,
The experience is exciting for all of us. Thank you for sharing. The quiet fall Rockies seem inviting for a snowy winter - but missing their best two climbers.
On Sunday I attend a Tibetan dinner in Colorado; I will send many good thoughts your way - perhaps you will see them in the prayer flags!!
Good luck; please be safe.
Bob Bandoni
Posted by: Bob Bandoni on 9/8/2011 at 7:36 am
You go, Jake. Memories of Mt. Athabasca just a few years ago. Good luck to all of you and be safe. Hal
Posted by: Hal on 9/6/2011 at 7:01 pm
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News Everest
RMI Guides depart for Shishapangma (26,289’)!
On the morning of September 3rd Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. guides Jake Beren, Elias De Andres Martos, Geoff Schellens, Erik Frank, Leon Davis, and Bridget Schletty departed from Ashford, WA USA, en route to the Tibetan Himalaya. Their goal is the fourteenth highest mountain in the world, Shishapangma.
The team will attempt the mountain without the benefit of supplemental oxygen or Sherpa support. In addition Jake Beren has brought his skis! If conditions are right Jake hopes to make a ski descent.
Stay tuned for dispatches and photos as this intrepid group of climbers make their way to the top of the mountain and home again.
Safe travels!
Good luck to you all. I’m anxious for reports and photos.
Posted by: Brian Yost on 9/8/2011 at 5:22 am
Have a great climb! Wishing you all the very best.
Posted by: Beth on 9/5/2011 at 5:00 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Guide News
The most famous RMI guide that ever lived was also a profoundly humble man in an arena not known for fostering humility. Nawang Gombu Sherpa was a man of many such contrasts.
My memories of working with Gombu aren’t unique or privileged. I wasn’t seeing some side of him that others weren’t privy to. But because of his unassuming nature, casual acquaintances might have mistaken his stature in the world. Certainly not, if they’d studied mountaineering and 20th century world history. Gombu was the first man to summit Mount Everest twice. He was the longtime director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and he was nephew to Tenzing Norgay. He was the youngest Sherpa on the successful 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition and was one of the last surviving climbing Sherpas of that heroic era.
Nawang Gombu had met the queen of England on several occasions. You can find a picture of him in a 1963 National Geographic magazine placing a silk scarf of friendship around John F. Kennedy’s neck in the Rose Garden. But if you worked and lived with Gombu around Mount Rainier in the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s… you probably don’t remember him doing a whole lot of explaining as to why he was so special. More likely you remember him working very hard. And as he got a bit older and less capable on the mountain, some may remember that he also worked hard down around the guide shop, pushing a broom or helping with rental gear.
Despite his unfailingly open and friendly personality, it wasn’t the easiest thing for a young guide to get to know Gombu. He was from a different generation and a vastly different culture and so he talked and acted a little differently… and often times he was a bit needy since he was somewhat isolated in Ashford without a car. So, while everybody called him a friend… that was pretty easy with Gombu, it took a little extra effort for someone to actually be his friend and include him in activities and routines. But for that Gombu was always profoundly grateful. I’m embarrassed now to remember how many times he cooked me dinner and then didn’t allow me to wash dishes afterward. There wasn’t even any question on that… he’d just push you out of the way (and he never lost that particular strength). We did have some fun together… but not enough to justify all of that dishwashing on his part. I’d take him into the suburbs for haircuts and shopping trips to the malls. We’d go into downtown Seattle so I could obsess over shiny climbing gear in the stores. We went rock climbing out at Leavenworth (Gombu was better than I was, not surprisingly) and we even went to the soldout Kingdome to watch Ken Griffey Jr. hit a homerun (his ninth in nine games… it was a big deal). I recall how amused the people in the stands around us were to hear me trying to explain baseball to a Cricket fan… if only they’d known who he was. But I thought that a lot back then, since, as I say, Gombu didn’t go out of his way to let people know he was famous.
Which brings me back to the guide shop and a typical start to a day on Mount Rainier in which I’d meet a bunch of new climbing enthusiasts. They’d introduce themselves and detail their previous successes and immediately I’d find out about the banks and corporations they headed, and I’d hear about their ambitions for high places and their admiration for those that had already been to those places. And amidst all the introductory chest thumping (not just theirs… my chest got worked as well) I’d look over to see Gombu sweeping dust off the rental counter and I’d pause to consider that those captains of industry - and I - might not ever meet a greater mountain climber than the small, friendly, quiet legend who’d just fitted them for boots.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn, June 17, 2011
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Os seguimos desde esta web, mucho ánimo y cuidado con hacerse “pupita”.
Esperamos poder veros pronto sanos y salvos.
Un abrazo muy fuerte para Elías y Bridget desde España.
Posted by: Miguel Ángel y Silvia on 10/12/2011 at 3:17 pm
Hey there Elias, Bridgette and crew! The Ice is forming slowly here in Summit County and the high peaks are blanketed in snow. Carrie and I send our best to you all for a successful and fun summit bid. We are so psyched for you all and this grand adventure. Climb hard, climb safe and we can’t wait to hear stories around the fire back here in Colorado!
Posted by: Rob Griz on 10/10/2011 at 12:35 pm
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