Text from Mike Lean to Sandys sister 20:22hrs 31st October

Most of the team made it to Camp 1 on the 28th Oct and spent the night there. They climbed to Camp 2 the next day and then returned to base camp for rest.  Matt has a bad chest cold so has decided to abandon his climb and will walk out to Lukla tomorrow.  Everyone else is doing fine (and presumably enjoying the luxuries of base camp).

Strong winds are forecast.  Hoping these will abate to allow for a attempt on the summit.


So, that's the news. If you want to see some photos of Ama Dablam from a previous Team Ascent trip see blog posts for 28th Oct 2009.  For those of you who are new to this game, and for those of us who should know better (yes, I was on the web at 4 am looking at photos of Ama Dablam) just remember, no news is good news.  I wonder if there will be ghost stories at base camp tonight?

Labouche Peak

we went to Kala Patar for acclimatisation and on the same day returned to Labouche BC.
On the 23Oct. We moved up to High Camp 5420m . After a fantastic night :-) we woke early and reached the trekking summit at around 6:25 AM. The same day we descended all the way to Pangboche village to spend the night. Today 25 Oct. We will move up to Amadablam BC. Everybody is fine and well.

Acclimatising, establishing base camp and snow.

Text message from Sandy today.

The group are trekking and acclimatising at Gorak Shep today. This afternoon they will climb up Kalipatar and return to Laboche this evening. Base came was established yesterday (21st October).

Their plan is to climb up to Laboche high camp tomorrow and attempt to summit on Thursday.

He also mentioned the unseasonal amount of snow they have encountered. Sounds pretty good to me.
All members of the team are well.

Wishing them all good luck.

Nepal October 17 2013

 Here to guide Labouche Peak and then Ama Dablam, this image above shows Ama Dablam,  recent bad weather has brought snow down to 4000 m, we hope it clears up soon! Team Ascent Ama Dablam Expedition 2013 members are. Sandy Allan (leader) Toni, Ueli, Stephen, Corrina, Matt and Mike... All are doing fine to date, (evening of 17th October today). We are about to spend our third night in Namche Bazaar and then continue our trek up  towards Everest base camp  tomorrow. Bad weather in Kathmandu prevented the fixed wing planes from flying  fly so we took the expensive option of a helicopter. The weather was really terrible but our NZ pilot Jason was calm and ace and we had an exciting, scary and wonderful flight to Lukla, walked to Phakting that night having all purchased umbrellas. The following day we walked to Kathmandu. One members luggage got lost in transit and of course as fate would have it it contained all his climbing gear, but we have manged to trace it down the holdall and  it arrived here in Namche Bazaar late this afternoon by express porter!

 Prayer beads.

Seeing all!

IRATA, Port Harcourt ,Nigeria

 Been assessing for JC International in Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria.

 Some of the guys

Ha ha, I go all the way to Nigeria, and my mate features  in the manual!

IRATA Training

 At Talon NDT training in Aberdeen yesterday.

This photo above shows how mountaineers set up their Jumar ( Ascender or Rope Clamp) for climbing expeditions. In the interest of saving weight (and working in cold conditions which  adds additional handling and freezing difficulties)  mountaineers often tie the rope directly into the Jumar attachment point with out using a connector such as a screw gate Karabiner. This wear point can damage the rope and consequently the rope should be  checked  constantly for wear and tear.

Ardverikie Wall ascent 30 Sept 13

 After several aborted attempts due to rainy weather I eventually managed to guide  Rebecca on the wall yesterday. Top photo Rebecca on the lower pitches.

Ace day climbing the central pitches.

Happy days!