Success on Lobuche East!

The trek back to Lobuche base camp went smoothly and we appreciated the thicker air back down under 16,000ft.  On Tuesday the 11th, we moved up to Lobuche high camp in preparation for our climb.  Moving camps so often gets a little tedious and we only take what we need up the hill for or climb, leaving the rest in our tents below.

High camp is a great spot with our tents surrounding the lake.  Our weather continues to be fantastic and dominated by high pressure.  Occasionally we have some winds, but the sky has been blue every day for over a week now until at least the early afternoon.  Our tent site had a great view of the lake which we enjoyed while resting after our climb up. 

We have an early dinner and are tucked into our sleeping bags before 7pm.  Tomorrow we have an alpine start in the dark.  This gets us moving when the mountain is cold and keeps us off the upper mountain in the heat of the day.  

Wednesday the 12th and we're climbing by 4:45 am.  It's pitch black and our headlamps look like fireflies going up the mountain.  The first part of our route consists of scree and sloped rock slabs covered in loose rock and scree.  This is a difficult combination in our big boots and our focus is sharp to make sure there are no mishaps.

After an hour of climbing, dawn starts to break and it promises to be another beautiful bluebird day!  There's not a breath of wind and we're all in great moods to be climbing in the Himalayas during such a great morning.  Another hour brings us to crampon point where we transition from the loose rock routine to snow.  Our hopes are high for some good cramponing after the lack of good footing so far this morning.

With our big boots and sharp crampons on, we're ready to climb a snowy mountain in the Himalayas!  It's an amazing feeling and I'm almost levitating with excitement.  Over next couple of hours, I was completely energized and made really good progress up towards the summit.  It was a steep route and we had fixed lines for over a thousand feet, into which we attached our jumars (ascenders) to protect against a fall.  Almost to the summit, I took the photo below which shows the route as well as our high camp next to the lake and our base camp over 4,000 ft below.

 After 3 hours, 55 minutes of climbing, I reach the summit and am greeted by continued blue sky and light wind.  We have an amazing view of the Himalayas, including of course Mt. Everest which looms another 9,000 ft above.  

Standing on the summit of Lobuche East at almost 20,000 ft above sea level, I remembered having a little rubber Singer valve in the lid of my backpack.  Here's a shout out to everyone back home.  We're having a great time here but we still think of our family and friends back home.

The descent takes only an hour and a half and we're back to the tent by 10:40 am.  What a great day!  After our team gets back down to high camp, eats and drinks and rests a bit, we head down to the thicker air of base camp for dinner and a much needed sleep.

It's now Thursday the 13th and a tough day for me and Kriss.  I'm going back up to Everest base camp and Kriss is heading back down the Khumbu valley and home.  It'll take her three days to trek back down to Lukla.  Then hopefully she gets a quick flight to Kathmandu and then the long flights back home.

My goals for the next 24 hours are to get a shower, do some laundry and set up my single tent which will be my home for the next 4-5 weeks.

Namaste