We have good news to report from the village of Namche Bazaar at 11,400 feet where we have now spent two nights acclimating to the altitude. We still have a long way higher up to go and this is just part of the process.
As you may recall from our October 10th "...secret mountain adventure" blog post we knew there were other teams on the hunt to make a first ascent of one of Nepal's remaining unclimbed peaks. We just didn't know whether anybody was planning to climb "our" peak, or could possibly be ahead of us on the approach to the area. Well our guide Garrett Madison made a visit to the government agency responsible for issuing climbing permits in Nepal, the Ministry of Tourism, and he learned that nobody else has yet applied for a permit for "our" mountain. After submitting the requisite forms and fees, our Madison Mountaineering expedition is the proud holder of the first and only climbing permit ever issued for our "Secret Mountain." I guess it's possible somebody could walk into the Ministry of Tourism office tomorrow and request a permit. However given that it's already late in the Fall climbing season, those chances are low.
Now it's simply up to us to make our way to the base of this peak and go climb it!
Scott Fisher's ice axe is securely in our possession and ready for the task, and we even have a way for you to track the ice axe (and us) as we approach the base of the mountain. Bill Burke was kind enough to loan us his Garman InReach Explorer satellite tracking device and it has some neat mapping features so you can see exactly where we are in the Himalayas and where we have been. (Assuming the display is functioning properly there should be a green line showing our path.)
Here's the link:
https://share.garmin.com/share/PaulDenise
It's also located on the web version of our Summit for CAF blog on the right side of the page under "links to check out."
http://fejteksevensummits.blogspot.com
We may not make a new blog post for a few more days or so, but you can always visit this Garmin link to see where we are as we continue onward and upward. Thanks for following us and Scott's ice axe on this adventure!
Paul & Denise
No comments:
Post a Comment