Trip Reports

Khumbu Climber - 9 Oct to 5 Nov '10

Written by Leader Andy Chapman, November 2010

The trip started with the flight to Nepal on 9 October. Unfortunately, we experienced a delay flying into the Khumbu Valley, due to bad weather at Lukla. This is the first time I have ever been delayed on a flight to Lukla in over a dozen expeditions to Nepal. Eventually the team, along with Nev Taylor's Everest Base Camp and Island Peak expedition, flew by Russian MI17 helicopter to Lukla on Thursday 14 October.

From Lukla we trekked up the Khumbu Valley towards our first objective, Pokalde. This was climbed on Saturday 23 October in near perfect conditions, with 9 members reaching the airy summit. Vanessa, Thomas, David, Jo, Martin, John, Mark and Richard, along with myself, climbing Sherpas Dawa and Tam ding and Sridar Nima Temba. (Nima is perhaps one of the most experienced Sherpas who work for Jagged Globe in Nepal. He has been Sirdar on trips such as Everest, Cho Oyu and Ama Dablam). This was the first time that climbing Sherpa Tam Ding had summated Pokalde, but having climbed Everest and climbed to 8,000m on K2 along with Nima, Pokalde was not too much of a problem for him! The last 200 meters being on fixed ropes and rock and scree, requiring great care.

We descended to Base Camp, then the next day trekked to Island Peak Base Camp and then towards High Camp on Island Peak, where we met John Eames form Mera and Island Peak and Nev again. They had summited Island Peak the day before us with some good successes.

Our summit day was long but enjoyable with 8 members summiting in 5 £ hrs. This was the best ascent I have had of Island Peak. Our outstanding climbing Sherpas, Dawa and Tam Ding fixed ropes under the watchful eye of Nima Temba. The climb up Island Peak headwall was perfect snow and the ridge led us to the summit with views of Makalu, Barnuste and Lhotse Shar and of course, Ama Dablam. After descending to Base Camp we moved down to Dingboche, meeting Mungo Ross with the second Khumbu Climber trip.

Moving on to Lobuche Peak we climbed the 1 £ hrs from Base Camp to high camp in preparation for our third peak. At 2.30 am we set off up the rock slabs towards the glacier and on to fixed lines leading to the false summit. Thankfully this season the route to the main east summit was clear of crevasses and John, Mark, Dawa and myself proceeded, carefully roped together along the ridge, reaching the main east summit in almost perfect conditions. It is unusual for teams to reach the main east summit in most seasons. The other team members, along with our Sherpas, were happy to have reached the false summit and enjoyed views of the Khumbu peaks from Everest in the north, Cho Oyu in the west, Makalu in the east and Ama Dablam in the south.

Sadly, due to the delays at the start we could not continue over the Cho La pass and climb Gokyo Ri. Instead we descended the Khumbu Valley to Lukla, experiencing some snow fall at Pangbouche. Despite everything, we were extremely lucky with the weather - when it mattered we had good weather and managed to climb all three of the main peaks. The group flew to Kathmandu on 3 November and after a good rest at the Summit Hotel, returned to the UK on 5 November.

Andy Chapman, Expedition Leader

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