Just got to Nepal and taking advantage of our downtime for the next day. As of now, our plan is to fly to Tibet on Wednesday. 

We’ll get a day or so to adjust to the time difference at the Hyatt in Kathmandu, which certainly does not suck. 

Just spent the night in Bangkok, got my fill of some awesome Pad Thai and now at the airport waiting for my flight to Kathmandu. 

It’s now time to put all my training, planning and effort to work. No more sleeping in a tent that simulates altitude, it’s time for the real thing. 

You never know what you’re capable of without a test. This is my test. 

Leaving is never easy. In fact, it’s really damn hard. This morning was tough. It’s hard to say goodbye to my kickass wife under normal circumstances. Saying goodbye to a pregnant Mary Beth was even harder.  I’m so excited to get back and see what’s changed and how she’s come along.  Hopefully I’ll see the baby kick when I get home!

I have awesome parents too, that got up at the butt crack of dawn, just to say goodbye. Even my father in law got up, even though he’s got to rest for his intense tournament :). 

Who knew I’d be so appreciative of a coffee from Starbucks?  That’s what the prospect of being gone for 6 weeks will do.   
I feel like I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been. Thanks to my main man Paul Roberts and his disciples from the amazing project: Gym Jones. 

I’m acclimatized thanks to Hypoxico. 

I’m ready for this test thanks to my awesome family, friends and coworkers. 

Time to let er’ rip!

Morning motivation provided by Jay-Z

Just winding down the training, and ramping up the caloric intake.  We’ve got the party today, and then it’s the final stretch before I leave in a week. 

It sounds like the border to Tibet is closed a few days longer than expected. Hopefully, that opens up and we get to head in shortly after getting to Kathmandu. 

I’m super stoked to watch Adrian and Cory give the mountain hell without Os. I’m sure they will crush it. 

 Starting to lay out all the stuff I think I’ll need and/or want for 6 weeks.   
Getting in some last minute work at my favorite project, with some solid people. 

As the season for climbing in the Himalaya draws near, it’s now down to final preparations for my third attempt of Mt. Everest.

In many ways, last year wasn’t a “real attempt” as we never even made it out of base camp.  From a preparation perspective is that it certainly was an attempt.  After the mountain was shut down, the entire group was still very much wanting to climb, which was inclusive of our Sherpa climbing partners.   It was difficult to return home as I had gone there to do a job and was unable to complete said job.   Of course, logically I knew that it was the right thing to do, which is to say, we weren’t welcome on the mountain.  However, it was really tough to let go and leave Tibet.

With all that, it took until about December of last year before I fully committed to returning this Spring.   It was hard to get back into the swing of things.  It was hard to fire up and get excited about being gone for 6 weeks.   Just like my second attempt, the decision to return was largely a result of the support by my kickass wife.

Fast forward a few months and training is in full swing. I’ve been sleeping in the Hypoxico for a few weeks and ramping that up every few days.  At this point, I’ll just be making minor tweaks to my gear & setup as I have a pretty solid idea of what I’ll want/need to make the trip as enjoyable as possible.

 I’m eagerly anticipating our arrival in Tibet and beginning our journey onwards.

We should have Internet access the bulk of the trip, so I’m hoping to keep the blog regularly updated, so stay tuned!

We successfully, made it out, albeit with a hit & almost run.  We flew through Lhasa to Kathmandu and I was able to make the flight to Bangkok with all my bags.

It was a quick goodbye to the folks with whom I’d been sharing the chaos with.  All things considered, I guess it didn’t need to be any longer than it was, but as it stood, I needed to rush to make sure I could catch the close connection.  Hopefully, we’ll get the band back together to try the North side again.  To be continued…

Now to go off the grid for a bit and process the loss, with an awesome travel partner – Mary Beth.    Later..

Last night we got to Shigatze/Xigazê on our way back to Lhasa.  It looks like we’ll fly back through Kathmandu which sucks because that city doesn’t need any more people consuming resources. 

On to Lhasa! 

The final word has come. Chomolungma, aka Sagarmartha, aka Mt Everest is officially and formally being closed on the north side in Tibet.

It’s over.

Before we’ll get much time to process what that means to the group, to ourselves and to our Sherpa climbing partners, we need to figure out what’s next. How or when are the Sherpa getting home to their families in the Khumbu. With the Kathmandu airport still being closed to any inbound commercial flights, we’re not sure how the Sherpa would get home any time soon.

As for us, we still haven’t been given a date of when we will be in Lhasa. The CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association) have closed the road between basecamp and any external cities. We will be told when we can leave, and the CTMA will arrange our travel out to Lhasa. From there, we are on our own to get out. Given all that, I suspect we’ll be in basecamp at least for a few more days before going anywhere. Then, it’ll be a mad rush to try and arrange flights out of China.

Fortunately, I have my passport and some cash. Unfortunately, my wallet with my credit cards and travel clothes are all in Kathmandu and there is no way to get it. Contextually, leaving behind some clothes and a wallet is absolutley a non issue. Just a minor, temporary hassle.

On to the next adventure of getting out of here, getting home and figuring out how else I can help in Nepal and moving on.

After having our Puja, the team including our Sherpa were excited and pumped up for the trip again. Everyone was in high spirits, that is until the second earth quake (aftershock) hit the area. Of course, once we established that everyone in basecamp was safe, we quickly turned our thoughts to friends on the south side of Everest and of course in Kathmandu.

Yesterday evening we got the news that the CTMA (Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association) is going to shut down the mountain. They claim that scientists in Beijing have predicted a massive earthquake to hit the region in the next 10-14 days. Contrary to the USGS whom say predicting an earthquake with any real certainty is impossible. The USGS is forcasting the probability of more earth quakes, however, they aren’t as specific with times or intensities.
Allegedly the head of the CTMA is coming to basecamp tomorrow (was supposed to be today) to have a meeting with all the groups to give us the final decision. It seems inevitable, but I suppose there is still a miniscule chance that we could still climb.

In the spirit of keeping that hope alive, we went on a hike up to 18,600ft to get the blood flowing and continue with the acclimitization in the event we should be able to keep climbing.

We’re all doing well today after a rather disappointing evening last night. We’re trying to keep from focusing on the trip being over and instead think about the successive camps & route technicalities. It still is a possibillity, however dim it may seem.

Thanks for all the support – we’ll keep everyone posted.

Yesterday we had our Puja ceremony which was conducted by a monk from the Rong Pu Monastery just a few miles away from basecamp. A Puja ceremony is very special to the Sherpa as it is the time that the group gets its blessing and permission for safe passage on the mountain. It roughly consists of the monk reciting prayers in Tibetn for about an hour in front of the shrine which had earlier been built by the Sherpa this season. Towards the end of the ceremony, the rest of the group gets involved by throwing rice into the sky asking for blessings. Everyone then gets a handful of flour smacked in their face for good measure and a hug for good luck and good climbing.

It was nice to have a moment of reflection during the Puja with our Sherpa climbing partners especially in light of what’s going on in Nepal at the moment.

We’ve definitely been shaken by the earthquakes which have been felt from India to China in addition to the devastation & destruction they have caused in Nepal. The south side of Mt. Everest has officially been shut down by the Nepalese government, marking the second season in which the mountain has been shut down due to mother nature having different plans. Shortly after the shaking stopped the first time, we heard the chaos of coordinating rescue, recovery & trauma facilities being built out of dining tents and whatever was available. It was so scary to sit and listen and not be able to do a single thing to help. We all are feeling so horrible for our friends & Sherpa family on the south side.

Along with the rest of the world, we’ve also been getting direct & indirect reports of the goings on in Kathmandu. For anyone who has been to Kathmandu, you can understand that it wouldn’t take much to cause massive carnage. In the last 48hrs, Kathmandu has seen two extremely large earthquakes which are testing the ability of the city, country and neighboring country’s response times for relief. Please, take a moment and dontate to the relief effort in any way that you feel good about. Nepal is simply not set up to handle anything like this and the death toll will only continue to climb in the coming days.

We all are very fortunate to be where we are, relatively speaking, as the Tibet side of Everest has remained relatively unscathed. Even as we wait to understand what the plan for climbing will be, we’re safe and unharmed. We’re just thinking of friend and acquaintances in Nepal and wishing we could do anything to help.

Again, I want to thank everyone whom have expressed concern for our safety both directly and indirectly. It was a bit overwhelming to see the volume of love & inquiry. Thank you to everyone keeping tabs on us. Thanks for all those who called Mary Beth and my family to make sure they were ok too. Thank you.