1st rotation on Kanchenjunga

Wednesday the 26th, our typical cacophony of avalanches every 20 minutes from the ice falls and mountains surrounding our little rocky safe haven at base camp has been overtaken by the low roar of the jet stream scraping across the surrounding 7000m peaks. Giant, shimmering spindrift plums soar overhead like fire as they catch the sun and sublimate. Its mornings like this that I'm happy to be at base camp with a coffee, a solar panel and a tablet. Others busy themselves moving big rocks to anchor tents in case the jet stream settles in lower and threatens our movie theater and disco tent. I've found the best way to keep my Outernet weather and news connection stable is to glue the antenna directly to a chunk of granite. Not that we actually care to read the news of the world outside of our little international community but if I don't work on keeping up comms, weather and charging all of my cameras, lights and beacons for the next rotation, I'd probably be writing poetry about the wonders of e6000 epoxy. 

My small group (Chris, Chris, Lakpa, Tsering and I) made a short rotation up to camp 2-ish a few days ago. We carried a bunch of rope and pickets to the temporary C2 but are hoping to move that camp up a bit higher to avoid having a 1000m climbing day from C2 to C3 at 7,100m. One thousand vertical meters may not seem like a big climb if you were in our local Rockies or Sierra Nevada but at 7000m we're breathing half the oxygen you'd get and with enough gear on our backs, this turns in to an 8-9 hour slog. We're primed to go to and set up C3 on our next rotation when the winds allow, though. The winding route through the icefalls looks fairly straight forward from below at C2 but if conditions allow it, we'll try to put up a drone to get a bird's eye view and spot potential snow bridge and crevasse hazards. Famed Italian climber and heli pilot Simone Morro tried to fly a B3 up near camp 2 to take pictures to plan a route by but couldn't safely get high enough above the possible route. Not all of us are wealthy enough to have our own helicopters (yet). It is a treat to share coffee and stories with such a famous climber and someone who was close to Anatoli B. 

I never dreamed I'd be back on another 8000m expedition just one year after Annapurna. I'm questioning my own sanity and motivations in life a bit but thankful for my coworkers, friends and family for not just tolerating my absence but supporting me with kind messages and my wacky ideas to improve our safety, enjoyment and connectedness. The chance to learn from some of the greatest climbers of our time and simply live in this environment is wonderful perspective. While I look forward to trading this monastary for a comfy couch with family or a meal with friends, I'll gladly soak up the night sky and type 2 fun high in the Himalayas. 

Lakpa and Chris as we carry a load above our tiny Camp 1 and a sea of clouds below. And yes, crossing that crevasse is tricky.

Short ice climb just below Camp 1

Tsering and me taking a break on a snow dome just below a mixed climbing section. 360° photo best viewed interactively in Google Photos, Facebook or VR.

p.s. I have Jemaine Clement's "Shiny" (from Moana) stuck in my head. My only solace is that I can get it stuck in your head, too. Go ahead, youtube it.

p.p.s. Chris's blog: http://chrisjensenburke.com/blog/

p.p.p.s. See our location, short updates and message me: https://share.garmin.com/MatthewDuPuy

p.p.p.p.s. Thanks to our friends at Altitude-Seven.com, @ARMCommunity and @vindurhao for weather updates, threads and emotional support. 

A few photos from the trek in to Kanchenjunga South Base Camp

After about 10 days of trekking we have arrived at our based camp at 5500m (18,000') high in the eastern Himalaya on the boarder with Bengali India. Our start in the flat planes near Bhadrapur brought us through tea farms, paper tree and bamboo jungles, several alpine passes and eventually, a stark, beautiful, glaciated valley. Our objective is now in sight from our base camp on the Southwest route of Kanchenjunga. Base camp is perched on a steep, high but relatively protected rocky ridge just to the side of an enormous icefall that is constantly grumbling and collapsing with enormous roars randomly throughout the day. Janu, a beautiful mountain, also looms large over us and sheds fresh snow every time Chris jokes about running up it to train. We were greeted with a foot of snow and an electrical storm the after night we set up our camp which suites us all fine as we'll need a few days to adapt to this very high basecamp before putting in a camp 1. April 17th is an auspicious day to hold a Puja ceremony so we won't open the route until after that anyway. We're fortunate to have two lamas with us, one of our kitchen staff, Chiri was a lama for a dozen years and climbing sherpa Chiriring for two years. We also have Pema and Ang Dorji joining us again and our favorite BC chef, Dome. Let the glamping begin. 

On our team are Chris Burke (http://chrisjensenburke.com/blog/) you might remember from previous adventures on K2 and Annapurna. She is on track to be the first Australian and New Zealand woman to summit all 14 8km peaks

Lakpa Sherpa, one of the most amazing ice, rock, alpine and high altitude mountaineers on our little planet and

Chris Warner a former 8000m mountaineering guide, climbing gym entrepreneur, speaker and truly wonderful story teller. Chris and Chris are far more thoughtful, entertaining and skilled climbers than I am so I suggest following their blogs over mine if you plan to follow yet another quest for type 2 fun on the 3rd highest peak in the world. I'm sure watching these climbs unfold seems egotistical to some, repetitive to others but every adventure finds a lovely cast of characters, an opportunity to live very simply, new ways to test the mind and body, and see how many days in a row we can go without bathing. I feel so blessed to have adventured to the most remote corners of the world with inspiring and amazing people. Even more to have family and friends back home and around the world that keep encouraging and inspiring more adventures and sharing their cultures.

Base camp is just starting to take shape. Simone, Tamara and their Italian team are already here. A Japanese & Korean expedition and international hodgepodge from the 7 Summits expedition, which includes the Sherpani, are a day or two behind us. We, of course, have arrived early to claim the high rent district that will save us a dozen meters when we start climbing.

*Nerd alert*

I'm not paid to mention any of this but I'm inspired and appreciate that my work and adventures overlap in fun and interesting ways and my colleagues put up with my extended periods of absence and get to see the stuff we help make in action. Simone already has a drone attempting to stagger around camp in the thin, snowy air as they film for their traverse of Kanch. If I can get mine out of customs back in Kathmandu, I plan to survey the icefalls and glacier crossing above camp 1 and 2 before we even get there. I also have a neat, inexpensive, little "C.H.I.P." based prototype kit I've assembled to get us daily news, weather and wikipedia articles via free L-band satellite broadcasts. Our "outernet.is" is up and running at base camp and anyone with a wifi phone, tablet or laptop can connect to it and check the weather, news and books as long as this little computer, antenna, solar panel and battery survive the elements. I think this will prove to be a really neat, inexpensive educational product for less connected communities and schools when it is out of the amazingly fast prototype stage. It makes for a really cool project kit right now. My latest nerd crush, though, is this Android Wear 2.0 LG Sport watch; it is the best heart rate monitor I've used to date, music/podcast player, GPS, altimeter, and flashlight in one tiny device I've seen yet. It keeps me from being left alone with my own thoughts for extended periods of time, for which I'm sure everyone is grateful. And it tells time.

As always, you can follow our progress and my semi-daily status and send me short messages via my sat beacon:

https://share.garmin.com/MatthewDuPuy

@why_mutate_dup on Twitter and FB

Remember, devices get dropped, batteries die in the cold, we get caught up in keeping warm and staying safe; no news is good news.

Thanks to @ARMCommunity for the support and technology that drives my training, safety, communications and photography. Also, thanks to @vindurhao, our sherpa and I love the gear. Who says you have to look like a dirtbag climber at base camp? 

Playing with the 360° camera (load this in to FB or Google Photos to use interactively):

Beautiful high pass above Yamphudin:

Acclimatization day hike above Ramche:

Base camp:

Morning Ilam

Next stop Tharpu

Day 1: Arrive in Kathmandu

Day 2: In Kathmandu

Day 3: Fly Bhadrapur 

Day 4: Drive to Tharpu 

Day 5-6: Trek to Yamphudin 

Day 7-13: Trek to Kanchenjunga Base Camp

Day 14 - In Kanchenjunga Base Camp