#adventuredoneright

[zebblais]

#NorthsideSummitPush : return to the life zone. The struggle isn't just to get out of the "death zone", it's to get back to the life zone. After reaching the top, we want to get to thick air, warm temps and as far from the jet stream as we can. We rested at Camp 3 for an hour, rehydrating and refueling before packing our bags and returning to descent. Once again, a huge thanks to our #Phortse #Sherpa team, who dropped camp and carried our infrastructure down. #superhuman The weather didn't cooperate. As we packed, winds and clouds whipped up and light snow began. We made a speedy exit, knowing we had 6,000' of descent left before we would hit #everestabc. We arm-wrapped the fixed lines, belaying ourselves below camp, past the body of an Australian climber who had died the week before. Condolences to his friends and family. Camp 2, pictured, looked like a post-apocalyptic warzone with thick cloud rolling over tents shredded days earlier by gale force winds. Clearing the lines of rime as we went, the snow ramp between C2 and the #NorthCol seemed never ending. We paused to melt snow and drink before making the final push down the fixed lines. 18 hours after we started, we were home. Safe at ABC. Thick air. Real food. Coca cola. Beer. @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #MountEverest #Everest #Everest2017 #EverestNoFilter #Northside #DarnTough #JulboUSA #terramartribe #strapinventureout (at Mount Everest)

[zebblais]

The #NorthCol. . This zone is either freezing or frying. Today it was frying. Intense sun, fresh snow and zero wind combined to make for brutally hot conditions. I climbed from 6,400m to 7,000 in a T-shirt 🌴🌄🌞! . We tagged the Col and cached a few of our heavy items for summit day ( @EddieBauer down suit, mittens, heavy gloves, snacks, @backpackerspantry dinners, oxygen masks and regulators). It was a great day of movement for us, and other teams had some incredible accomplishments too: . The Transcend team of 16 climbers and Sherpa made the summit: the first team from either side of the mountain to reach the top for #Everest2017 (after the rope fixing team of course). . @Killianjornet flew past our team on his way up to 7600m without oxygen . #Everestnofilter team tagged 8,000m after spending the night at 7,700m w/o O2 Incredible day! Now we just need a weather window and we're set! @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest #Northside #Tibet #DarnTough

[zebblais]

#NorthsideSummitPush: day 2, part 2 arriving at 7700m, Camp 2 ( so many 2's...). Plumes of blowing snow and convective clouds billowed off the #summit and #NortheastRidge as we arrived at Camp 2. Otherwise visibility was nearly unlimited and we could see from the summit to ChoOyu until mid afternoon moisture occluded the view with cloud. Camp 2 is much less comfortable than Camp 1. Tent platforms are pedestals of piled rock that take arduous effort to erect. At this point, most are permanent structures #Sherpa teams built years ago, and they're big enough for a tent if you're lucky. When we arrived at camp, skeletons of tents that were destroyed days earlier in a storm littered the ridge. We walked past the wreckage to tents our Sherpa had popped up hours earlier, thankful to have such a strong and hardworking team. We melted snow, made soup and drinks to rehydrate and rested. We emerged only for more snow and to watch the #Alpenglow hit the mountains at dusk. Same routine the next day! Or so we thought... @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest #Everest2017 #MountEverest #Northside #Tibet #JulboUSA @terramarsports #strapinventureout (at Mount Everest)

[zebblais]

It feels like the end of the Earth, but it's the end of the #NortheastRidge of #MountEverest. @brooks.entwistle shot this pic of me two days ago when we toured to the Lhakpa La - the pass between #Everest and Lhakpa Ri. . The team is feeling good! We're keeping our ear to the ground to figure out what other teams are doing and when we might get a weather window.🔥 Fired up! 🔥 . #getonup @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest2017 #Northside #strapinventureout #DarnTough #JulboUSA #terramartribe (at Mount Everest)

[zebblais]

#RapidAscent / #RapidDescent. Patience is everything in finding a window to summit #MountEverest. We waited to hit the sweet spot of warm and windless. It was a tough to wait. We watched teams push into dubious weather, return battered, frostbitten, and summitless, while others returned victorious. The failures justified our decisions but the successes made it more difficult to wait (despite us being happy for them). We stayed low, resting, watching the winds rake the upper #NortheastRidge. When the wind barbs on the meteogram became confused and dropped off the steady southwest flow it was time to #climb. Our window came later than expected, but I can't complain. 25 days after @brooks.entwistle arrived we were standing on the highest point on Earth! We summited 5/27/2017 and descended to #EverestABC the same day. We rested, packed, congratulated our Sherpa team and the #EverestNoFilter crew, and took off for Base Camp this morning. 12 hours ago we were at 21,000', now we're at 14,000' in the middle of #Tibet and in 12 more hours we'll be back at 29,035' - seated in an air plane! @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest2017 #Everest (at Mount Everest)

[zebblais]

#NorthsideSummitPush: Day 1, part 2. Camp 1 sits at 7,000 meters on the #NorthCol. From camp, almost the entire route to the #summit is visible. It ascends the 2,500' snow ramp and rock ridge to Camp 2. From Camp 2 it contours climber's right to Camp 3, then gains the #NortheastRidge, the skyline pictured here. The rugged and steeply stepped ridge separates the #KangshungFace from the North face, with thousands of feet of relief on either side. At the North Col we begin using supplemental oxygen. We rest and sleep on a low flow rate, then crank it up to climb. The relatively low elevation of camp combined with wide, flat tent platforms and oxygen makes this the most comfortable camp on the route. Plus, the views are a 360 degree panorama of the North face, #Changtse, #EverestABC, the East Rongbuck glacier and Lhakpa Ri 🌄! @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest #Everest2017 #Everestnofilter #Northside

[zebblais]

On top of the world! Great summit day- warm and calm for the duration of our climb above high camp. The night started calm and clear. As we crested the #NortheastRidge we could see across the #KangshungFace to headlamps from climbers ascending from the #SouthCol- one of the most amazing sights I've seen. Clouds built and snow started, but we picked our window to avoid the bitter winds of the jet stream, so we were pleased by the weather (until our descent below C3 😑) We made it all the way back to #EverestABC after the #summit- an 8,000' descent! @adrianballinger made the top without Os and then returned to ABC too- huge shout out for that monumental feat! So psyched everyone made it up and down safely. HUGE thanks to our incredible #Sherpa team: Panuru (sirdar), @dorjisherpa, Phurba, Nawong, @namgye, Pasang Ringi and Mingma. There is no way could do it without you! @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest #Everest2017 #MountEverest #DarnTough #JulboUSA #strapinventureout #terramartribe (at Mount Everest)

[zebblais]

My next few posts are a chronological series of #Everest2017, starting at #EverestABC, ending on summit day. Follow #NorthsideSummitPush to see pics from each stage, and feel free to post questions in comments or email. 🌏🗻 #NorthsideSummitPush: Day 1 The NorthCol. After acclimatizing, we waited for a suitable weather window without too many big teams. This means we need two days with low winds: one to reach high camp and one to summit. We can climb through some wind on the way to camp 1 and 2, but we ideally we have low winds to high camp. This shot is from the day we climbed to the #NorthCol, the saddle between #Changtse and #Everest. We climb this section without oxygen. The climbers shown here are just below camp, which is hidden behind the bulge of ice in the middle of the shot. Once at camp we begin using supplemental oxygen, and we'll continue to use it constantly throughout the summit push. @alpenglowexpeditions #AdventureDoneRight #Everest #Northside #MountEverest (at Mount Everest)