Island Peak Success

Brian left a message and he said that they were successful on the climb of Island Peak. They ended up doing a different route that was a little more difficult and longer. He also said that they have slept at 18,000 feet for the last 2 days and are feeling extremely acclimated. Tonight they are sleeping at 20,000 feet and are going to try to summit again tomorrow. It sounds as if they are in really high spirits and feeling strong.

Also there was a story on the Fargo news last night and i will get the link up really soon.

News

Here is an article and interview with Justin that was in the Fort Collins Coloradoan on March 18th. http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/ENTERTAINMENT06/703180301

If you are in Fargo make sure to watch WDAY tonight Justins parents will be on the news. That section will air tonightat 5,6 or 10PM.

Island Peak

Brian and Justin called Jusins mom and myself yesterday. They were sitting around drinking tea and eating some cheese at 7:30 in the morning. They said it was a beautiful day and were just relaxing at 18,000 feet. Unfortunatly, it sounded like Todd was having some trouble acclimating so he was hanging out at a lower teahouse. Brian, Justin, and Chris will make a summit attemp today If the weather and everything is good. Hopefully one of us will hear more today or tomorrow. Katie

Lobuche

Hello again,
Well I missed another call from Brian, but it sounds like they are having a really great time. They are in Lobuche, which is at 4900 meters. Tomorrow they will head to Kalapatter at 5550m or 18,000 feet. From there Brian will descend with halle so she can head back to the real world to return home. The others and eventually Brian will go for Island Peak (which is said to look like an island in a sea of ice) for a summit attempt at 6165 meters. I’ll post more when I get the word.

Halle I hope you had a great time, I can’t wait to talk to you all about it! And we are all excited to see some pictures on the blog.

News from Nepal

Unfortunatly, I just missed a call from Brian and the crew from the satellite phone. He left a message saying that they are all in high spirits having a really great time. They are in the Khumbu region around 4600 meters or 15,000 feet. They are about two and a half days away from the Everest Overlook in an area called Dugla. That is about all the info i got, but hopefully we will hear more soon when they get some more satellite minutes. I will make sure to update as soon as I find out more informaion. Cheers, Katie

Namche Bazaar

We have made it to Namche Bazaar(about 11,500ft.) on the second day of our trek. The plane ride into Lukla was as amazing as I remembered it to be. Seeing the Himalaya in all there glorry really makes a guy feel quite small, yet very motivated. Once on the ground we met up with our porters Dindi and Nema who are on there second trip as porters and are trying to learn English. Since we used to be English teachers we may be able to teach them a few things. We walked to Bengkar and stayed in a small tea house with a 200ft. waterfall right outside our bedrooms. After our first solid night of sleep, in what seems like months, we proceeded up to Namche where we are staying the night. We hope to move up in elevation for the next two days and then plan a full two nights and rest day and some sight seeing at Denbouche(16,000ft I think). We hope to be high enough to start satellite dispatcheds soon so keep checking up on the blog. Everything is going great and we hope all is well at home.

Entering the Himalaya

We just found the pleasent surprise of our first fast connection since arriving. Wahoo, we are checked through to Lukla, and once again managed to get all of our baggage through. Justin used the legendary "heel hook" to help with the baggage weight. We are ecstatic to finally be heading into the Himalaya, and have the transportation and luggage logistics behind us. Its been almost a week since properly excercising and so we will have to use restraint to not sprint at the mountains, and use a safe acclimatization schedule. Wahoo, its time to jump on board for one heck of a flight.!!!

Kathmandu

After a long, long, long, long, couple days travelling, including a splendid night in the Delhi Airport, we have stormed Kathmandu. 3 days of contstant planning, packing, and preperation has finally ended and we are ready to head into the Khumbu Region of the Himalaya. Chris, and Tod will be joining us for the an acclimization trip up to Island Peak with hopes of summitting around April 1st, while Halle will be heading back to Kathmandu around the 31st. It will be a nice change of pace and we will be able to really start focussing on our climbing and what we are here to do. Hope all are happy and safe. Updates from the sattelite until our return to Katmandu on April 5th.

Denver News

Major King a reporter from the Channel 7 News in Denver did a story on Brian and Justin last night. You can watch the story online, but I think that it will only be up for about a day so make sure to have a look. www.thedenverchannel.com/video/11288616/index.html

Also, after the clip the newscasters talked a little bit about LUNGevity and gave the address's to the websites.

Educo

Educo Colorado posted an article about Justin and Brian. If you go to www.educocolorado.org and click on Educo Volunteer Climbs Everest.

Off they go

Lisa and Katie took Justin to the airport this morning where we enjoyed some bloddy marys and took lots of pictures. They just got on there flight to India so hopefully we will hear more when they arrive.

Phase 1

It's time to take the bull by the horns and let it rip. Well... almost we have been working extremely hard to bring things together for this trip and it looks as though we are finally ready to go. Tomorrow we will be departing from our respective homes in Denver, Cleveland, Fargo, and San Fransisco(a day or two behind from here)and will be meeting up in Chicago for the 14 hour hop across the Big Pond. From there it's a two week trek and climb of Island Peak to acclimate. Our friends Tod, Chris, and Halle will be joining us for this part of the trip. Lot's of lists, packing, and a bit of fattening before the trip the past two weeks. We did manage to get out and climb some when Brian visited me in Colorado which was good for the confidence and a bit of gear testing to boot. I am still trying to set up streaming audio for our dispatches so keep checking the site and I will let you know when and if I get it set up in time.
I can see I am rambling so at this point I really don't have much more to say than YAAARRRRRR!!! Let me at it!!!

The Bombshelter

Rachel and I (Katie) set up the new 4 man tent called the Bombshelter in the Rankin Ranch Kitchen that will head to Nepal on Thursday.

Back to Cleveland

Justin and I had an excellent couple of weeks sorting through the million tasks that we have going on. I'm heading back to Ohio from Colorado today with only 10 days until departure for Nepal, ahhhhhhh. To try and sum things up from the last few
weeks:
The fundraiser in Fort Collins was great with an amazing number of people helping us out and generally just being extremely supportive.

Although we did not spend as much time in the mountains training as we would have liked, we did have an excellent couple of days in Rocky Mountain National Park. Major King from Channel 7 news based in Denver did some filiming of Justin and I on an approach to Mount Lady Washington, which is next to Longs Peak. He also managed to get a solid ways up our route (Marsha) and get some solid coverage of us getting ready to head up the more interesting pitches of the climb. Most notably we were able to go unroped for the majority of the climb due to the relative security of the route with a ton of snow on it. At times we were post-holing up to our chests in snow (not sure if that is postholing or just straight swimming). Anyways it made for an excellent day which all in all took us over 13 hours.
We've finally managed to finish off our t-shirts which are now for sale and looking pretty good. We should have some pictures online in a day or so, but if you are interested please let us know.


As for the next ten days, its going to be hectic and I'm sure to make a serious mess of the house as the real packing begins. I have a slide show in Bainbridge this thursday at 6:00 pm at the Hunt Club. Mostly I'll be talking about the climb ahead, LUNGevity, and our overall itinerary.
The Hunt Club
8370 E Washington St
Chagrin Falls, OH 44023
(440) 543-4823

After that I'm headed down Athens, OH to pick up the rest of our equipment and some food from Athen's Own.
As for Justin I'm sure he'll be doing way to much in too little time. I beleive he's headed back to Aspen to pick up the rest of his gear and hopefully get some more training in.
We're expecting to be on Channel 7 news sometime this week, and we'll let you all know as soon as we find out.
Have a great day!!!!!!