SummitClimb Mera Peak & Baruntse expedition: Summits

It’s 8:40 a.m. and we’re on the summit of Mera Peak. We have 17 people up here. It’s sunny, there are no clouds, light wind and we can see everything. Kangchenjunga, Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, Makalu and Cho Oyu are all visible.

Everybody is doing well and now we have to get down this thing. We’ll call you back later. Thanks. Bye

20-Oct-09: Hi, this is Lyngve Skrede with a dispatch for the SummitClimb Mera Peak & Baruntse expedition for Tuesday, the 20^th of October.

We started this morning from basecamp at 5100 metres/16,700 feet and climbed back to the Mera La at 5400 metres/17,700 feet and all the way to high camp at 5768 metres/18,978 feet. The weather was clear, but very windy and cold. The high camp is on fixed ropes. Behind us are some rock outcroppings that will protect us from the wind. Everybody is in good spirits, although some of us have been experiencing minor headaches.

We are having good food and rest right now. At 2:00 a.m. we’ll start a 6 hour walk to the summit. I hope that the wind stops blowing so heavily so we can all make it to the summit. Now I’m going to say a few words in my native language (click audio link above to listen). Cheers!

19-Oct-09           

Hi, this is Dan Mazur, one of the leaders of the SummitClimb Mera Peak & Baruntse expedition calling in a dispatch for the 18th and 19th of October.

Everybody is doing well. On the 18th we crossed the Mera La, which is at about 5300 metres/17,400 feet. It was strenuous, but there were really good views up there. Then we came down to Mera Peak basecamp, which is located at 5100 metres/16,700 feet on the other side of the Mera La. We reached basecamp on the 18th in the evening.

On the 19th we took a rest day. We also did some training on the Mera Peak Glacier above the lake in the morning. We came down to our comfortable basecamp and had a relaxing afternoon. We’re just resting up and getting ready to go up to the high camp tomorrow and the summit the next day.

The weather has been pretty good with especially sunny mornings. It’s really cold here with some winds, especially in the afternoon, but overall we haven’t had any bad weather. So we’re really hoping the weather holds and looking forward to a good crack at the summit.

Thanks for following the expedition. We’ll send in some more news tomorrow. Okay, bye.

17-Oct-09

Hello SummitClimb news, this is Thorsten Bargfrede calling in a dispatch for the Mera Peak & Baruntse expedition on the 17th of October at 5:17 p.m. local time.

We are at an altitude of 4900 metres/16,100 feet. The weather was great today with blue skies all day. Just like yesterday we had a few clouds in the afternoon, but that’s okay.

Yesterday we had a beautiful walk coming up from Tagnag, which took around 4 hours. There was a few hundred metres of altitude difference crossing some meadows and coming up to what will be the last station and green environment.

Today we are having a rest day and all enjoying a bit of relaxation. We also had an equipment check and some exercises on the ropes using an ascender and rappelling down since a lot of us still need a little bit more technical training for what is to come.

We are all looking forward to getting closer to this beautiful mountain tomorrow, going up over the snow line. We’ve been having discussions on how we are going to tackle some of the problems we might encounter there. Cheers!

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