Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Anders did it--He has climbed the highest mountain in each of the 7 continents!

Pretty special time for us Christoffersons!  We climbed from the base of the mountain in Thredbo, Australia and all stood arm-in-arm with him on Christmas day!  It was just under 7 (somewhat harder than expected) hours roundtrip and we covered 13+ miles and over 3,100 feet of vertical!  Here are some pictures:

Our arrival at the airport and the van we would be trapped in for long hours:


At the base of the mountain, after a 6+ hour drive down from the Blue Mountains (we got up at 1:30 am), and after 8 years of hard work--Anders and "The Crew" were ready to go:


Anders at the base of the Merrits Nature Trail, which is where the climb officially began:


Anders, Kara and Alex on the way up:


On the lower mountain it was very foggy!


Anders leading the way (a little mellower path up than Everest!):


A little more than 3 miles to go:


Kosi is just to the left of Anders in this picture:


Pictures of the Crew climbing upward:



We are all very proud of Anders--especially Mom:


And finally, we all touch the Summit pillar:


Anders joins the select few who have ever climbed all 7:



Our family's summit picture:




Some final pictures from our great day:






I'll post a little video in the next couple of days!

Onward and upward!

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Getting ready for number 7!

The whole Christofferson crew is on the ground in Katoomba, Au getting ready to head to Mount Kosciouszko tomorrow to crew with Anders as he goes after his seventh of the seven summits!  We are all very excited for this momentous day!

We left the afternoon of the 21st and all met in LA--Alex and Kara flew for JFK and Judy, Jen and I from PHL.  Both of our planes were late so we had to scramble and got on board (as did our luggage) and joined Anders for the nearly 15 hour flight to Sydney.  So we basically spent an abbreviated 22nd in the air due to crossing the International Date line.

We are in a small resort hotel near Katoomba and went out and nike a couple of times (for a total of 6-7 miles and probably about 1000 vertical feet) after flying in.  The Blue Mountains (where we are) are pretty cool and quite scenic.  The weather was clear and very hot--certainly in the 80s!  Nice family dinner last night and we all crashed pretty early as we were quite tired to say the least!

Today (the 24th over here) we will do some more hiking, hang by the pool, buy some supplies for the climb, etc.  On Christmas morning we are leaving around 2 am and driving the 300 or so miles south of here to the town of Thredbo, where Kosi is.  We expect the roundtrip climb to only take bout 6 hours, we'll be sure to report back tomorrow on how things went and follow up with some pictures and maybe video when we get back to Sydney on the 26th!

All good now and if all goes well we will be submitting in less than 32 hours!

onward and upward!

rc

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Belated Updates

Sorry for the long period of Radio Silence--lots going on.  This is intended to highlight several developments:

1. I did race and finish my 14th IM at IMAZ in November.  It was a long, hard day and I discovered that being fit and having trained a sufficient mount is actually pretty important to do well in an Ironman.  Unfortunately, I was not fit enough and it showed.  My swim was surprisingly good given how little I was able to swim.  The bike was mediocre and it was a challenging day, wind-wise.  My run, well wasn't.  Basically had to walk it.  Consequently a very long 15+ hour race.

But I did it and was happy to get it over with.  A real race report is forth coming.

2.  I thought that race would be my last IM but I finished feeling strangely motivated to get IM fit again--something that I really lacked this year.  Most importantly, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually sound enough body-wise to actually pursue some real training.  Frankly, it's been almost 3 years since that was true--ever since the femoral-nerve compression post Vinson Massif, I haven't been right for any sustained period.

3. This combined with Anders wanting to through his hat into the IM ring again means I'm going to try to give it another go.  We are doing IMFL together again next November and I'm very psyched.

4. Training-wise, I'm already in the pool, swimming shorter, higher intensity efforts 2-3X/week.  In January I'll start a more traditional pool based foundation session where I'll focus on a lot of structured speed work and 40k+ of monthly swim volume.  Bike wise, I've joined the Wahoo Kickr/Zwift revolution and in addition to Zwifting with Anders, I'm focused on getting 30-60 minutes of higher intensity training each day.  Come January-March, my intent will be to follow a structured set of high intensity rides and my intent will be to get my FTP up above 250 watts again, perhaps try to push it closer to 275.  I really haven't trained like that in the past three years--I'm very excited about this!

5. For me, I've got to make a breakthrough on the run, without actually running all that much because of my knee.  My plan is to water run or Alter-G (my buddy Sparty is offering to hook me up with one) 3 X 1 hour each week.  Treadmill at 15% incline and above 3mph or old school Stairmaster for up to 2 hours/week, and run 5-10 miles/week for the January-March period.  I'll also throw some 5ks in their for fitness tests.

6.  I'm going to shoot for 10 or so races next year and will definitely plan a half-Ironman or two as part of my IM build.

7.  The biggest news right now is our family's preparation to climb with Anders down in Australia as he goes after the 7th and final summit of his Seven Summits Project.  Stay tuned for updates on this as it's just around the corner!

Feeling good to climb back in the saddle again!

Saturday, November 18, 2017

T minus 12 hours

Locked and loaded here in IMAZ!

I spent most of the day following along with Anders' progress at the North Face 50-mile ultra trail run which he crushed with a little more than 10 hour race.  Ran the whole thing (with the exception of the the very steep trail climbs--of which there were a few since the course has more than 10,000 feet of vertical and as a bonus, it was 51.7 miles this year!)  He's in amazing shape!  He did this on about 6-8 weeks of training.

Judy and he are resting up and plan to fly from San Francisco  to Tempe early tomorrow and will probably see me (God willing) at some point on my bike.

The weather looks fine--a little warm on the run no doubt with low 80s forecast, but sunny and hopefully with modest wind.

I've been here since thursday and had my normal pre-race routine and since I was by my lonesome, i even went to the movies last night (saw Wonder, which was great!)  I feel fine although I'm well aware that I'm grossly undertrained for this thing.  Hopefully I won't pay to heavy of a price for that tomorrow.  I'm Ok with suffering but want to stay healthy and happy post race.

Expectation wise, I hope and plan to finish, God willing again.

Time estimates:

Swim: 75-85 minutes
Transitions 10-15 minutes combined
Bike: 5:40-6:00
Run: 5:30-6:00
Total: 12:55-13:40

I did 11:52 here in 2011 (different body then with more body parts that were working) and 13:23 in 2012.

Going to be a long tough day.

Bring it on!

Onward and upward!

I'm bib # 150 if you want to track tomorrow...

rc

Friday, November 3, 2017

October's totals--probably a little too late, but a good month of training!

I'm a little fried at this point--did another 5+ hour ride today and at this point I need to taper--probably a little overtrained at this point to be honest.

I'll comment more on the path ahead to IMAZ in the next few days, but here are the stats for October (yes, its probably too little too late, but its a pretty darn good month of IM training for an old guy!):

Swim: 35, 550 yards
Bike: 1,133 miles
Run: 110 miles
Time: 126 hours and 43 minutes (a bunch of non SBR stuff in there as well...)

Onward and upward!

Monday, October 30, 2017

another solid week--three weeks to game time!

Last week's totals:

Swim: 6,000 yards
Bike: 140 miles
Run/Hike: 35 miles
Time: 30:51

the numbers look a little unusual because I spent 18+ hours hiking down in Shenandoah--all of my "run" mileage was on those three hikes--I additionally had about 8,000 feet of vertical on those hikes.

I'm into my final "hard" week of training and then its a two-week taper before IMAZ on 11/19....

Monday, October 23, 2017

OK--hitting my IM training glide!

Another solid week:

Swim: 7,550 yards with a 3,500 yard pool swim as the longest.  this was done at a 76:20 IM pace which isn't bad considering I'm a fair bit slower in the pool w/o a wetsuit.

Bike: 304 miles including a 101 miler--my fourth 100+ ride over the last five weeks

Run/Hike:  33 miles (a fair amount of hiking) with a 13 mile long run/walk (Yes I know that seems lame, but I am lame--in my left knee)

Total time: 31:34 with about 3 hours of weights/PT.

This week I'm heading down to Shenandoah for a lot of hard long-distance trekking and a bike ride or two.  Hoping for a real suffer fest...if so, the would be 4 big weeks in a row and ideally I'd make it 5 before a 14 day per prior to IMAZ...

Better late than never.....


Monday, October 16, 2017

Another solid week-training wise

Backed up last week's effort with another solid training week.  I even took one day off!

Swim:  6,500 yards  with 2,500 yard long swim

Bike: 288 miles with a 100.2 mile long bike

Run: 16.5 miles with a 12.5 long run

Time: 26:33

I also started my most recent Uflexa cycle for my knee....

I'm planning another 25-30 hour week this week.  Hopefully, money in the bank!

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Ironman around the corner--time to break radio silence!

Sorry for the lengthy period of radio silence.  Lots and lots going on in the "real" world (no need to get into the details in this space) so haven't been focused on the adventure/triathlon world--at least from a blogging perspective.  That said, I have been doing my best to get ready for my 11/19 dance at Ironman Arizona.  I'll use this blog to update you on where I'm at as well as kick-off another cycle of regular updates.

Swim

As you might recall I came back from Nepal and hopped into the pool only to find a whole bunch of pain in my right shoulder and radiating down my right arm into my bicep.  I tried to work around it for a while but ultimately wasn't able to do any real swim training and indeed the pain kept increasing and got to the point where sleeping in certain positions was challenging.

Diagnosis was a "winged scapula" with probable nerve impingement leading to some mechanical issues in my right shoulder and ultimately a nasty case of bursitis.  Cortisone and about 3 months of PT has me back on track and why I still feel a bit of funkiness, I'd say at this point my shoulder is at 90%+ and I'm generally able to swim and sleep pain free!

Of course, the lack of training is a bit of concern as I basically was only able to swim less than 10,000 yards/month in the May-August period.  In September, the PT seemed to have helped enough that I was able to record 16,300 yards, which while light, was pretty good given all the travel and other things going on in September.

Last week I had my first "real" Ironman swim week as I was logged 10,500 yards over 5 swim sessions, three in the open water with the longest being 3,200 yards at a 68:30 IM pace.  That pace is pretty surprising frankly, but I'm not going to get too excited over it as I always swim well with my wetsuit in the salt water of Stone Harbor's back bays.  Still, its a good sign, given everything thats gone on,  I'd be happy to do anything under 80 on race day--for sure.

Bike

As you know, the bike has always been my real strength and I haven't had any major barriers to putting in the miles.  Still, I must confess that the quality and quantity of my bike training has been lagging.  Frankly its been hard to motivate when I haven't been able to swim and my run is how it is (see below).  No excuses--but it is what it is.

In September I had a reasonable month despite traveling the last 6 days and logged 823 miles including several over 80 and one 100 miler.  This past week was very solid as I rode a respectable 305 miles including a long ride of 112.4 miles.  I won't be in peak shape at Arizona, but a continuation of this effort throughout October and early November should create the opportunity for an OK bike (5:45ish).

Run

What can I say besides yuck.  My knee is really bad now and in need of replacement.  It really has limited my run training this summer to just 8-15 miles/week with no runs over 10 miles.  All of it very slow.  Last month I put in 77 miles (including a few hikes) and logged 25.2 miles last week including a 14-mile run/walk a la Galloway.  Again, it is what it is and thats bad.  The IM is going to really hurt and it will be a struggle to get significantly under 6 hours on game day--although I'm probably going to need to figure out a way to do so if I hope to qualify for Hawaii (which I hope to do, even while I know its very unlikely...)

Time

In September I put in 76:50, which is pretty inadequate 8-12 weeks out from an Ironman but I did have a very respectable week last week putting in 29:24.

---------

I'm on it now.  I'm going to try to cram five hard weeks in a row in and then kick back into a two-week taper and see how it plays.  Not ideal but its the best I can do given this late date.  I've also gone on a stricter diet regime with no alcohol and limited "bad" foods.  I've dropped about 8 pounds over the first 12 days of this effort (undoubtedly some of it was retained water from lots of carbs) and I hope to get my weight down to the low 170s by the time of the race--I'm 182 right now.  This isn't ideal of-course, but again, its the best shot I have.  I just have to hope my body holds together over this 50 day period.  The first 12 days are so far so good.

Onward and upward!








Thursday, August 3, 2017

Tuckahoe Sprint Triathlon/Back in the Game!/Win # 49.....Ugly though!

Last week I decided to try my hand once again in an actual triathlon race!  My last race was way back in May of 2016 when I raced my 150th career triathlon at Hammonton (since Kona of 2014-a period of 33 months, I had only raced 4 sprint triathlons).  My original thought was to race on Saturday, July 30th at the DQ sprint at Laurel Lake.  However, a nasty weather forecast caused me to opt instead for the 12th annual Tuckahoe Triathlon (being held the next day, Sunday July 31st), a short Sprint about 20 miles north of us in Stone Harbor.  Weather-wise, this was a good decision as race morning dawned clear and chilly (under 60 degrees) albeit with a good (10-20 mph) North wind blowing.

In addition to being my 151st career triathlon, this was to be the sixth time racing this race.  In my prior five races, I had won my AG twice and finished second the other three times.  There were just 3 in my M60+ AG and only 71 in the race overall (there was a simultaneous International distance race, which limited participation in the Sprint).

I had modest objectives and expectations for the race.  After Nepal, I began training for triathlons again in mid-May, but was hampered by bursitis in my right shoulder and so had only swam about 5 or 6 times over the prior 4 months.  I also was just before the initiation of my Ironman Arizona build, which is kicked off now that August has rolled around, so my training volumes and intensity were modest at best.  In a word, I wasn’t in triathlon racing shape.  Still, my shoulder has been responding to PT and seemed good enough to give it a go.  I miss racing and certainly I need to jump into a few races to regain some of my competitive sharpness before IMAZ in November.

The swim is Egg Harbor, about half way between Stone Harbor and Atlantic City.  The course looked visually short.  It also cut very close to a jetty on the right.  I opted to start on the right, since this was a shorter line to the first turn.  However, after the gun I was forced further right than I wanted and unfortunately ended up running onto some very sharp submerged rocks.  I could feel these rocks slicing my feet so I slowed, was jostled from behind, and in short order found myself falling face (hands) first onto the rocks.  Now both my hands and feet were getting cut as I pulled my body across the shallow rocks for several painful seconds.  I eventually found deeper water but not before significant damage was done—especially to my feet.

I swam on anyways and had a relatively uneventful swim--at last if we ignore the start.  I felt slow but had no real difficulties after the initial challenges of the run into the water.  I hit the shoreline in 4:50, which sounds great but my Garmin clocked the swim distance as just 272 yards, so this works out to a mediocre 1:50/100 yards.  My average stroke length was 1.65 yps and my stroke cadence was 34 spm.  The later number is fine (should be 36) but the yps number is far off what I do when I’m swim fit—more like 2-2.2 yps.  Work to do!  I was 17th overall in the swim or at the 77.5 %-tile.  It’s worth noting that while this was my fastest Tuckahoe swim time, it was my lowest relative percentile, the previous low being 88%.  I was way ahead in my AG and would face no competition in the contest during the rest of the race.

I was aware of the pain in my right foot as I ran across the sand fumbling clumsily with the zipper of my wetsuit as I began my transition.  I was slow and sloppy—had trouble getting my swim cap off for example.  As I sat at my transition area I got a first glimpse of the damage from the rocks.  My right hand was covered in blood and my right foot was bleeding pretty heavily in a number of places—a real mess.  I decided to ignore it as best as I could and completed a very slow and inefficient T1 in 2:26, which was the 12th fastest overall (84.5 %-tile).

Upon mounting the bike I decided to not go completely all out.  I wanted to push it but also wanted to be cautious after such a long layoff.  I was preoccupied with my increasingly bloody hands (drops of blood were flying off my hands and sometimes into my face and mouth as I rode).  To compound things, both of my shifter extensions in my aero bars became lose and I had to actively pull them back to stop them from popping out of the base bar and dangling down towards my front wheel.  The rode was bumpy in several places and I wanted to get off the aero bars and ride up on the base bar but this was tricky with my aero bars at risk of popping out.  This was a real amateur show on my part!

Anyways, this did not lead to a consistent application of power or to a particularly good or fast bike.  I only averaged 217 watts during the first third of the race, which is pretty humbling for sure. I averaged 222 watts for each of the next two 4 mile sections and ended up at 220 watts for the 12.2-mile bike leg.  This is disappointing but understandable, and I see no reason why I can’t get this up to a more reasonable 240 watts over the next 4-6 weeks.

This effort yielded a time of 34:11 and a 21.3-mph average with my cadence averaging 83 rpm and my HR averaging 151 bpm.  This is a far cry from the mid to high 160s that I do when I’m Sprint triathlon fit.  Not surprisingly, this was the slowest of my 6 rides here as my prior slowest time was 31:38 and a far cry from my course record of 31:00.  I’m at least 10% slow and probably around 20% low power wise (that’s 40 watts!) compared to prior years.  This was the 11th fastest bike split or about the 85.9 %-tile.  My prior worse such measure was 95 %-tile.  Ugh—someone has a lot of work to do!

During T2 I noted that my white bike shoes were splattered with a fair amount of blood.  My foot was throbbing and it was difficult to pull my racing flats over my sockless feet.  I did ok in T2 as it took me 1:10 to complete and this was the 22nd fastest (70.4 %-tile).

I was now very aware of the pain in my foot.  I had to avoid my big toe and the outer side of my right foot was also very tender.  Glancing down at my yellow shoes I saw the right one turning a dark red at the toes and on the outside.  I wasn’t going to let it stop me but it certainly didn’t help my run.  I finished the run in 17:20, which over the 1.91-mile course averages out to 9:04/mile.  My HR averaged just 163 bpm—a pretty contained effort.  Still, this run was only 7-seconds slower than 2013, which is a least a little bit encouraging.  Relatively, I had just the 37th fastest run time or about the 49.3 %-tile.  My prior low was at 72 %-tile.

Overall, my time was 59:57 and was good enough for 14th Overall (81.7 %-tile). (prior low was 91 %-tile).  I won my AG by a large margin and secured my 49th career AG victory in the process.

So, I got the job done, but this race exposed the need for a lot of work on both my fitness and on my tactical race execution.  My right foot is quite bad (see pics below) and will slow me down for probably a week or so.  I’m thankful it wasn’t worse, which it very well could have been.  Good to get it done and I’ll try to jump into 2-3 more races prior to IMAZ—maybe as soon as next week.

Onward and Upward!







Tuesday, July 25, 2017

OK--Its time to talk Ironman again!

I'm sure those of you who read this blog will be thrilled that I'm turning away from blogging about adventures in Nepal and back to how many yards i swam last week.....

Anyways, I have Ironman Arizona in late November as my current focus.  Starting on August 1 (next week) I plan to start my Ironman training build--and I'm excited to do so.

Body-wise, my knee continues to be what it is.  I'm going to have to limit my running to 10-20 miles per week for the most part.  Nothing new there.  since returning from Nepal, I've been dealing with fairly debilitating right shoulder pain, so much so that I've had to stop swimming while i get it fixed.  i received a cortisone injection and have begun a regular PT set of activities.  I have bursitis that seems to have been caused by a "winged scapula" on my right side.  My orthopod thinks maybe I have a bit of nerve impingement there.  In any event, I've made good progress and after going about 6 weeks without swimming, I've returned to the open water.  Indeed, yesterday I swam 1543 yards in 24:42, which works out to 1:36/100 yards or about a 67-minute Ironman pace, which is very, very surprising given my lack of swimming.  Of course doing that over 1500 yards is a whole different thing then over 4200 yards so much work to do, but I may be turning the corner swim wise.

In any event, I've been getting ready--creating the base for Ironman training--so to speak.  here is what my last 4 weeks looked like:

                                   Swim              Bike           Run        Time

4 weeks ago                   0  y              258 m        10 m        19:07
3 weeks ago                   0                  319            20             24:43
2 weeks ago                1000               235            12             17:04
Last week                   2530               270             9              19:07

Here we go agin!



Friday, June 2, 2017

The Summit Push--the detailed recounting

Anders Christofferson: 5/21/17 Everest Summit
(Discussion with Anders in LA: 5/29-30)


Judy and I had occasion to visit with Anders shortly after he returned from his successful summit of Mount Everest.  Here are some notes and observations from those extended conversations about his summit experience. The first section includes a play-by-play recap of the summit push, and the second section includes a Q&A about the overall experience:

Moving from C3 to C4 on May 20th

-Camp 3 sits at about 23,500 feet.  It is literally cut into the steep Lhotse Face, with a 2,000+ foot fall at their feet.  They had slept reasonably well and were breathing bottled oxygen, at about 1 Liter/min throughout the night.  Their tents were lashed to the Face and they had a narrow ledge behind their tents and the side of the mountain.  They used this space to don some of their equipment for the climb.

-They left somewhere between 8 and 9 in the morning and the total trip took them close to 8 hours.  It seemed like an early departure, but they left later than most other folks that day.  Anders estimates that it would have taken them 4.5 hours to get to C4 without the crowds.

-John and Geoff were in front of Anders and Brent for most of the climb up to C4. Siddhi Sherpa was also with them—he wasn’t carrying any of their gear to C4, as he was principally part of the team as a climbing Sherpa. As a result, our four guys were carrying large packs that included sleeping bags, ice axes, food, etc., which are typically carried by Sherpas for Western climbers.  Anders estimated his pack weighed 30+ pounds.  They were breathing oxygen at around 2 liters/minute (l/m) as they climbed on this day.

-They started to get slowed down when they came closer to the distinctive Yellow Band.  The Yellow Band had some tough footing, but Anders did not think it was that difficult ultimately to navigate.  He was excited to see this iconic feature of Everest up close and personal. Despite one bottleneck on a short, steep section, it didn’t take that long to climb past the Yellow Band.  They were now at about 25,000 feet.

-It was quite crowded during the Traverse from the Yellow Band to the Geneva Spur.  Since it was less steep here, they were able to slip pass slower climbers so they made pretty good progress even with the growing crowds. To pass, the team would unclip from the fixed lines and side step slower climbers.

-Things really slowed down a lot when they reached the Geneva Spur.  This section is very steep with mixed rock and snow.  They had thousands of feet of exposure and could not safely pass here, so were forced to wait for the slower, less experienced climbers. It was shocking for the team to see this lack of experience on the Geneva Spur, 25,000 ft. high on Everest. To climb that slow and that inefficiently is very unsafe, and not a good sign about their ability to climb higher. This section took well over an hour and they had to frequently stand in place waiting.  There were old lines in places so they had to focus on using the fixed lines correctly.

-The Geneva Spur physically separates the top of the Lhotse Face from the South Col, which is the saddle between the 1st and 4th highest mountain peaks in the world.  At the top of the Geneva Spur it was a relatively “easier” and much safer walk on into C4.  Here, their team unclipped and passed quite a few people coming into camp.

-The team immediately started looking for their tent, which had been set up earlier by other Madison Sherpas.  After 20 minutes of searching they could not locate the tent so Anders and John sat down and rested and waited.  It was very cold and windy, and the only other climbers that were not in tents were select Sherpa who were helping their teammates.  It was still light out, but Anders doesn’t remember much about the views.  They were tired and eager to crawl into a tent and begin preparing for a likely summit attempt later that night.  Camp Four is dirty, filled with trash, and not a nice place at all – it is often referred to as the “most inhospitable campsite in the world.” It is also just under 26,000 feet, making existence there extremely taxing on the body. They sat there for nearly an hour and at some point, Anders looked over and saw Brent, who motioned to him to come join him.

-John and Anders were quite cold, tired and thirsty at this point and they were disappointed to learn that two Chinese climbers had “squatted” in their tent.  Brent was “organizing” their departure when they joined them and soon the squatters left. This type of activity is unfortunately not uncommon on Everest. Every year there are stories of people stealing oxygen bottles, squatting in tents, etc. Brent fortunately got the situation under control, but it cost the team valuable recovery and preparation time for their upcoming summit bid.

-All four of them got in the three person tent.  Siddhi and another Sherpa went about setting up another tent.  Soon it was set up and Geoff and John went there.  It was about 6 pm, which was extremely late considering they planned to leave for the summit at 11pm that evening.  Anders and Brent began unpacking and reorganizing.  They changed oxygen bottles.

-  The most urgent task was to boil snow to create enough water to hydrate them through the climb up to the summit and return to C4, and to mix with a dehydrated meal.  Anders guesses they boiled 6 liters (a slow, slow process at this altitude). This process of boiling (and treating) water lasted throughout that evening. Brent and he finally had enough water to split a dehydrated Chicken Teriyaki dinner made by Mountain House at around 9pm.

-When they finally got through it all, it was already time to get ready to climb. They had planned to climb a little later than most because of their relative speed, but with their delays, they had fallen a bit behind schedule.  This meant that after a hard 8-hour climb that ascended nearly 3,000 vertical feet to almost 8,000 meters, on the edge of the “Death Zone”, they now faced the final Everest summit push with no sleep and very little rest (in fact, they would end up being awake for ~40 hours between the push from C3 to C4 to the summit and back to C4).


The Summit Attempt: The Evening of May 20th

-Anders and Brent left a little after 11:30 pm and Geoff and John appear to have left about 20 minutes later.  This turned out to be the latest departure from C4 of any team on this night (some teams left as early as 6pm that evening).  John’s Spot tracker had the altitude at 7,977 meters or 26,240 feet.

-It was quite cold, and fairly windy.  Anders does not remember seeing stars, as he focused on the task at hand, but it was probably a clear night. High above them and directly in front was a thin line of distinct lights emanating from headlamps as the earlier climbers clearly marked the path ahead and above.

-The early climbing was straightforward up a relatively modest slope.  Anders had set his O2 rate at 2.5 l/m (they had planned for 4 l/m but Anders felt very good and as result decided to be conservative at first in his oxygen usage).  Anders carried his bottle and the climbing Sherpa’s carried spares for the four of them.  After 30 minutes, the path considerably steepened and they attached to the fixed ropes.

-They climbed 107 meters in the first hour, which is about 12% of the total vertical necessary to reach the summit.  This was about an 8-hour pace to the summit, which would have put them on the summit around 8 am Nepal time.

-Anders’ headlamp began to malfunction about an hour into the climb.  It dimmed and flickered at inconvenient times.  Anders had a spare in his backpack, but decided it was good enough when combined with Brent’s lamp.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was “fine”—and he didn’t want to stop.

-Anders felt very, very good.  He described it as a “typical climb”. Steep, dark, but quite doable, especially given how good he felt.

-Anders began leading the group of four and they came upon a challenging section on the fixed rope.  It was very steep, but even with his flickering headlamp, Anders could see that the rope was dangerously stretched up and over a jagged ridge.  Anders was assessing whether or not any of the prior year’s ropes might provide some additional support when Tashi Sherpa came by and scrambled up the rock and returned the rope to their side of the ridge. This process took about 30 minutes, and was the beginning of several delays they would experience in their climb.

-From there, they climbed up about a 5-minute or so chute when they came upon another person, who was clearly in distress.  Anders could see him in the light of his headlamp.  The man was lying face-up, with his head closer to Anders, below his feet given the slope.  Anders heard him moaning a bit, even above the wind, and one of his hands was exposed and without a glove.  This hand seemed to be waving back and forth a bit.

Anders said that the guy looked like he was dying and Geoff immediately tried to figure out his status.  Geoff retrieved their emergency kit and found that the vials of Dexamethasone (a powerful, injectable steroid often used as a last resort for climbers with severe altitude sickness) were frozen.  Anders used his hands to warm one of them up and Geoff worked on another.  The climber (an American it turned out) had apparently been climbing without Oxygen, appeared to be alone, and had been exposed to the harsh conditions without moving for some time.  His hand and face were severely impacted by the cold—Anders described them as completely frozen.

They tried to administer two of their three injectable doses of Dex but it had no impact on the dying climber.  After an hour of attempting to rescue the man, they concluded that he was too just too far gone to revive him.  Geoff elected to save their last dose of Dex for a potential emergency within their own team.  Reluctantly, they concluded there was nothing more to be done and they resumed their climb (note: at this altitude, rescues are almost impossible and very rarely attempted. Helicopters cannot fly to this altitude given the thin air, and attempting to move someone by manpower is very dangerous and requires putting more lives at risk. As a result, this section of Everest has several visible bodies that have been left there over the years).  Anders said he was very cold at this point, due to the inactivity.  His hands were cold from being briefly exposed to the air and from trying to warm the frozen vial.

-They continued climbing for just another 5 minutes when Anders saw another climber stricken and sitting in the snow.  This man, a Slovakian, was more alert and was sitting upright.  He also appeared to be climbing without oxygen and was severely affected by the cold as well.  Anders said it seemed like he was partially aware of their presence, but clearly severely stricken with altitude sickness and already developing frostbite on his hands and face.  They administered oral doses of Dex, which did not seem to have much of an effect.  They had difficulty communicating with him but Anders felt he was aware they were trying to help him.  Anders solicited help from several other climbers who were nearby, even offering to double summit  bonuses for the Sherpa if they would help rescue the man (note: most Sherpa receive a substantial “summit bonus” from their clients if they successfully make it to the summit and back).  However, after some intense back and forth, none of the other climbers were willing to help and Brent, Geoff, John, and Anders concluded that the Slovakian would die if he were left there.  However, unlike the American climber, there might be a chance he would survive if they could somehow get him back down to C4.  They all four decided to abandon their summit bid and try to rescue him and get him down to C4.

Geoff reversed his Jumar to help stabilize and belay the injured climber, who could not progress on his own.  They had one 40-foot coil of rope, which they used to lower him. This process was slow and arduous, but likely the only chance they had to successfully move the now immobilized climber.  They managed to get him down the first 40-foot pitch, which Anders estimates took 10 minutes, when Garrett Madison, via radio to Geoff, informed them that Tashi Sherpa was on his way and would help lower the climber.  Tashi is very strong and was one of the Madison Mountaineering Sherpas who, with the Gurkhas, had first fixed the ropes to the summit on the South side this season.

Garrett suggested that Brent and Tashi take the job of bringing him down to C4 while Geoff, Anders and John continued on towards the summit.  Brent readily and selflessly agreed and encouraged Anders, Geoff and John to continue on.  Over the next 8 hours or so, Brent and Tashi lowered him 40-foot pitch by 40-foot pitch, first in the dark, down very steep and treacherous terrain, all the way back to C4.  At C4 they administered more Dex and Adrenaline and put him in a tent, put him on oxygen and warmed his body with sleeping bags.  Unfortunately, even with these heroic efforts, the Slovakian ultimately would die at C4 later that night.

-Meanwhile, Geoff rallied John and Anders and they considered the task ahead of them. Emotionally, the climbers were all somewhat drained from the rescue attempts and watching people walk past the dying climbers while they tried to help.  However, Anders said he quickly adjusted to the new situation but was quite worried about the physical danger that Brent and Tashi were facing as they tried to save the stricken climber.  The three climbers were also worried as losing Brent and Tashi meant less oxygen bottles and less manpower in case anything went wrong up high.

-They had started later than other teams and then had tried for almost two hours to rescue the two injured climbers.  They were very cold from the inactivity (Anders estimates it was 25 below and quite windy).  Anders hands were very cold from trying to warm the frozen Dex.  Further, people were now descending having turned around due to the growing wind up above, higher on the ridge.  They wondered that all of this effort might be for naught, that the wind ultimately might prove to be too dangerous to climb all the way to the summit. Despite this, they focused on the task at hand and began to climb rapidly.

-Anders continued to feel very strong and motivated, despite the cold in his hands.  He said his feet felt fine and the climbing helped warm him as well.  Anders said very early, well before official sunrise, due to their altitude, he could see the sun coming up before it began to illuminate the terrain around him.  It was striking to him that he could see the sun and yet it remained dark below him. He could also see a lightning storm hundreds of miles away past Lhotse. It was one of the most amazing and unique views he’ll likely ever see.

-Siddhi was in the lead with Anders behind them.  They soon reached the Balcony at 27,300 feet.  At this point they had been climbing for about 4 hours.  They were now about 40% of the way from C4 up to the Summit.  Their pace had slipped to 10+ hours due to the rescue attempts. Anders remarked that the Balcony was not a very expansive place.  Here they changed oxygen canisters.  They could see more folks coming down.  It was light now.

-Not to far above the Balcony, it became very steep climbing.  In places, the slope pitch up to nearly 60 degrees. Anders commented that there was quite a bit more exposure here (thousands of feet on either side).  They were also more exposed to the wind. Anders climbed aggressively and they began passing people.  (They each carried three small tethers attached to their climbing harnesses.  Two had carabiners and the other their Jumar, or mechanical ascender.  Anders would approach someone and unclip one of his carabineers and place it on the rope on the uphill side of the other climber, who would stand still, carefully slide around him or her, and then unclip and reclip the second carabineer also in front of the other climber.)  During this time that they were passing quite a few people (going both up and down), Anders became separated from Geoff and John.  Occasionally, Anders would see Siddhi, who was shuttling between the three of them, but mostly from this point to the summit, Anders was climbing on his own.

-The climbing here was very difficult and alternated between sections of snow and rock.  The rock was difficult to find purchase on and it was very stressful trying to avoid slipping.  Anders felt very strong, but continued to feel quite cold.  His right hand and especially his right pinky, probably from using the Jumar with that hand, were especially cold.  In Anders’ GoPro video you can see him frequently swinging his right arm to drive more blood out to his hand in an attempt to warm it up.

-This was some of the hardest climbing of the summit push, very steep.  “Objectively horrifying” is how he described it.

-After quite a bit of time he reached the South Summit at 28,500, which as he approached it from below, he had mistakenly thought it was the summit.  (The South Summit is higher than any other mountain in the world, besides Everest itself).  He could now see up to the Hillary Step where some people were descending.  He could also see he still had a lot more climbing to do (over 500 vertical feet).

-Before he could do that however, he first had to down climb about 50 vertical feet.  Anders described this as very steep and scary looking.  It was around 8:30 in the morning and they had been climbing about 9 hours at this point.

-After descending the 50-foot descent from the South Summit, he climbed up a steep, knife-edge ridge.  On both sides (Nepal and Tibet) there was massive exposure.  (The Kangshung Face on the Tibet side has 11,000 vertical feet of exposure and the southwest feet has nearly 8,000 feet).  Here he came upon the Hillary Step. The Hillary Step proved to be difficult climbing.  Near vertical with nothing but air below the crampon points that were holding his feet to the mountain.

-Anders crested the Hillary Step but could not yet see the true summit.  There were several little hills and ridges where several times, Anders remembers thinking this must be the summit.  In the videos you can see it is very windy. (Anders described it as uncomfortable but not enough that he ever considered turning around).  The sky was a brilliant blue.  The terrain was challenging and gaining purchase difficult.  It’s scary stuff to see.  For much of his videos, the picture is partially obscured by the hood of his down suit.  This contributes to the scariness of the videos.

-Finally, in the video, you can see the true summit of Everest not far above him with several people descending.  It’s hard to figure out exactly what’s going on, and Anders’ memory of everything is understandably not precise.  He does remember still feeling very strong and deciding to crank up his oxygen to 4 l/m to help with the final push.  At one point, Siddhi appears to pass him and then Anders calls out to him and says a couple of “concerned” sounding things.  We believe this is where he ran out of oxygen.

-You can clearly hear his very labored breathing as he was now at 29,000 feet with no oxygen.  He literally starts crawling along the slope and you can hear him apparently calling for Siddhi again.  At this point, the GoPro video ends.

-Anders remembers continuing on his hands and knees for some time and finally he reaches the Summit.  He goes up to the Summit and touches it.  There is a picture of the Dali Lama there.  It is now about 10:15 am on May 21st, 2017.  He down climbs about 5-6 feet and takes his backpack off.  His hands are extremely cold now and he begins to exchange his Black Diamond gloves for his Outdoor Research 8,000 meter mittens—the later are much warmer but very clumsy to climb with.

-At this point Siddhi reappeared and passed Anders so that he can also reach the summit.  Anders wanted to get a new O2 canister due to the thin air and his increasing coldness.  Anders noticed Siddhi beginning to put prayer flags on the summit but called out to him and let him know that he is out of Os.  He finally gets a new canister on and cranks it up to 4 L/M.  Siddhi then took a couple of pictures and a short video of Anders with my Sony camera.

-Anders didn’t stay very long at the summit (perhaps 10 minutes).  His only comment on the view (besides it was great) was that he noticed he could see down the other side of the mountain where people climb up from Tibet.  He could see other people climbing up from the south and decided he better try to get down and out of the cold.

-On the way down towards the Hilary Step he passed John and Geoff on the way up.  They hugged and congratulated each other.  Anders tells them he is cold and is going to try to climb down quickly to below the Balcony, out of the wind, where he will wait for them.

-However, when he approached the top of the Hillary Step there was an un-passable bottleneck.  Apparently, a woman climber was “stuck” at the top of the 50-foot descent and unable to progress.  Anders was forced to wait here for a good 45 minutes to an hour, during which time Geoff and John rejoined him.

-The bottleneck finally cleared and they climbed down the Hillary Step (“terrifying” is how he described it).  The climb right below the Step was very steep on the knife-edge ridge.  Very demanding climbing here.

- As Anders started climbing, he realized that his oxygen mask was malfunctioning and his breathing was being obstructed. He did not know this at the time, but the part of the mask that mixes ambient air with the oxygen from the tank had become frozen during the wait on the Hillary step. The result was that each breadth was labored and felt like breathing through a small straw. Anders took off his mask to downclimb the Hillary Step, again climbing up high, without oxygen. After the step, Anders mentioned to Geoff that his mask was not working. Geoff checked the mask and when he realized it was not working, he immediately took off his own mask, removed his oxygen tank from his pack, and gave it to Anders. After they traded masks, Geoff proceeded to climb with the defective mask and very little oxygen for the next ~hour as the mask unfroze. Anders was blown away again by the strength and selfless of Geoff, and this act was just another of the many reasons why he felt fortunate to be on such a strong and compassionate team.

-They climbed back up to the South Summit without major difficulty (although the exposure was very significant).  Below the South Summit the climbing became easier, although they did have to rappel down a couple of shorter, steep sections.

-It became a lot warmer once they reached the Balcony again.  It was about 2 hours climbing down from the Balcony to C4.  It was a lot safer and easier climbing here.  All of them were sore and tired, especially their backs, so Anders said they got a little “lazier” here and stopped every 20-30 minutes to rest for a short bit.

-They came upon the place where they had helped the Slovakian descend earlier that morning.  They saw his backpack and Geoff grabbed it and carried it back to C4 for him.

-Below the Balcony they came upon the rope that had been blown over the ridge earlier.  The red casing of the rope was now worn off from the rope rubbing against the jagged rocks and there was only about “2 mm” of white cord remaining.  They passed this section without incident.

-About a half hour out from C4, Brent radioed Siddhi and Anders talked to him.  Brent congratulated Anders.

-Finally they came back into C4 and arrived about the same time as the rest of the Madison Mountaineering summit team, who were coming up from C3 to summit the next day (which they did).  Billy, Conan, and Sid  (MM guides) congratulated them and helped them.

-Anders found his tent and pulled Brent’s phone out of his pack and called us.  It was about 5:30 am on the East Coast, which means it was about 3:15pm Nepal time—almost 16 hours after they had started the night before.

-We were relieved to hear from him, as we reported in our earlier post.  Anders told us of that he had summited and was safe and sound.  He told us a little bit about some of what had happened.  He also told us he had just run out of O2 again and was very thirsty and still chilled. In that 16 hours, Anders had consumed less than a liter of water and 3-4 bars / gels, so he was clearly depleted.  We talked for about 5 minutes and then Anders wanted to get some new O2, water, etc. as well as find Brent and check on the status of the Slovakian.  We said goodbye and agreed to talk again when he reached C2 the next day.

-Anders crawled in his tent.  Billy brought him O2 and filled his water bottles (which was a godsend).  Sid joined Anders and Brent in the tent.  They rehydrated, had a couple of snacks (candy bars).  Brent was exhausted (so was Anders) from the rescue attempt and from a respiratory infection he had been fighting.  They tried to rest and a couple of hours later Billy came by and told them that the Slovakian had passed away.  With this very sad news, they tried to rest for the climbing that was still ahead of them.

From C4 to Home

-Anders ran out of Oxygen at about 4 am that morning (he had the same bottle at about 1 l/m for nearly 12 hours) but he didn’t want to wake anyone up so he lay there and waited.  Around 8 or 9 am they all got up and Anders was able to get some new oxygen.

-They organized their gear and rested some more.  Finally around 3pm, Brent and Anders left C4 to begin the climb down to C2.  It was extremely hot, especially in their down suits.  There were groups coming up to C4, but it wasn’t really crowded.  They also passed three IMG guides trying to help a climber in trouble down to C3.

-They reached C3 in just 90 minutes and continued climbing quickly down the rest of the Lhotse Face.  They passed a few other climbers coming up.  There was just one rope (the other had disappeared) at this point.

-They reached C2 about 7 pm or so.  They were hot and sweaty and they were also adjusting to not breathing bottled oxygen again, albeit, now at the comparatively thick atmosphere of 21,000 feet.  Anders called us again and we discussed the logistics for him and Brent to get back down to Kathmandu the next day.

-They cooled off and had some Dal Bat and drank some fluids—the Sherpas there helped a lot.  They were in bed by 9 or 10.

-The next day they down climbed through the Ice Fall, and then helicoptered down to Kathmandu.  A few days later we saw him in LA and learned more about this incredible adventure.


Questions and Answers

Here are several questions we posed to Anders:

1. Sum up the overall experience of reaching the summit of Everest and safely returning.

Awesome, hard, and much different than I imagined.  Seeing people dying was not what I had expected, although I probably should have.  The bad decision-making I saw from so many climbers who shouldn’t have been there—it was a constant issue on this route and very scary to see. But this climb was also the realization of a dream and many years of hard work. I feel very fortunate that I was able to stand of top on my first attempt on Everest and the entire experience was infinitely more rewarding than I could have asked for. I learned so much about myself and what I am capable of, and I’ll carry these memories of this trip with me for the rest of my life.

The other defining theme of this trip was the support I received from family, friends, and others before, during, and after the climb. I’m still so moved by the amount of encouraging and supportive messages I received from people who were following along and rooting for my team and me. I’ve never in my life felt such overwhelming support from so many people, and knowing that I had so many people on my side meant the world to me. I’m 100% certain that it would be impossible to reach the top of world without the help of my family and friends, and I’m pretty lucky to have the ones that I do – this climb was a great reminder of that!


2. What is it like to have Brent as your guide and teammate?

It was great.  He’s obviously very knowledgeable about climbing, Everest, Nepal, etc., but he was also very much has a mentor to me.  He’s a good companion.  He’s funny.  He really helped me mentally and spiritually on this climb, and we went through a lot together.  We each carried our own loads and we were very much climbing partners who helped each other. Over the course of the two months we spent together we became incredibly close and shared hours of great conversation (most of which can’t be repeated). Brent became not just my guide, but also a great friend. This trip will likely be just the first of our hopefully many adventures together.

Brent is also a hero is my mind, and what he did on summit day was one of the most selfless and heroic acts I have ever witnessed. Instead of leaving the sick Slovakian to suffer, freeze, and die alone in the night, Brent gave up his chance at summiting (after 50+ days of hard work) to try to save the man. While he did end up passing away, for the last few hours of his life the Slovakian knew that people were with him and trying to save him. Additionally, when he got the man to Camp 4, the Slovakian was warm in a tent and sleeping bag, felt good (he was injected with Adrenaline and had plenty of oxygen), and had people by his side as he passed away. Brent’s personal sacrifice gave this man the ultimate gift of spending the last hours of his life filled with hope and companionship vs. loneliness and suffering. I learned a lot from this, and I hope others do as well.


3. What was it like to climb in your group of four (with Sherpa support)? 

 Climbing as a team with Brent, Geoff, and John was amazing and I feel very lucky to have been a part of this team. We were a good fit in terms of our strength and experience, which made us faster and much safer on the mountain.  We were a small group so we could make decisions quickly and be very strategic with our movement and game plan.  More importantly, we really got along well and quickly became great friends. We laughed a lot, and developed a bit of a reputation as the fun, party group on the mountain. We played music on a portable speaker everywhere we went, and developed our own way of communicating through movie quotes and good-hearted bullying. I’ll miss climbing with these guys every day.


4.  Where does this adventure stack up to others both in terms of sense of accomplishment and degree of difficulty?

 I haven’t really come to a conclusion on where it stacks up versus others in terms of accomplishment – I think this will take some time. On the one hand, I am so excited and happy that I reached the top of the world, which has been a decade+ dream of mine. On the other hand, it was a wild experience and the euphoria of summiting also comes with the memory of watching several climbers get themselves into serious situations and some dying. In terms of difficulty, it was unquestionably the hardest thing I’ve ever attempted due to the length of time we were on the mountain, the altitude, the danger, etc.  That said, I consistently felt it was well within my capabilities physically and mentally—I haven’t reached my limit yet.


5.  Were you ever scared? 

 Not from the climbing.  At any given point, even the parts of the mountain that were objectively ‘scary’, everything felt within my skill set and risk tolerance to handle.  There were places where I had to slow down and consider the best action, but there was never any place I was truly scared. Up until summit day, my biggest concerns were 1) not getting sick from the food, water, etc. and 2) whether or not the weather, crowds, and route would cooperate to give us a chance to go for the summit. Fortunately, I stayed mostly healthy the entire time and, despite being very late season, we did get our shot to attempt the summit.


6.  How did you handle seeing two other climbers so close to death?

At the time I was in pure execution mode and focused on solving the problems I faced and doing what needed to be done. This is what our whole team did – Brent, Geoff, John, and me – we just stopped climbing and immediately tried to help.  I didn’t let it bother me.  I stayed calm and tried to help as best as I could.

After the fact it is a little more complicated. I feel very sad for the climbers that passed away and for their families and friends. I wish that we got there sooner or were able to do more, but unfortunately they were just too far gone by the time we tried to help. I also feel sad that so many people refused to help these men. Maybe we were naïve to think we could help them after they were so close to death, but it is upsetting that so many people walked by and decided that summiting Everest was worth more than trying to help a fellow climber in distress. I’m immensely proud of our team for helping, and as I mentioned before, I think that these men were able to pass a little more peacefully knowing that people were 100% focused on caring for them.


7.  What was the most surprising thing about the climb?

How many inexperienced and under prepared people were there that should not have been there.  It made it more dangerous for everybody else as well. Everest is a truly amazing place – it is big, beautiful, and has so much history that, as a mountaineer, it is impossible not to be excited about climbing there. However, (in my own opinion) there needs to be more work done to ensure that climbers are prepared to approach the mountain safely. This likely means putting restrictions on who can guide (certain certifications) and who can climb (having real climbing experience at altitude and on technical terrain). This would help solve a lot of the current issues and make the mountain much safer for everyone.

On a lighter note – I was also surprised about how hot it got! Climbing in the Western Cwn between Camp 1 and Camp 3 often gets baked by the sun and the ambient climbing temperature felt like it was 100+ degrees. On more than one occasion, we did these sections in our down suits as the weather can quickly change to freezing temperatures and we needed to be prepared. I do not thrive in the heat, and these hot days were the toughest for me physically and mentally.


8.  What did you wish you knew before the trip that you know now?  

Probably that my hood on my down suit would partially block my GoPro video  (my summit video is 50% climbing, 50% orange down suit due to where it was placed on my pack). But honestly, I don’t think I would change anything about my preparation and what I knew going in. As a climbing fan, I knew the route well and the history of the mountain from the first ascent in 1953 to terrible tragedies of the last few years. Despite this, I learned SO MUCH about expedition climbing, Sherpa culture, my teammates, etc. while I was there and I’m glad I had the experience to learn this first hand.

For anyone considering the climb, my biggest piece of advice about what to do before the trip (aside from training to be in the best shape of your life) is to really get to know your team. Make sure the guiding company you go with is safe and runs a solid program (Note: I’d highly recommend the team I went with, Madison Mountaineering). But beyond that, get to know the folks you will be climbing with. I got incredibly lucky with such strong teammates (Brent, Geoff, and John), and this was a HUGE factor in our collective success.


9.  Would you do it again?  

Absolutely, I would definitely climb Everest again, but I’d have to find a way to avoid the crowds and the dangerous climbers.  Maybe the North side or another route.


10.  What’s next? 

 First some rest! After so much time up high in the cold mountains, I’m excited about spending the summer at my home by the beach in Santa Monica and breathing sea-level air, sleeping in a bed, eating good food, and having regular showers. After that, I’m targeting an ultra-marathon (50 miles) in the Bay Area in November and then hopefully completing the Seven Summits down in Australia in December (Mount Kosciuszko). I’m especially excited for that as my family is planning on joining me for the climb. Beyond that, I’d like to do Carstensz Pyramid and perhaps a climbing trip to Peru. But first, some rest .😃

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Anders Reunion!

Judy and I flew out to visit with Anders at his house in Santa Monica:


It was a great visit.  So exciting to be with him after he has achieved so much.  Great to be with him just hanging out.  Great visit.

We spent quite a few hours hearing all the detail on the trip.  I typed up a bunch of it and I suspect we'll post some of it in the near term--I'm amazed by them...

We also saw many of Anders' pictures and videos from those (epic) final days.  I'll leave you with a few screen shots from Anders' GoPro Video as he was high-up on the Summit Ridge, but with a considerable effort and some unexpected challenges ahead....(more shortly):







Monday, May 29, 2017

Madison Mountaineering Recap

This was just posted on the Madison site:

Madison Mountaineering Everest 2017 Recap, “The Leader” on Everest
Success / Safety:
All of our climbers and Sherpas are off the mountain and now and preparing to head home! We have had a fantastically successful expedition, with all 8 of our clients reaching the summit of Everest, along with 4 American guides, and 15 Sherpas. We also had several of our climbers complete the Everest & Lhotse “peak to peak” combination, where they climbed Mount Lhotse (4th highest mountain) the day after reaching the summit of Mount Everest. This amazing and unmatched level of success among all the teams on Mount Everest is secondary to our number one priority, that all members (clients, guides, & Sherpas) made it safely off the peak.
Rope Fixing to the Summit:
Our team took the lead in partnership with the British – Nepal Gurkha team in fixing the ropes to the summit of Mount Everest on May 15th. This was not part of our original plan, as the rope-fixing project was taken upon by several other teams at the start of the season. Unfortunately, after several mishaps, the lead team had to abandon the rope-fixing project along with their partners. Without any clear consensus on how or when the lines would be put in to the summit, our team stepped up to finish the job. This “mission critical” project was necessary so that teams could begin their summit attempts on Mount Everest, with teams reaching the summit the following day on May 16th and continuing to reach the summit today. We are glad that our team had the capability and prowess to organize and execute such an important task, when no other teams on the mountain could summon such an effort, at such a critical stage in the climbing season.
Rescues:
Our team was at the South Col when several climbers who had pushed themselves very hard on summit day returned and needed critical medical attention. Our guides came to assist with medicine (dexamethasone, etc) and supplemental oxygen. However, what stands out the most is that one of our veteran guides, Brent Bishop, along with our Sherpas, rescued the Slovak Climber from the Balcony (27,500’), lowering him all the way down to the South Col high camp. Our Sherpas gave up their oxygen for him to use on the descent. This heroic effort by Brent and our Sherpas involved abandoning their own summit attempt, just hours away from the top, and spending the day giving their all in an effort to save a life.
We feel very fortunate that our expedition was a stunning success. We attribute this to our careful team selection and training, our top notch Everest guides and leadership, and of course our incredible Sherpa team who we invest heavily in year after year.
We are now going to relax and enjoy the post summit euphoria before returning to our friends, families, and loved ones, as well as our busy lives back home! Thanks for following along!

Seeing Anders in LA today!

Judy and I are about to fly out to spend a couple of days with Anders and hear all about all things Everest.  The five of us did a face time with him from the Jersey shore, so we heard some more of the details...


We'll update after we seem him and wrap up this most excellent adventure....