PHIL CRAMPTON
THE ART OF ALPINISM
WHATS GOING ON
MAKALU, NEPAL - 2019
We last climbed Makalu in the spring of 2017, which was an amazing climb on an uncrowded mountain. Even though we missed the actual summit by 14 vertical meters or so, due to a dodgy looking cornice on the final summit ridge, that none of us in my group, and none of the other climbers following us (we were fixing ropes on the entire route) decided to try to cross.
I'm very pleased to be heading back this spring with a small team supported by our premier climbing Sherpas. This time we hope the conditions are good and we get to climb that last dodgy looking section from 2017, to the true summit.
UPDATE: We reached the summit on the 16th May at 3.45am. We were alone on the summit and only encoutered other climbers (Indian Army) when we descended the French Couloir. We took a total of 24 days to complete the climb, Kathmandu - Summit - Kathmandu, thanks to the awesome helicopters now available in the Nepal Himalaya. It only took us 30 days to complete our Everest expedition in 2018, so I guess we are doing something right, without all the flash/express expedition hype.
CORDILLERA BLANCA, PERU - 2019
I'm heading back to the amazing Cordillera Blanca this summer with the Junkies and then for some personal climbs.
We will be back in the Ishinca Valley with a Junkies team, hoping to reach three summits in seven days and then I will be doing some personal climbs throughout the summer. One of these personal climbs will be an epic traverse, which has been on my radar for many years.
UPDATE: The weather cooperated with us in the Ishinca Valley once again and we were able to reach the three summits of Urus, Ishinca and Tocllaraju respectively in a seven day period. Unfortunately the epic traverse I have been looking at for many years was not in such great condition, so more relaxing personal climbs were undertaken. I'm looking forward to heading back to Peru in 2020.
CHOLATSE, NEPAL - 2019
I'm looking forward to returning once again to Cholatse, hoping to make my sixth summit, on this super technical and beautiful peak. It's my favorite peak in all of the Himalayas, and although it's not the highest, the most famous, the most historical, it's one of the best Nepal has to offer.
UPDATE: With the help of helicopters we were able to successfully complete the expedition in 14 days, Kathmandu to Kathmandu. We had 19 summits on November 1st and were back in Kathmandu the morning of the 2nd. Kami Neru "Mad Dog" Sherpa and myself both made our sixth summits respectively of Cholatse.
AMA DABLAM, NEPAL - 2019
Ama Dablam is a beautiful peak, although it's overcrowded in October and November. The last time I climbed her, last November and December it was so quiet. I'm going back this year with a Junkies team, and yes, I will use helicopters to fly into Namche and out of base camp. Don't hate me, I'm getting old.
UPDATE: We made the summit on December 3rd and were back in Kathmandu for lunch the following day. Very few climbers present at base camp whilst we were there and we were the only team on the hill on our summit day. We completed the expedition in 18 days, Kathmandu to Kathmandu, without any gimmicks or large Ziplock bags over our beds at home. The high winds delayed our summit day by a couple of days which meant our Kathmandu celebrations had to wait until the 4th.
HIMALAYA, KARAKORUM & CORDILLERA BLANCA - 2020
UPDATE: All of the 2020 expeditions were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
EVEREST, NEPAL - 2021
Heading back to the "Big E" for my 16th Everest expedition in 2021. I have taken a few spring seasons away from Everest recently and switched objectives with summits of Makalu in 2017 and 2019. The ongoing pandemic and the fact that certain nationalities are unable to travel will mean the south side will be quieter than usual in regards to numbers of climbers present.
UPDATE: We reached the summit on May 24th at 0.30am. We purposely made an early morning summit to take advantage of the low winds at the South Col on the evening of the 23rd before they picked up early am on the 24th. We were the only team on, or anyway near the summit that morning and were back at camp two the same day and back to base camp on the 25th. A second cyclone that hit Everest meant we had to wait three days at base camp in bad weather before being able to take choppers back to Kathmandu which we did on Everest Day, May 29th. Celebrations were subdued back in town due to the strict lockdown imposed by the Nepal government. No Covid, no crowds, no drama, no social media overload and no big egos on this team.
CORDILLERA BLANCA, PERU - 2021
I always look forward to heading to the Ishinca Valley in the Cordillera Blanca to visit friends and spend time in the awesome Refugio at base camp. Three peaks climbed alpine style in a two week period including travel and acclimatization days.
UPDATE: Peru are now allowing tourists to enter the country with restrictions but with the current curfews in place in Huaraz and continuing high rate of Covid infections we decided to cancel this seasons Cordillera Blanca climbs.
KARAKORUM, PAKISTAN - 2021
I am looking forward to returning to Pakistan in the summer of 2021. After four expeditions to Gasherbrum II, four to Gasherbrum I and two to Broad Peak, I'm looking at other objectives to offer with the Junkies and will be doing some reconnaissance on various peaks whilst there.
UPDATE: The Pakistan government announced during the Everest season that Nepali citizens were barred from entering Pakistan for the summer climbing season. They then reversed this decision and would allow Nepal Sherpa to enter if they had received both Covid vaccine shots and undertook a 10-day quarantne upon entering the country. Then they changed the rules yet again and last minute decided to allow Sherpa in without the need to quarntine. With all the confusing rules, lack of flights out of Kathmandu and the late start arriving in Pakistan, we decided to postpone the reconnaissance climbs until next summer.
ANNAPURNA REGION, NEPAL - 2021
With the uncertainty of Nepal being open or closed in the fall season of 2021 we decided to do some low-key climbs in the Annapurna region as reconnaissance for potential future climbs.
UPDATE: Great idea and an awesome team of climbers to travel with but the ever lingering monsoon which seems to get longer and longer each season had different ideas for our climbs and to be honest, the weather was crap the entire time we were in the Annapiruna region even though we did not arrive until the end of September.
LANGTANG REGION, NEPAL - 2021
As with our little reccy to Annapurna, we decided to take a look at some interesting peaks in the Langtang region for potential future climbs.
UPDATE: Heli climbing is the way forward for short quick exciting climbs in Nepal. We choppered into our base camp and made climbs from there. The Langtang area is so close to Kathmandu and is uncrowded unlike the Khumbu region. At the end of the trip it was another short helicopter ride back to Kathmandu. Watch this space.
BARUNTSE, NEPAL - 2021
I was last at Baruntse over 25 years ago so when the chance to return came up, I decided to take it. It's not the most technical peak but the views of Makalu alone are worth the effort.
UPDATE: Never take any mountain for granted, even the easy non-technical ones. A beautiful peak and base camp and such a stunning setting with a couple of feet of fresh snow to keep things cool. We had heard about the strong winds from the previous teams that were turned around on summit day but we thought they would subside when our time came. They didn't and all our tents at high camp were trashed by 100 mph+ winds. I shall return.
AMA DABLAM, NEPAL - 2021
Ama Dablam is a beautiful peak, although it's overcrowded in October and November. The last time I climbed her, last November and December it was so quiet. I'm going back this year with a Junkies team, and yes, I will use helicopters to fly into Namche and out of base camp. Don't hate me, I'm getting old.
UPDATE: We had a very experienced team of climbers with many 8,000-meter summits between them, so we collectively decided to mix things up and flew directly to Pangboche, instead of our usual Namche Bazar to start the acclimatization process. We reached the summit on the 1st and were back in Kathmandu on the 2nd. The expedition was shorter than usual thanks to the Pangboche start but also due to a pending snow storm that we wanted to avoid. It took 12 days from Kathmandu and return and you have to love choppers in Nepal for saving days on the trail.
EVEREST, NEPAL - 2022
Heading back to the "Big E" for my 17th Everest expedition in 2022. I have taken a few spring seasons away from Everest recently and switched objectives with summits of Makalu in 2017 and 2019.
UPDATE: The team met in Kathmandu on April 17 and choppered to Pangboche the following day. A leisurely trek to base camp followed by a single rotation to camp one and two respectively got the team ready for the summit push. We reached the top on May 12 and descended to camp two, the following day we arrived at base camp and the next day were back in Kathmandu. 28 days, Kathmandu to Kathmandu, with no cheesy gimmicks such as at home hypoxic tents and not a single Instagram influencer on the team. Old school climbers getting shit done without all the hype. We were the first team on top on the 12th and nobody else was near us all day until we descended and met ascending climbers later in the day. We had the summit to ourself for the second year in a row.
CORDILLERA BLANCA, PERU - 2022
I always look forward to heading to the Ishinca Valley in the Cordillera Blanca to visit friends and spend time in the awesome Refugio at base camp. Three peaks climbed alpine style in a two week period including travel and acclimatization days.
UPDATE: We finally made it back to the Cordillera Blanca after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. We were not disappointed by the climbing but sad to see politics had delayed the opening of the refugio at the Ishinca base camp. A lot of snow had fallen prior to the start of the season and this had caused a lot of the popular peaks to have some dodgy looking cornices and mushrooms near the summits. We are looking forward to returning to Peru for the 2023 season.
LANGTANG REGION, NEPAL - 2022
Heading back to Langtang this fall to attempt several semi-technical peaks and hopefully one technical climb that has been on my radar for quite some time. This is another reccy for future AJ trips utilizing helicopters, interesting climbing terrain and no crowds.
UPDATE: The huge amounts of snowfall dumped by the wetter and longer than usual monsoon left the Langtang Valley very beautiful, but also very loaded. We didn't show up until the start of November as we had heard from previous climbers in the valley that the snow was deep and making things hard. We really needed skis or snowshoes to get to the start of the climbs proper or an army of Sherpa to break trails in waist deep snow. Next time we will be prepared.
AMA DABLAM, NEPAL - 2022
Ama Dablam is a beautiful peak, although it's overcrowded in October and November. The last time I climbed her, last November and December it was so quiet. I'm going back this year with a Junkies team, and yes, I will use helicopters to fly into Namche and out of base camp. Don't hate me, I'm getting old.
UPDATE: We always go late in the season to avoid the crowds and this was the case once again. What we did not expect was the huge amount of trash left in camp one and camp two respectively. After some investigation, we discovered this trash belonged to some of the "media savvy, new boys on the scene, who are so big on promoting leave no trace ethics". The stench of human waste at camp one and two was too much. There are now way too many people on this hill in October and November respectively. Both Pasang and myself said we will not return to this nonsense. This is a beautiful mountain and she deserves respect. The local Nepal companies need to get their shit together quickly.
EVEREST, NEPAL - 2023
Heading back to the "Big E" for my 18th Everest expedition in 2023. I have taken a few spring seasons away from Everest recently and switched objectives with summits of Makalu in 2017 and 2019.
UPDATE: It's Everest from the Nepal side, so it's going to be crowded and a total shit show in regards to inexperienced climbers on her flanks. The entrire group reached the summit on the 19th and once again, we were the first to the top that day, had no crowds and no drama, unlike the season in general. There was some bad weather this season therefore it took us longer than usual and took us a total of 35 days from Kathmandu to Kathmandu to get the job done. I'm relived that the Tibet side of the mountain should be open to a select few in 2024.
CORDILLERA BLANCA, PERU - 2023
I always look forward to heading to the Ishinca Valley in the Cordillera Blanca to visit friends and spend time in the awesome Refugio at base camp. Three peaks climbed alpine style in a two week period including travel and acclimatization days. We plan to extend our Peru program in 2024 and will be doing some reccy climbs this summer. Watch this space.
UPDATE: The refugio was open this season and it did not disappoint with its food and service, thanks in large to Luca, the Italian volunteer. The climbing wasn't bad either, with three summits out of three peaks attempted. A few of us stayed behind for another couple of weeks and knocked off some technical 6,000-meter peaks. We have some new offerings in Peru for 2024. More to follow.
CHOLATSE, NEPAL - 2023
Heading back to Cholatse after taking a break in 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic and 2022 due to time constraints. This amazing peak has no crowds and is slightly more technical than Ama Dablam. We usually climb this peak in two weeks as we utilize helicopters to and from the mountain.
UPDATE: We had a perfect summit day on November 12 as predicted by our accurate weather forecast. Zero winds and bluebird skies for the best day of weather I have ever experienced on Cholatse. Climate change is taken its toll on this peak and the famous snow ridges are now showing exposed rock, making the route much harder than in the past. Other teams were in attendance while we were there, which is very rare, as we are usually the only team on the route. Choppers from base camp to Kathmandu meant we were back in town the day after reaching the top.