Island Peak Expedition. March '15

Team leader and updates: Stu Peacock
View Island Peak info and book online

29th March
am: Everything went perfectly this morning despite the unseasonable bad weather on Wednesday and a quite a bit of rain at Lukla over the past few days. We’ve arrived safely with all our kit. The team have had a second breakfast and morning drinks while sorting out kit. We’re now heading to  Phakding. The sun is out and everyone happy to be here. All the team were sad to hear that Neil could not join the trip and hope he can make this epic journey in the near future.
pm: We’re now at Phakding after a lovely sunny walk from Lukla. 2 hours 45 including half an hour drink stop. Will and John are enjoying a refreshing beer before we have lunch so the team is getting on well and everyone in high spirits.

30th March
We’re now at Namche Bazaar. The team are making great progress and counting themselves lucky that we flew to Lukla when we did as no flights arrived today.

We arrived at our lunch stop at Jorsali a little bit early, well an hour and a half early actually, but this allowed the team to down a big put of honey lemon tea. It started to rain at 11:30, so it was waterproofs  for our walk to Namche, and at 3100m this turned to snow. It finally stopped snowing at 6:30 this evening, so could be a snowy tomorrow on our acclimatisation day. The weather forecast looks similar for the next few days but hopefully won’t impeed our progress to Island peak.

31st March
Nice and sunny today for our acclimatisation walk. We headed over to the Sagramatha visitors Centre first and managed to get our first views of Everest, Lhotse, Ama Dablam and Thamserku, which were all stunning in the snowy setting.

We then headed up to the everest view hotel for a spot of tea and then back down to Sona lodge for our lunch. Easy afternoon today exploring namche or having a snooze.

2nd April
Although the weather hasn’t been great with pleasant mornings and cloudy afternoons we have still enjoyed good walking through beautiful rhododendron trees that gradually led us back to the river and into Pangboche, which was a great viewpoint for Ama Dablam. On leaving the village we turned up the Imja valley to reach Dingboche. We’ve had nice lodges on the walk with the relative luxury of an en-suite toilet!!!

Will wasn’t feeling well at Namchee Bazaar so decided to not go further on the trip. The rest of the group are feeling strong and setting a terrific pace. We’re now having an acclimatisation/Rest day at Dingboche practising fixed line and abseil skills. On to Chukung after that.

6th April
Despite huge efforts, the team did not reach the summit. Weather was good with stunning views, very little wind, cold but mainly clear and saw lots of stars so we barely needed our head torches.

Setting off from Base Camp just after 1am with Lee getting to 5300m before turning back. John and Pemba went on to 5900m before also turning back. Instead of staying at Base Camp on the decent we proceeded on to Chukung today (Mon) and will head to Namche Bazaar tomorrow (Tues). All are tired but well.

9th April
Stu has just sent a report that they arrived back into Kathmandu late this morning. We had a good celebration at the Irish pub in Lukla last night, shooting pool, drinking beer and cocktails, well it was happy hour, before our final slap up meal in the Khumbu.

John has managed to re-arrange his flight back to the US for tonight so he can prep for a job interview next week, so we all wish him well for that. As we have a day spare having trekked out a bit quicker than planned, the team have decided to go white water rafting tomorrow, so should be a nice end to a great trip.

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