Michael Brown Shares Behind the Scenes Look at Everest Summit

Michael Brown shares how he planned for shooting the First Ascent team’s Everest summit and dealt with unexpected gear problems at high altitudes and freezing temperatures.

Whittaker and Hahn to Arrive at Base Camp Tomorrow

RMI has just reported that First Ascent guide Seth Waterfall, Michael Brown, Casey Grom and Scott Jones have returned to Base Camp after a night at Camp II. First Ascent guide Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker spent the night at Camp IV after summiting, are currently at Camp II, and will arrive at Base Camp tomorrow.

Whittaker, Hahn and Team Check In From South Col

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Transcription: Michael Brown

Well we’re back to the South Col. I wasn’t able to get a satellite signal on the ridge, perhaps because it’s the border with China and Nepal. It went down like this, we left Camp IV about 4:00, I mean 11:00, 4 hours later at 3:00 a.m. we arrived at the Balcony. At that stage I think…at the same time it was cold, it was about 18 below 0 Fahrenheit last night and I think the most common complaint was that people had cold feet. So we got back to the tents and everybody’s checking their feet for whether they’re black or not but they’re not actually. I don’t have any frostbite, it doesn’t like Leif has any and nobody else has any either so that was good. But we continued on, the route is very steep this year, goes over some very challenging rock bands, which made it kind of exciting. And then just as it came to the south summit, sort of a snow squall came through but it was still pretty good visibility. And got to the summit, got all kinds of pictures of each other and banners and things like that so that was good to be up there. But it was plenty old and windy so we started down. Now we’re back at the South Col and we’re feeling good. So I’ll try another dispatch and get rid of this cough. Thank you.

Whittaker, Hahn and Team to Depart South Col for Summit

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Hi, it’s Michael Brown at the South Col of Mt. Everest. I’m here with First Ascent Guide Seth Waterfall. Next tent over has Leif Whittaker and Expedition Leader, Dave Hahn. And the next tent is guide Casey Grom and climber Scott Jones. It’s a little after 9:30, and about 11 o’clock we’re going to have our crampons on and we’re going to start walking uphill. We got a forecast yesterday that indicated there’d be a lot of wind; Read More…

Whittaker, Hahn and Tendi Sherpa Report From the South Col

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Transcription:
Dave Hahn, Expedition Leader

Hello, this is Dave and here we are at the South Col. The mountain showed this is not going to be easy for us. We were hoping we’d just waltz up in a perfectly forecasted weather window. Instead, the Himalaya showed a mind of its own. Sent a little unexpected snowstorm in on us. Read More…

Weather Delays Departure From South Col For Whittaker and Hahn

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Hi, this is Michael Brown calling from the South Col of Mount Everest. It’s a very blustery snowy night and we’ve made a decision to wait another day so we’ll be here 24 hours more. Been monitoring the weather and it looks like we might have a little bit more wind tomorrow; but, possibly less snow because at the moment it’s snowing and there’s clouds all the way over the summit. Chances are we would be climbing all the way up in the snow and back down again in the snow so not really a very pleasant day for climbing. Give it 24 hours and hopefully we have a better result tomorrow. Thanks for standing by and we’ll stay in touch, we’ll keep calling and letting you know what’s happening. Take care.

Whittaker At South Col, Summit Bid Just Hours Away

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Hi, it’s Michael calling from South Col and we’re all here, there’s been a little bit of excitement happening around us, but we’re putting it all together and it looks like we’ll be headed for the Summit sometime around 11:00 p.m. our time which is 10:00 a.m. in Seattle. About eight or nine hours after that we should be getting close to the top. I’ll go to Leif’s tent in a little while and we’ll see what he has to add to this. Hope all is well back home and we’ll talk again soon.

Whittaker to Depart for Camp III Tomorrow

Serac Adventure Films’ Michael Brown, who’s documenting Leif Whittaker and Dave Hahn’s ascent up Everest, provides update via satellite phone from Camp II.

Transcript:
Hi, this is Michael checking in from Camp II. We just finished our breakfast and, now we’re going to spend the day resting in our tents. The Lhotse Face is covered with people, as well as above there towards Camp IV Read More…

Whittaker Returns to Base Camp from Camp II

By Leif Whittaker:

There is a balance that must be struck between acclimatization and deterioration. We’ve spent five nights on the mountain, climbing hard, pushing our boundaries to higher limits, and now it’s time to descend; it’s time for some much needed rest at base camp. The only problem is it’s snowing again, and snowing hard.

Wind pushes gropple underneath our vestibule. A dusting of frost penetrates the tent and lands on my face, waking me with that familiar cold-touching-hot sting. Peering outside, I discover that the ground is blanketed with six inches of pure white snow. Read More…

Whittaker at ABC, Camp III in Sight

By Leif Whittaker:

The goal of our second acclimatization session on the mountain is to spend almost a week above 20,000 feet and to breathe the thin air at Camp III on the blue-ice slopes of the Lhotse Face.

Before III though comes I and II. The session begins with another pass over the hollow bridges of the Khumbu Icefall and we reach Camp I in our best time yet: 3 hours and 28 minutes. My knee, now adorned with a yellow and purple bruise Read More…