My trip to the top of Everest
Discussion
marine boy said:
What an amazing achievement OP, from an idea to 'done it' in 2yrs, truly inspiring
Dominate your stairs with a big photo on your upstairs landing wall of you proudly sitting on the summit of Everest, the top of the world!
I'll post a photo later of the 'shrine' my wife insisted went at the top of the stairs, including framed originals of the newspaper the day Everest was first climbed. Turns out my Mum's neighbour had stacks of ancient newspapers in their garage, including that one!! Quite a find and very kind to donate to me. Dominate your stairs with a big photo on your upstairs landing wall of you proudly sitting on the summit of Everest, the top of the world!
BoRED S2upid said:
Amazing and how you should do Everest. You hear of rich folk paying to get them to the top with very little climbing experience. You did it properly.
Well, to be fair, I did pay a lot, and started with no experience? But the company I wanted to go with would never let anyone even attempt it without doing the steps I did. renmure said:
Just in to say that is totally awesome!!
I watched the movie, Everest, and couldn't get my head round folk paying to do something like that for fun.
Screw loose is all I can say. I'm a field hockey goalkeeper, I loved everything about going to a mountain where I might not come back, in another life would love to do things like wingsuit, cave diving.....certainly something not right! I watched the movie, Everest, and couldn't get my head round folk paying to do something like that for fun.
UTH said:
You sure that was the top... That bit behind you is definitely higher than where you're sat... Just sayin'. 
Joking apart, as an ex climber and occasional mixed snow and rock climber, I take my hat off to you. That's some achievement to go from zero to everest in that time-frame.
Did you get any frost bite? Was there a risk that you could get frost bite on your pecker when nature calls?
Who pays if you need to get off the mountain for something medical related (Requiring a helicopter etc), Can you even get travel insurance for this type of trip?
What did you think of the Sherpas? Do they get paid a decent salary?
What was the best item you took with you that you didn't think you would need?
Who pays if you need to get off the mountain for something medical related (Requiring a helicopter etc), Can you even get travel insurance for this type of trip?
What did you think of the Sherpas? Do they get paid a decent salary?
What was the best item you took with you that you didn't think you would need?
Awesome achievement!
Could you do us a timeline of how long the whole thing takes please? From getting off the plane to basecamp to summit to basecamp and back to civilisation please? I have no concept of how long any of this takes. Appreciate that the timeline could be very weather dependent!
Could you do us a timeline of how long the whole thing takes please? From getting off the plane to basecamp to summit to basecamp and back to civilisation please? I have no concept of how long any of this takes. Appreciate that the timeline could be very weather dependent!
UTH said:
Now, Aconcagua certainly appeals! A trip to Argentina with the steaks and Malbec, with a lovely climb up a mountain all part of the trip would be amazing. How long did that whole trip take, I seem to remember we're talking a couple of weeks or so, right?
Ama Dablam I wish we'd been able to do as part of our Everest trip, sadly no one was really offering that as part of the package. Annoyingly, the company I went with switched their 'training peak' from Lobuche to Pumori the year after I went.....I wished I could have climbed Pumori.
I've done Aconcagua. Ama Dablam I wish we'd been able to do as part of our Everest trip, sadly no one was really offering that as part of the package. Annoyingly, the company I went with switched their 'training peak' from Lobuche to Pumori the year after I went.....I wished I could have climbed Pumori.
Your permit to enter the park lasts 3 weeks IIRC. If you're already acclimatised I'm sure you could do it in 4 days but realistically 2 weeks minimum, I took 2.5 weeks. The Argentines are very laid back around timings. The park doesn't always open on the day they say it does. I arrived in Mendoza 2 weeks after it was supposed to open and it only opened a few days after I arrived.
I used Inka expeditions as you need a sponsor but did everything else myself. Cost all in for everything was £2500 in 2017, which I thought was great value.
Almost got stung by my flights as I changed at Beunos Aires and hadn't clocked I flew in and out of different airports 2hrs apart. Probably the most stressful taxi journey I've ever had. Horrendous traffic and the first driver didn't fancy it so just told me to get out after after about 15 mins. I feel sick thinking about it.
Almost no one speaks English, maybe sounds obvious but took me by surprise. I'd say 8 or 9 out of 10 didn't know a single word.
I wouldn't describe the climb as lovely
atleast not up the standard route. The rock is all rotten and crumbling so it makes for slow progress at times. Stunning all the same though, it's a huge hunk of a mountain and a fair bit taller than the hills around it which gives a great perspective.
Met a doctor from Ushaia at around 5800m that sat me down and fed me the best tea I've ever tasted. I'll never forget the small gesture of kindness.
On the Malbec front. There's an enterprising chap that'll rent you a bike for a few quid and a map to all the local vineyards around Mendoza. The idea that you cycle from one to the next taking in all their sample menu's. I tagged along with 2 backpackers and had a cracking day.
Random84 said:
Did you get any frost bite? Was there a risk that you could get frost bite on your pecker when nature calls?
Who pays if you need to get off the mountain for something medical related (Requiring a helicopter etc), Can you even get travel insurance for this type of trip?
What did you think of the Sherpas? Do they get paid a decent salary?
What was the best item you took with you that you didn't think you would need?
Nope, no frost bite. I have naturally quite cold hands which was one of my concerns on all of these trips, but funnily enough the expedition leader told me that people who are used to having cold hands are usually better equipped to deal with it and make sure they keep them warm, as they've been doing it all their lives! I had those little hand warmer things for the summit push and very thick expensive gloves. Hands were a little cold, not nothing near frost bite. Who pays if you need to get off the mountain for something medical related (Requiring a helicopter etc), Can you even get travel insurance for this type of trip?
What did you think of the Sherpas? Do they get paid a decent salary?
What was the best item you took with you that you didn't think you would need?
And no worries when going to the loo, luckily we weren't finding ourselves in gale force winds at minus 20, which some people do.
We had Global Rescue insurance which pretty much covers a helicopter getting you off the mountain if possible, that's pretty much the only thing you can get cover for, and that's only up to a certain altitude.
Sherpas were amazing, but we didn't actually get to spend a huge amount of time with them, as they're on their own gruelling schedule heading up and down the mountain constantly setting up the 4 camps with all the equipment etc. Part of the high cost of my trip was that I was going with a company who paid them well, and then at the end of the trip we tipped I think somewhere in the region of $1,400 to the summit sherpa. To be honest I'm not sure if that then gets split between all of the sherpa team, or went directly to the sherpa who was by my side the entire time, but either way, compared with what sherpas earn in a normal life cultivating potatoes etc, working on Everest is extremely well paid.
In terms of best item, I think I knew everything I took I would need, but having a little solar charger, a power pack and a lot of episodes of my favourite TV shows downloaded on my phone was perfect for killing a lot of the downtime you end up having.
NickXX said:
Awesome achievement!
Could you do us a timeline of how long the whole thing takes please? From getting off the plane to basecamp to summit to basecamp and back to civilisation please? I have no concept of how long any of this takes. Appreciate that the timeline could be very weather dependent!
I'm going to try and dig out my diary over the weekend which is packed away in a box somewhere, as I think I was pretty good at logging nearly every day.....although I know I stopped on the final week which I now regret because reading back I'll have the whole story right up until actually heading to the top, but it's weird how at the time lots of things suddenly didn't seem important. Could you do us a timeline of how long the whole thing takes please? From getting off the plane to basecamp to summit to basecamp and back to civilisation please? I have no concept of how long any of this takes. Appreciate that the timeline could be very weather dependent!
From memory it looked something like:
Land Kathmandu - 2 nights here
Helicopter to Lukla, then another helicopter to Namche - I know lots of people trek from Lukla to Basecamp, but for reasons I won't go into, this company didn't see the benefit over the admin and other factors
8-10 days trekking in to basecamp
5-6 weeks living at basecamp including rotations up the mountain to camp 2, back to base, camp 3, to camp 2, back to base etc
Final summit push was about 6 days basecamp, camp 2, camp 3, camp 4, summit, back to camp 2 for a couple of nights, back to base.
Couple of nights at basecamp, then trek back to Namche. Couple of nights at Namche celebrating, helicopter to Kathmandu. Couple of nights here, fly home.
Next step of the journey having done the week in Chamonix and learning that a) I liked it and b) seemed quite capable at it, was signing up to climb Mont Blanc, which I think was August 2016.
My step brother and his friend were keen to join which was great to be doing it with a couple of people - they'd both attempted Denali, one had got to the top, one had to stop as weather wasn't ideal, so they'd done some climbing, more than me at that stage to be fair.
The trip was for a week I think, with the first 4 days dedicated to acclimatising climbs/treks, learning a few things like crevasse rescue and similar to my first trip to Chamonix generally doing climbing based bits in and around the area to prep ourselves for the final 3 days push up Mont Blanc.
These pics are just of the first 4 days of various bits we did
There was one day where I went off on my own with our guide to do an ice climb while the other two carried on with something else, can't quite remember what they did that day to be honest:
My first time hitting 4,000m
My step brother and his friend were keen to join which was great to be doing it with a couple of people - they'd both attempted Denali, one had got to the top, one had to stop as weather wasn't ideal, so they'd done some climbing, more than me at that stage to be fair.
The trip was for a week I think, with the first 4 days dedicated to acclimatising climbs/treks, learning a few things like crevasse rescue and similar to my first trip to Chamonix generally doing climbing based bits in and around the area to prep ourselves for the final 3 days push up Mont Blanc.
These pics are just of the first 4 days of various bits we did
There was one day where I went off on my own with our guide to do an ice climb while the other two carried on with something else, can't quite remember what they did that day to be honest:
My first time hitting 4,000m
SteveStrange said:
Brilliant. Love the "4" shot above the clouds. But... T shirt? At that sort of altitude? Must have been a bit fresh...
That T shirt shot was when we were doing the 'trek' across Valleé Blanche so not quite as high as the ice climbing bit, so it was pretty bloody hot in the sun. You'll see me in a T shirt a few times on the Everest trip at well above 6,000m......
UTH said:
I'm going to try and dig out my diary over the weekend which is packed away in a box somewhere, as I think I was pretty good at logging nearly every day.....although I know I stopped on the final week which I now regret because reading back I'll have the whole story right up until actually heading to the top, but it's weird how at the time lots of things suddenly didn't seem important.
From memory it looked something like:
Land Kathmandu - 2 nights here
Helicopter to Lukla, then another helicopter to Namche - I know lots of people trek from Lukla to Basecamp, but for reasons I won't go into, this company didn't see the benefit over the admin and other factors
8-10 days trekking in to basecamp
5-6 weeks living at basecamp including rotations up the mountain to camp 2, back to base, camp 3, to camp 2, back to base etc
Final summit push was about 6 days basecamp, camp 2, camp 3, camp 4, summit, back to camp 2 for a couple of nights, back to base.
Couple of nights at basecamp, then trek back to Namche. Couple of nights at Namche celebrating, helicopter to Kathmandu. Couple of nights here, fly home.
Awesome, thank you! What was the purpose of the 5-6 weeks at basecamp? Was it to acclimatise, or was it to wait for the right weather window?From memory it looked something like:
Land Kathmandu - 2 nights here
Helicopter to Lukla, then another helicopter to Namche - I know lots of people trek from Lukla to Basecamp, but for reasons I won't go into, this company didn't see the benefit over the admin and other factors
8-10 days trekking in to basecamp
5-6 weeks living at basecamp including rotations up the mountain to camp 2, back to base, camp 3, to camp 2, back to base etc
Final summit push was about 6 days basecamp, camp 2, camp 3, camp 4, summit, back to camp 2 for a couple of nights, back to base.
Couple of nights at basecamp, then trek back to Namche. Couple of nights at Namche celebrating, helicopter to Kathmandu. Couple of nights here, fly home.
Great read OP.
My mate's eldest brother climbed Everest last year and became the oldest person from the UK to do it.
Ranulph Fiennes held the record before that.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/18/grandf...
He attempted Mount Denali in May but had to abandon due to the weather.
My mate's eldest brother climbed Everest last year and became the oldest person from the UK to do it.
Ranulph Fiennes held the record before that.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/18/grandf...
He attempted Mount Denali in May but had to abandon due to the weather.
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