Altitude Junkies | Everest Lhotse Dispatches

Everest Lhotse 2021 Expedition Dispatches

Dispatch #9 - June 2, 2021 – Kathmandu

All of our team members have now left Kathmandu, even though there are still no scheduled international flights operating. We managed to get everyone onto the same chartered flight to Doha and then onto their respective home countries.

Another successful Junkies Everest expedition thanks to a great team of climbers and our, as always, fantastic reliable Sherpa crew.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #8 - May 29, 2021 – Kathmandu

A three day storm left us hunkered down at base camp but as soon as the skies cleared this morning, we were the first team to be choppered out of base camp.

The weather turned bad again shortly after we departed, so we are very thankful that we were able to complete our helicopter rides directly back to Kathmandu

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #7 - May 25, 2021 – Base Camp

All team members and Sherpa are now back at base camp. Our weather forecast shows some bad weather starting tomorrow so we may be stuuck here for a few days waiting for our helicopters to pick us up from base camp.

More information to follow when the team returns to Base Camp.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #6 - May 24, 2021 – Base Camp

Altitude Junkies Everest summits this morning!! All team members and Sherpa are now back at the South Col resting and will descend to Camp Two soon.

More information to follow when the team returns to Base Camp.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #5 - May 10, 2021 – Base Camp

We have now completed our acclimatization rotation to Camp Two and above, and returned to Base Camp on the 8th.

We are now watching the weather forecasts in anticipation of planning our summit attempt. The rope fixing team were succesful in reaching the summit on the 7th, and we believe there have been summits each day since.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #4 - May 3, 2021 – Base Camp

Our Sherpa will make their fourth and final carry tomorrow to Camp Two. All the supplies for Camp Three and Four will be in place at Camp Two and will be moved into position later this month.

Our team members had originally planned to go to Camp One yesterday and on to Camp Two today. But, we had a last minute change of plan to allow two additional nights at base camp before being at 6400 meters for several days. This worked to our advantage as there was a large collapse in the icefall yesterday, at about the time we would have been traveling through it, so we consider ourselves very fortunate indeed.

We plan to make only one rotation to Camp One and Two, hopefully touching Camp Three in the process. With only making one rotation, this exposes our Sherpa and team members to less time in the icefall and less time sitting around Camp Two using up valuable supplies in food and fuel that have to be carried through the icefall by the Sherpa.This schedule has worked well for us in the past and avoids a long period at base camp before the summit push.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #3 - April 27, 2021 – Base Camp

We held our Puja ceremony on the 25th of April as this was considered an auspicious day from our Lama, who resides in Pangboche. Many of our team members recognized him, as he has conducted many Pujas on our AmaDablam and Cholatse expeditions through the years.

Our Sherpa team had planned to carry some loads to Camp Two today, but just as they were to leave Base Camp, we received a radio call informing us that the route to Camp One was impassable. Hopefully the Icefall doctors will fix the issue today.

Our team members plan to tak a little walk towards the Icefall today in order to iron out any potential issues with new boots and crampons.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #2 - April 24, 2021 – Base Camp

We arrived a day earlier than planned due to an unexpected family issue at one of our lodges enroute to Base Camp. We send our condolences to the Mountain Paradiese View Lodge family in Dingboche.

Phil Crampton

Dispatch #1 - April 18, 2021 – Kathmandu

The last of our expedition members arrived today in Kathmandu with all their luggage. Today is day one of our adventure and tomorrow we will take helicopters to Namche Bazar where will spend a couple of nights before starting the trek to base camp.

Our Sherpa crew arrived at base camp few days ago and have nearly finished setting up the camp in anticipation of our team members arriving on the 25th.

Phil Crampton