We did it! Team Delta: After 14 months of training, August 2nd 2014 we sailed out of St-Malo, France in a VOR 60 (Volvo Ocean Racer) Kevlar mono-hull racing sailboat called Esprit de Corps 11 across the North Atlantic to Quebec under skipper George Leblanc. We are 10 Quebec entrepreneurs who had little or no…
After 14 months of training in Quebec city and Montreal, we are ready to sail. We have been mentored by skipper Georges Leblanc (www.georgesleblanc.com/) and Francois Labarre to man one of the most sophisticated racing boats of its era, a VOR60. It is a carbon fiber mono-hull 65′ racing machine pushing a 100′ mast…
Mount Carstensz Pyramid It has been an 8 year project – climbing the Seven Summits – highest mountain on every continent – but I reached that goal on the 19th March 2014. Carstensz Pyramid, 4884m, is in the western Indonesian half of the 2nd largest island in the world Papua New Guinea but simply…
Great News Wednesday August 8th 2012 just after noon I reached the summit of Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe. We had really harsh and dangerous conditions particularly on the descent. This successful summit gets me one big step closer to achieving my goal to climb the 7 Summits. I have now climbed…
My 5th mountain of the ‘Seven Summits’ challenge. Mid-January to mid-February 2012 I spent a month in Tanzania first hiking Kibo (Kilimanjaro) Immediately after Kili I went on safari in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara. It was simply extraordinary. I could never have imagined that suddenly I would be plunged into such…
The Everest challenge was everything and more than my original expectations. Heading back up the Khumbu Valley after 40 years (December 1969) and especially arriving in Namche Bazaar, was a moving moment for me. That original experience of trekking to Everest Base Camp alone 40 years ago and having a dream, even if it was…
Good news. We are on our way to the summit very soon, tomorrow at 3am is the plan. The weather forecast is promising. It is just a question of team planning and final weather analysis. The Jet Stream is moving north and the window is opening. The final dynamics are unfolding and we will all…
Today 5 of us hiked, by way of Pumo Ri to Kala Patthar. It is a 4 ½ hour hike over scree and boulders to a summit pinnacle with spectacular views of the Khumbu Valley, Khumbu Glacier, Base Camp and Everest itself. It is effectively a panoramic view of the entire area. We are still…
We are still here at BC waiting for our weather window to make our summit bid. Tuesday and Wednesday, both night and day, there were very high winds at BC, probably 50-60 mph in the gusts. The winds coming off the top of Everest were of course much higher. We were mostly confined to our…
Stuck but ready to climb Everest. We are well fed, rested, but nowhere to go until the weather high on the mountain improves. Winds and a low pressure system are preventing us from starting our attack for the summit. Late this week is a maybe. Already it is 6 weeks since leaving home, we are…
Alas, we are heading home to comfortable Base Camp. The “Dream Team” !!! Jason, Eben & myself, left at 4:30am down the Western Cwm blazing fresh tracts in about 6” of new snow. In the early light of dawn, with the white duskiness and new white snow, the visibility was deceiving, and identifying the cracks…
Storms during the night, but at 4:30 this morning it started to clear, we ate breakfast and hiked up to the Lhotse Bergschrund, descended into it and climbed it’s 90 degree pitch, crossed a narrow snowy ledge and then continued to climb the very steep rock solid blue ice of the Lhotse Face to…
At 2am this morning we had planned to get up and climb the Lhotse face to C3. It had snowed lightly all night, but at 2am there was lightning and thunder with high winds pounding our tents. It is now 3pm in the afternoon and the winds and snow have continued all day. We…
Great to get back to BC yesterday. Ate well. Slept well. Unfortunately, it is colder and cloudier than usual. Nevertheless, our Sherpa cook is great. And I can email and update the site with some terrific new photos taken with a helmet-mounted camera I finally figured out how to use. The shots really give…