25 April SummitClimb Dispatch: All Team Climbs The Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1

We awoke at 23:30 pm and got dressed, meeting at our team dining/mess tent at midnight. The weather is perfect: clear skies, near full moon, no wind, no clouds, no snow. After a big midnight breakfast and lots of tea, coffee and juice, we grabbed our pack lunches and shouldered our rucksacks. The Sherpas helped carry extra water and a few of our extra bits and pieces, which was very helpful.

We set off at 1am and walked to the “crampon point” where our team members and Sherpas regrouped to begin our ascent. We tightened all of our straps and clipped to the fixed lines at this point, not to unclip until camp 1. Together with the Sherpas, members climbed up through the incredible Khumbu icefall, a maze of shifting ice blocks, terraces, overhangs, long traverses, and “football pitches/fields”. During the ascent we counted one ladder bridging a horizontal crevasse and one ladder ascending a vertical icewall. During the climb we had to climb 2 major icewalls using our ascending devices, ice axe, and ice climbing technique we had practiced in basecamp. Also, in these steep sections, our awesome Sherpas helped to belay us and provided hauling aid of members and their rucksacks where necessary. There were also 3 smaller icewalls.

The route through the Khumbu Icefall is quite long, and some of us reached camp 1 at around 9am breakfast time, some around lunchtime, and others not until dinner time or afterward. Exhausting work, but EVERYONE MADE IT and the feeling of accomplishment is very prominent: this is the most difficult task our members have done yet on this expedition. The Sherpas provided very strong assistance and did an amazing job. Congratulations To Everyone in Our Team!