Cybercasts

Greetings Adventurers! This is Lisa Carlson, writing on behalf of our world-class & famous guide, Lakpa Rita Sherpa. We are cybercasting you from our tea house dining room. Tonight is bittersweet. It is the last night for us trekkers. We made our goal of ascending Kala Patthar and our grand finale to Everest Base Camp yesterday. It has been a life-changing journey with the best team imaginable. And our WHOLE team will remain friends. This morning after a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon pancakes, honey porridge, fresh eggs, and sausage – and coffee delivery to our rooms, we descended to Dingboche (14,470 ft)! Pretty much we are at the summit height of Mt Rainier and we feel like we are at sea level! Thick air is great! We are playing a fierce game of cards, with skittles instead of cash, and Shanti gave us all tattoos (photo below!).The Island Peak team has done a gear check. They depart for Island Peak base camp tomorrow after us trekkers leave by helicopter to KTM. I can’t lie, we are really looking forward to our hot showers at the Yak and Yeti where Alpine Ascents puts us up. Only the best!
We are looking forward to reuniting with trekker Rebecca Lashley in KTM, who departed our trip a couple of days ago. As this will be my last cybercast, I’d like to pay tribute to Alpine Ascents. I have been booking people who raise money for Fred Hutch with this first class guide service for over 21 years. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with such professional experts – who always do the right thing, over so many years. My gratitude goes out by leaps and bounds to Todd and Gordon for their full support and friendship. My thanks to Chris, my spirit animal, for helping me with any issue, no matter how off the wall. Jonathon, Gary, and Mary for their candor and kindness. I know I am forgetting some staff past and present and I want you to know I also appreciate you.
To every guide, you have my forever sincere thanks. Our Everest Base Camp team gave ourselves the name “Last Call” – which is significant to our Fred Hutch climbers. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to be a participant on this “Last Call” expedition with Karen Kilian, Rebecca Lashley and Shanti LaRue – all people who have been with me since the beginning of my Fred Hutch journey. Tomorrow, our thoughts will focus on Lakpa, Patti, Elena, Brian, Brad, Kancha and Norbu as they ascent Island Peak (20,227 ft). Today we had it in full view for the entirety of the day. You can see Patti trekking toward it in the photo. To guide Devin Bishop – we carried a prayer flag in your name and honor to Everest Base Camp, where it now flies in the wind. We are with you!🤍 To Lakpa – we could not be more appreciative. I speak for all of us when I say, thank you. Seeing Nepal thru your eyes has been the experience of a lifetime. Because of you, Nepal will call all of us back again. (And it’s been pretty darn rad to see your groupies spot you on the trail – like Bono). Ringee, Kancha, and Norbu have been wonderful companions. I’ll sign off on a VERY high note. Kancha just handed us all steaming hand towels to clean up before dinner. Our 5-star experience!
Thank you for being with us this week – and the last 25 years. It was a great ride. Good luck Island Peakers! You do not need it, because you are all Hulk-like strong, but I’m saying it anyway!

Evening Adventurers!
This is Lisa Carlson with the Climb to Fight Cancer, cybercasting with our awesome rock star guide, Lakpa Rita Sherpa. EVEREST BASE CAMP SUCCESS! We made it to Base Camp (17,534 ft) this morning, and what a beautiful morning. Blue skies, warm air, and our excitement to be able to touch the famed Khumbu icefall. We were RIGHT THERE!! We walked around and spent a lot of time exploring and taking photos. It was an oddly warm day compared to yesterday, which was frigid and saw us hiking up Kala Pattar (18,300 ft) in our summit puffy coats. It was also a time of remembrance. I hung the prayer flags of Climb to Fight Cancer’s Lynn Lippert, whose ashes Rebecca Lashley, Karen Killian and I released to the mountains 2 days ago in the shadows of Everest. Several of us brought our own personal prayer flags to leave behind too. With Lakpa’s help, we tied them together where they will fly with the names of our loved ones, and those we have lost to cancer. We hiked past Gorak Shep and we are all tucked in, in Lobuche. It’s been an incredible, unforgettable day. We have been surrounded by great Himalayan peaks in all directions. It is so clear why this country changes those who visit here. We haven’t seen a TV, car or anything with a motor in weeks. (We have seen quite a few flight-seeing helicopters). We have had the loving care of the Sherpas on our team, Lakpa, Fur Kancha, Ang Norbu, and Rinjee. We are enjoying the thick air at 16,100 ft. Goodnight from all our trekkers and Island peak climbers. Today already feels like it was a dream. More tomorrow.

This is Lisa Carlson with lead guide Lakpa Rita Sherpa.
Today was a GREAT DAY. We woke up to coffee delivered to us in our rooms by our wonderful Sherpa guides. It’s downright decadent. They are so kind and good to us. We hiked from Lobuche to Gorek Shep. The route allowed for us to be surrounded by the Himalayan amphitheater; the most spectacular mountain range on the planet. After a hearty lunch, we climbed and summited Kala Pattar (18,300 ft).  The summit is known for showcasing the best views of Mt. Everest. On the summit, we had close up views of Everest, and we could see basecamp and much of the climbing route. It was soooooo cool. We also had big views of Nuptse and Lhotse. It was surreal to be surrounded by these giants. Early this morning, the Climb to Fight Cancer team released the ashes of two dear friends of Climb. We had a Buddhist blessing and prayer performed during the ceremony. It felt right that our friends remain here in this spiritual place. Tonight we are having dinner in our tea house, eating traditional Nepalese cuisine and hydrating for our trek to Everest Base Camp early tomorrow morning. When we head to our rooms we will be sleeping at 17,100 ft. Thanks for following, tomorrow we will share photos from Everest Base Camp.

Namaste.🙏

Hello Adventurers!
Greetings from Lobuche! Team “Last Call” ascended today from Pheriche (14,300 ft) to Lobuche (16,200 ft).

It was solemn to pass the Sherpa memorial. There are many Sherpa climbers and climbers from many countries memorialized in the shadows of Pumori.

We took a long break to reflect, and then walked the beautiful, gentle path, to our tea house.

A highlight was running into longtime Climb to Fight Cancer fundraising climber Laurie Normandeau (pictured) on the trail! It was such fun to meet this fireball who pioneered the idea of climbing the seven summits for breast cancer research for Fred Hutch.

We passed quite a few yak trains. It’s fun to see these animals we do not have at home. They just file by us peacefully with their loads.

Today was another bright and sunny day in the Khumbu. Tomorrow our team will ascend Kala Patar.

It’s much colder here in Lobuche so we have broken out our cozy down pants for the first time. We’ve been playing cards and drinking lots of mint tea.

Hello Adventurers!

This is Lisa Carlson with Lakpa Rita Sherpa, the team is still happily in Pheriche. I am climbing for the Climb to Fight Cancer. Along with Shanti, Becca and Karen. Tomorrow we move to Lobuche.

This morning we took a hike up to 15,000 ft. Everyone did well and we soaked in the views of Island Peak! Pictured are Brad and Brian from Georgia. They have managed to keep us laughing. They are on the Island Peak expedition along with Patti, Elena and Bruce.

We are really having a great time. Today a bunch of us sat in the tea house sun room and played cards and drank real cappuccinos. Texas hold ‘em was the favorite game today.

You’ll notice in the photos that we are wearing buffs over our faces. This is for sun protection, and also to keep the dust out of our lungs. As we get higher, and the air gets dryer, it’s more important than ever to cover up. The locals burn yak dung for fuel and heat so we definitely do not want to be breathing that in!

This evening our team attended a lecture by the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal (HRA). This is a voluntary non-profit organization which strives to reduce casualties in the Himalayas. Founded in 1973 it helps foreign trekkers and primarily those working as porters and Sherpa guides. It was very informative and we are all glad we attended. We learned the local porters suffer AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) at a greater rate because most of them come from the lowlands in Nepal.

It has been luxurious having two nights here. However we are looking forward to continuing our trip and seeing how we fare in the higher elevations. I cannot say enough about our Sherpa guides (pictured) and the locals we encounter. I hope we carry their grace and genuine kindness with us wherever we go in the future. We could not do this trip without them. ❤️

Thank you for being on this journey with us. Namaste. 🙏