The team

Have spent the past week or so finishing off my full training, another 70 odd miles running in Richmond Park and down by the Thames (split 15; 10; 9; 14; 10; 13 and ending with a half marathon on an empty stomach.  I always think that depravation training or training on a calorie deficit is a useful simulation of what my body will have to cope with on the expedition so try and do this reasonably regularly) plus a couple of cross training and spin cycle sessions, plenty of weights and an indoor climbing session.

We are doing our initial acclimatisation in Nepal so no long drive to the border and across Tibet until later.  This means we will be starting off pretty much straight away and with less than two weeks to go time to ease up on the training, rest up and eats lots and lots.  

A bit of background on the rest of the team who will be climbing with me this year.

Zac - Zac will be leading the team.  I have had the pleasure of climbing on Cho Oyu and in Scotland with him so will be good to climb with him again, he didn't seem too put off with the idea either.
Chris - Chris will be leading with Zac.

A few faces returning from last year:
Geordie - Mountaineer, Charity Fundraiser and Public Speaker.  Needs to improve at Risk.
Heather - The only female in the team and Top Gun obsessive
Mark - Got close last year and hoping to get higher
Stephen - Another one who got close last year, also needs to improve at Risk.

The other guys:
Ben - Adventurer
George - At 16, attempting to be the youngest Briton to summit Everest.
Greg
Jaysen - Attempting to become the first Mauritian to climb Everest

Nick

Salam
Simon - Trying to become the first Brit over the age of 60 to summit Everest from the North

And of course, the Sherpas.

There will also be another big UK team on the North Side this year.  There are a couple of famous faces including Alan Hinkes and David Hempleman-Adams.

http://www.icelandeverest.org.uk/

New Itinerary

Looks like the Chinese aren't opening the border into Tibet until 10 April, so we will be doing our initial acclimatisation in Nepal.

We will fly into the notorious Lukla airport.  I am not sure I am looking forward to this but should be a bit of an experience.

It also means a different acclimatisation schedule to the Tibet based one used last year and for Cho Oyu and much reduced time in Nylam and Tingri (although we will still travel through and spend a night at one of them).  Instead we will trek part of the classic Everest base camp trek through Namche Bazaar, Pangboche, Dingboche and then head up to Ama Dablam base camp.

Ama Dablam is often described as the most beautiful mountain in the world and known as the Matterhorn of the Himalayas so this is a real bonus.

Ama Dablam

This week is my penultimate week of full training, have put in 58 miles in the first five days (split 15; 9; 10; 14; 10) and three weights sessions.  Will probably have a light day tomorrow to rest the joints, something like a cross training session and swim, then kick on again on Sunday.  No climbing wall session this week though, my usual climbing partner Heather, was presenting her schools project to the Royal Geographical Society so we had to take a week off, looks like a great programme though!

Intro

In just over a month on 2 April, I will be flying to Kathmandu to attempt to climb Mount Everest.

If all goes to plan, this will be the third time I have climbed over the fabled 8000m mark and after a near miss last year I am hoping to go a little bit higher and reach the top of the world some time between 18th May and 31st May.

I will be climbing the North East ridge route with Adventure Peaks.

I will be using this blog to share the experience and keep friends and family updated of my progress, live updates will also be available on the Adventure Peaks website news section and I will post the link once it is live.  I will be able to provide progress updates while I am at base camp and advanced base camp and will also update on preparations before I leave the UK.  Unfortunately will be unable to post any photos of this years expedition until my return, we will be relying on a Bgan Satellite connection to keep in touch with the outside world and the cost of sending a single photo over a Bgan link is well over £100 so afraid you will have to wait for those.

I have included a live weather feed and GPS tracking of the teams progress on the Blog pages which hopefully people will find interesting and many thanks to Greg for setting the GPS link up.

I have also included a detailed kit list, training and preparation and trip reports from my previous high altitude climbs, as much as a record for myself as anything else, but hopefully some people will find them interesting and useful.  The trip reports were all written well after the event and are pretty dry, the mind has a natural tendency to "forget" the bad bits (otherwise none of us would be here or so I am told!) and feelings at the time so I am hoping that by keeping a live account this year I will be able to get some of these experiences (both positive and negative) across a bit more vividly.

I am still working the other blog pages, so they are very much "in draft" but expect to complete them in the coming weeks whereon I will circulate the address.