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83-year-old to scale Everest for 2nd time

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83-year-old to scale Everest for 2nd time

If everything goes well with 83-year-old Min Bahadur Serchan, he will be retaining his title of the ‘oldest man’ on the top of Mount Everest in the Guinness World Record.

Sherchan_to_climb_Mt_EverestSerchan is heading to Lukla from Kathmandu on Democracy day this Friday, from where he will begin his expedition.

The octogenarian had scaled the 8,8848 metre mountain at the age of 76 in 2008, but his record was broken by Japanese national Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest at the age of 80 in 2013.

Since then, Serchan has been working hard to regain his lost title for the second time and is said to be determined to reach the peak once again.

“I am sure my work will encourage all the elderly people, excite the youths and serve as an inspiration for every Nepali to strive towards their goal,” Serchan told the Post. “My health is perfect and I am doing this with my own willpower. This should be a matter of pride to the country,” he added. He also thanked Nepal government for trusting him and granting the permission to scale the summit.

everest base camp

Serchan has been doing a lot of rehearsal to achieve this daunting task. At the age of 72, Serchan began his fitness preparations by walking on foot from Kathmandu to Pokhara (202 kilometres) in four days, he also walked from east to west Nepal (1,028 kilometres) in 20 days.

After a year, he trekked about 300 kilometres from the northern part of the country to the  south in nine days. He recently finished a walk from Kathmandu to Lumbini in 14 days.  Non-Resident Nepali Association, UK has sponsored his expenses for the expedition while Himalayan Guides Nepal has agreed to give him technical support.

Serchan who was born on June 20, 1931, Bhurung-9 in Myagdi, had served for five years in the Gorkha Regiment in Gorakhapur, India.

Source: Ekantipur

Climber Seeks Six 8,000-meter Peak Summits in 2015

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Climber Seeks Six 8,000-meter Peak Summits in 2015

All he wants to do is summit six 26,000 foot mountains in about seven months. In doing so, he would rack up more than 70,000 vertical feet and end up in the record books. Not only that, he’s climbing for a cause. Plus, he’s management at a well-known outdoor apparel company.

actionhub-climber-seeks-six-8000-meter-peak-summits

Nick Cienski is hoping to climb six of the world’s major peaks in 2015.

Image courtesy Shinji Tamura

Nick Cienski and his international team of mountaineers plan on undertaking the 6 Summits Challenge (6summitschallenge.com). On one level, they’ll be climbing six of the world’s highest peaks from April through October.  On the other platform, they’re raising awareness and funds to fight human trafficking.

Cienski is the senior director of innovation at Under Armour. His team will use apparel Cienski designed featuring base layer, mid layer and outerwear made to withstand extreme weather.

The mission is to climb some of world’s highest mountains. That’s Everest Lhotse, Makalu and Manaslu in Nepal, and Cho Oyu and Shishapangma in Tibet.

The plan is to begin at Lhotse and move on to Everest and Makalu, climbing that one at the end of May. In the fall, the team is bound for Manaslu, Cho Oyo and Shishapangma.

An experienced mountaineer, he’s also founder of a Baltimore, Maryland-based non-profit human trafficking awareness group called Mission 14 (mission14.org) and is employing his climbing background as a way to generate social change in one of the largest illegal industries in the world.

“Climbing mountains is what I know, and raising awareness for human trafficking is what I am called to do,” says Cienski who celebrates his 49th birthday this July. “Working at Under Armour with full support from them to develop my own gear and to follow my passion is a unique opportunity for any climber. By summiting these peaks, I am working to empower organizations and inspire individuals to be brave, take action, and think beyond your own limits everyday.”

Cienski will attempt to scale more than 70,000 vertical feet, breaking the current world record of five 26,000 foot summits in one year. South Korean mountaineer Park Young-Seok holds the Guinness World Record for climbing five of the 8,000-meter Himalayan peaks within one year.

To train, Cienski hit the gym five times a week, three with a personal trainer. He did a lot of body weight resistance training, band workouts and TRX.

“My focus is mostly on my legs, lower back and core and my trainer uses a variety of workouts to achieve this but these are all incorporated with speed so as to maximize heart rate,” he said.

For cardio, he did a lot of stair climbing while carrying an 80-pound pack.

He figures on burning more than 80,000 calories during the total expedition.

Cienski starting high mountain climbing at age 21 in 1987, scaling peaks in the Himalayas and Karakorum. He did that for a good decade before succumbing to a career.

He returned to the Himalayas in 2014 to test gear and get a sense of how his body would acclimate to the elevation and elements.

Logistics leader is world-renowned climber Russell Brice. He’s behind the organizational requirements for the challenge. Russell holds the world record for fastest single, solo ascent without oxygen of Cho Oyo and 22,000 foot-plus Ama Dablam. The head Sherpa for the expedition is Phurba Tashi, who has not only summited Mount Everest 21 times, but also holds the record for the most total ascents of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks, summiting 35 times, more than anyone in the world.

The plan is for three teams to begin climbing the first three mountains simultaneously fixing ropes and making camp. They will use traditional routes and supplementary oxygen above high camp. Cienski will begin climbing with the Lhotse team and aim to summit it in early May, then descend to camp 2 and join the  Everest climb to summit in mid-May. Then it’s on to Makaulu.

In the fall, the same plan will be in place.

They’ll use about nine tons of gear, some six tons for the spring climbs and three for fall. Just for the Everest and Lhotse climbs they figure on five tons of equipment.

What are they carrying? The climbing gear is harness, plain carabiners, screw lock carabiners, descender, ascender, tape slings, set prussic loops, ice axe, retractable poles, crampons, helmet, head lamp with spare bulbs and batteries, pocket knife, sunglasses, goggles, water bottle, pee bottle, large 50-60 lbs. pack, 30-35 lbs. day pack, batteries, avalanche transceiver, kit bag, sleeping bag and sleeping mat.

Lhotse is the world’s fourth highest mountain at 27,940 feet and a base elevation of 17,500 feet. With a base of 17,700 feet, Everest is the tallest spot on the planet at 29,029 feet. The fifth highest peak is 27,776-foot Makalu with a base elevation at 15,975 feet.

Cho Oyu tops out at 26,906 feet. The sixth tallest mountain has a base elevation of 16,000 feet.  Shishapangma, with a summit at 26,335 feet and 16,400-foot base elevation, is the world’s fourteenth highest peak. Manaslu is the eighth highest with a 26,781-foot summit and 15,750-foot base elevation.

Sourc: nepalmountainnews.com

Individual Everest permits also extended for 5 years

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The government has made amendment to Mountaineering Regulations, allowing mountaineers, who took individual permits to climb Mt Everest in spring last year, to use the permit over the next five years.

Earlier, the government had extended validity of only group permits. But the decision had draw flak from mountaineers who said it was not possible for all members in the team to gather at the same time for the expedition. Minister of General Administration Lal Babu Pandit said that the cabinet has decided to allow individual climbers to use their climbing permits over the next five years.

everest_2008_1296

A total of 334 climbers of 32 expedition teams, including a Nepali team, had received permits to climb Mt Everest last year. The climbers, however, are required to pay US$ 1,000 to the Department of Tourism (DoT) based on the new royalty structure. The government reduced royalty fee for foreigners climbing Mt Everest from normal route, also known as the South East Ridge, to $11,000 per person from $25,000 per person with effect from January1, 2015.

All expedition teams called off their expedition after a deadly avalanche near Camp II of Mt Everest killed 16 Sherpa guides in April last year. “With the amendment in Mountaineering Regulations, we are hopeful that the number of mountaineers on Mt Everest will increase this year. We will see new climbers as well as those who had cancelled their trip last year,” Pushpa Raj Katuwal, chief of Mountaineering Section at DoT, told Republica.

According to Katuwal, the government has issued climbing permits to five teams so far. Meanwhile, DoT will send two liaison officers who will man the government’s contact office at the Everest Base Camp for the entire climbing season. The government has already prepared Terms of Reference (ToR) for the liaison officers.

“With this arrangement, we believe climbers will feel much safer. Also, they can get the required information in time,” he added. The liaison officers will provide weather updates, coordinate rescue operations in case of emergencies and settle disputes arising among climbing parties.

The government has changed climbing route slightly this year to avoid the where avalanche hit mountaineering workers last year. According to the department, climbers will have to deviate around 40 meters right of the regular trail which will extend the trip to Camp I by around two hours.

“In case the government reduces climbing permit fee in the next five years, we will refund the climbers accordingly,” Tulsi Prasad Gautam, director general of DoT, said.

Source: Republica

Google launches virtual tour of Everest

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Google launches virtual tour of Everest

Google launched a virtual tour of Nepal’s Everest region today, allowing armchair tourists a rare glimpse of life in one of the toughest and most inaccessible places on earth.

The Street View project takes viewers into the heart of the Sagarmatha national park, home to the world’s highest mountain, where icy blue rivers run below snow-capped peaks, monks play traditional music and yak-herders navigate precipitous stone-strewn trails.

everest virtual tour

Armed with two single-lens tripod cameras and a 15-lens custom-built “Trekker” unit designed for backpacks, teams travelled on foot to capture more than 45,000 panoramic images of the remote villages inhabited by the ethnic Sherpa community in the eastern Himalayas. Google worked on the project with Kathmandu-based start-up Story Cycle and Nepali mountaineer Apa Sherpa, who scaled Mount Everest a record 21 times before he retired from climbing and set up an educational charity.

“Everyone in the world knows Mount Everest but very few people know how hard life is in these villages,” said Apa Sherpa, who was forced to drop out of school at 12 and work as a porter after his father died. “Thanks to Google Street View, everyone can see these villages and understand that people here need help. Hopefully we can then raise funds to build more schools and hospitals for them.”

Nepal’s Sherpa community, who have long laboured as guides and porters on mountaineering expeditions, hope the project will promote the region and raise funds to improve access to education, offering future generations a way out of the high-risk climbing industry. Visitors to the Google Street View website can scroll through a slideshow of 360-degree views created by digitally stitching together thousands of 75-megapixel photographs, or click on the online map to see images of individual sites.

“Googlers, Story Cycle employees and Apa Sherpa spent about 11 days on the move last March, using the tripod cameras and fisheye lenses to shoot inside monasteries, schools, clinics,” said Raleigh Seamster, programme manager for Google Earth Outreach.

Google held a digital mapping session in the Himalayan town of Namche, where around 50 locals chipped in with suggestions of places to add to the online map. Lodge-owner Tenzing Sherpa was among those who attended the session and said he hoped the initiative would attract more tourists. “These online maps are a good source of information for visitors and if more tourists come here, it will create more opportunities, better opportunities than working on the mountain,” he told AFP.

Mount_Everest

Apa Sherpa, now 55, first climbed the 8,848-metre high peak as a porter, and described the feat as “a dream that had never been mine”. “My dream is that one day, young kids in Nepal won’t have to risk working on the mountain as porters or guides, they will be able to get an education and build better lives for themselves,” Sherpa told AFP. Sixteen Nepali guides, including 14 members of the Sherpa community, died last April in an avalanche, marking the deadliest accident to hit the world’s highest peak.
“Sherpas die on the mountain every year — no one pays attention. This time it was the biggest disaster on Everest, so it hit the headlines, but we have lost many people over the years,” Sherpa said.

Since its launch in 2007, Google Street View has captured some of the world’s most far-flung and scenic destinations, including the Amazon forest, Antarctica and Canada’s Arctic tundra.

Nepali eves back home scaling highest peaks on 7 continents

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Seven Nepali climbers have returned home from Antarctica after becoming the first all-women’s team to climb the highest mountains on all seven continents.

Female-climber

The team started their quest in 2008 by climbing Mount Everest and ended by scaling Mount Vinson in Antarctica on Dec. 23.

The women flew home to Nepal on Friday.

Team leader Shailee Basnet said the women would continue to climb mountains even after achieving their goal.

They have scaled Everest in Asia, Kosciuszko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Aconcagua in South America, Denali or McKinley in North America and now Vinson in Antarctica.

Nepal has thousands of climbers and eight of the 13 highest mountains in the world, but few climbers from the Himalayan country are women.
Source: The Himalayan Times.