Mount Everest, South Side – Spring, 2010
Join Canada West Mountain School on one of our small-group expeditions to climb Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world. Our teams will climb the 29,028′ (8,848m) peak via the Southeast ridge from Nepal, lead by Everest guide John Furneaux. We will also be joined by a support team of trekkers who will accompany us into Base Camp on our Mount Everest Base Camp Trek.
Our Elbrus trip departure of June 18th is rapidly approaching! We have a solid team prepared, I am looking forward to meeting everyone in Moscow next month.
We will continue to post updates and news on this page, please check back often!
Brian Jones
Expedition Leader
The CWMS team has climbed to the summit of Mount Logan on May 26th. Weather cooperated enough, though it was very cold and there was some wind. Everyone is back off the mountain now, enjoying the return to warmth and civilization.
Rich Prohaska will be sending along photos soon and they will be loaded up here as well as a more detailed summary of their climb.
Our Mount Logan – Kings Trench expedition met in Whitehorse on May 8th and were met with clear skies and a great weather forecast.
Team Members:
Rich Prohaska – Lead Guide
Erika Flavelle – Assistant Guide
Norm Dowad, Canada – Team Climber
Gus Greer, Canada – team Climber
Arnaud De Laveleye, Belgium – Team Climber
Bruno Baschung, France – Climber
The team has finally completed their journey back in Kathmandu. Everyone is safely back and enjoying the change of scenery!
This climb has been a huge achievement for everyone of the team. For Rob Hill this is the culmination of a long held dream to climb all 7 of the highest summits on each of the continents in order to raise awareness of people who suffer from intestinal disease. He has done an amazing job over the past 10 years since he first embarked on this project, and we at Canada West Mountain School have been very proud to have been able to work with him on all of his summits. We were all very saddened when Rob had to descend from Everest on his 2008 attempt with us, so we are even more elated at his success this time around. Congratulations on finishing your quest, Rob!
Darrel Ainscough has been quietly and steadily ticking off the 7 summits over the years. He also was with us on Everest in 2008 and had to descend early - we were equally please with his strength on the mountain this season and are incredibly happy that he also has reached his goal of climbing all of the 7-Summits as well. Way to go Darrell!
(Both Rob and Darrel have both completed their 7-Summits with a climb of Carstensz Pyramid in West Papua as opposed to the Australian version)
For Lead Guide John Furneaux, this is his 2nd successful ascent of Everest, putting him in a rather elite group of Mountain Guides who have successfully climbed and Guided to the summit of the worlds highest mountain. An excellent job under extreme conditions, further demonstrated by the patience and care that saw our team up and down without any incident, injury or frostbite. I know that Rob, Darrell and all the Sherpa team were gratefull for his excellent leadership.
The Canada West Mountain School team has reached the summit of Mount Everest!
Rob Hill has reached the South Summit at 9 am on May 25th, Local Nepal time, while CWMS Guide John Furneaux along with Darrel Ainscough reached the main summit of Everest shortly after 9:15 local time. They were joined by Then Dorje Sherpa, Dawa Bhote Sherpa and Mingma Dhukpa Sherpa. Everyone is safely back down in Camp 4 and resting, re-hydrating and getting ready for the descent tomorrow back to Camp 2.
Congratulations everyone to a great climb! More details and pictures will follow when they have returned to Base Camp and are on their way out.
Brian Jones
Canada West Mountain School
John just called in at 10 pm (Everest time) to confirm that they have decided to hold off on the summit bid due to deteriorating weather. A few small teams have set out in high winds and heavy snowfall, but John said the decision was confirmed for him when lightning started lighting up the sky over Everest! Our team is comfortably resting in their well secured tents in C4 now, with plenty of food, fuel and oxygen to carry them over.
While this may seem like a difficult decision when the summit is so close, it actually is an easy one to make when we consider the consequences of getting trapped above 8,000 meters in storm conditions! Our team is strong and healthy and the goal on this trip is for them to come home strong and healthy. An oft-repeated mountaineers saying goes “the summit is optional – coming home is not!”. This has always been the guiding philosophy of CWMS expeditions, no matter how big or small.
We hope the team has a good night sleep in C4 tonight in order to be strong for what tomorrow brings. We also hope that the weather and the conditions align tomorrow for a successful summit bid, though this is of course out of anyone’s control. Many teams succeed on this mountain and take full credit for impeccable planning, perfect records, “we have the secret forecasts”, etc, etc - but we really know that luck with the weather plays a critical role in anyone’s success on an 8,000 meter peak. So, lets hope for good luck this time around!
Brian Jones, Canada West Mountain School
t is now 10:00 am, May 23rd and John has just called in to let us know he and Darrel are off the Lhotse Face and ascending the Geneva Spur below C4. They anticipate being to C4 before noon local time. Rob Hill has been resting today up in Camp 4 at the south Col (7,950 meters) waiting for John and Darrel to arrive. The weather is looking good and everyone is strong and healthy, so they expect to leave for the summit tonight.
The only setback so far has been the theft of 5 bottles of oxygen from our Camp 4 cache. Rob arrived yesterday to find the cache had been pilfered (!!) – luckily another team (Asian Trekking) had extra bottles left from their attempt that they offered to leave with our team. This is our 2nd climb on Everest where our high camps have been pilfered of essential items – in 2008 we had food and fuel consumed by another team who did not plan well and fell short of supplies in the South Col.
The next 24 hours are going to be some of the most memorable hours for our team, we’ll be giving regular updates as we receive them here.
Brian Jones, Canada West Mountain School
Brian Jones
Canada West Mountain School
