Team: Sweet and Salty resting in Lobuche
Hello Everyone,
Today is our last rest day and last night before we head to Everest Basecamp tomorrow. Sweet and Salty both are doing very well and are acclimatizing great! After breakfast we went on a hike above Lobuche and made it to just over 17,100ft. Below are photos from our high point today. If you look closely in the photo without people you can just make out basecamp in the ice. We are excited to get to basecamp tomorrow and start getting moved in, organized and acquainted with home for the next 5 weeks or so. Thanks for following along on our journey to basecamp. We are looking forward to begin climbing but will first have a few rest days, a few training days, and our Puja (blessing and offering ceremony) before heading up the mountain on our first of three rotations.
Ben Jones
Expedition team: Sweet and Salty make it to Lobuche (16,300ft)
Hello Everyone,
Another beautiful day in the Khumbu today. We are now at 16,300ft in the village of Lobuche. We will be here tomorrow further acclimatizing before finally heading to basecamp. Sweet and Salty are doing well, and we are having fun! Look for another video tomorrow or the next day. Below is a photo of Nuptse (7,800m) tonight as the sun was setting.
Thanks for following along.
Ben Jones
Climbing Team; Sweet and Salty resting in Pheriche
Hello Everyone,
Today was a rest day today in Pheriche (14,300ft). It’s been pretty windy the last couple of days but our acclimatization hike in the morning was pleasant. Tomorrow we head to Lobuche for two nights, our last stop before we arrive home to Basecamp for the next 6 weeks. Expect another video in just a little while….
Ben Jones
The climbing team now Team: Sweet and Salty……
Hello Everyone,
As we continue the trek towards basecamp one of the things I always like to do is to visit Lama Geishi, the high Lama of the Khumbu, in upper Pangboche. Here we received another blessing for safe passage through the mountains and to the top of Everest and down. We will have one more ceremony where we ask for safe passage again once we reach Basecamp and before we start climbing, called the Puja. I appreciate each blessing we receive (as do Jen and Mario) and wouldn’t feel the same if we didn’t receive them. It’s a part of this spectacular culture of the Sherpa and Nepali people.
In the photo below, Lakpa Rita Sherpa helps Mario and all of us ready our Khata’s (and small offering) for presentation to Lama Geishi. It was a great ceremony and from there we continued on here to Pheriche. We are now at 14,300ft and doing great.
It was a little windy today but we have had great weather so far. I’ll be sending another video hopefully tomorrow, and my hope with these images and videos that you get a sense of the incredible beauty of this place and its people. If you haven’t already, and even if you have before, I suggest you pay Nepal a visit! This is 9th trip into the Khumbu, and I continue to learn from and have new experiences with each visit.
Ben Jones
Spectacular Expedition. Having been on many climbs with Alpine Ascents I knew what to expect but was blown away by how smoothly the trip went, the level of execution and he quality of the staff. Truly a top notch operation.
