The Podcast on alanarnette.com

I caught up with British climber, Rebecca 'Becks' Ferry to discuss her amazing 2021 where she climbed on six 8000-meter mountains. This British mother of five children ages 12 to 18, had limited high altitude experience before with summits of Island Peak and Ama Dablam, but deep inside she wanted to try the hard ones. Along with British Professional Mountain Guide, Jon Gupta, they started with Everest and Lhotse as a "warm-up' for K2 but overall climbed on six peaks reaching the main summits of three.

We cover a range of topics from how she got into climbing, to all the climbs in this fast-paced interview. I think you'll enjoy meeting Becks, hearing about her family and why she climbs and, of course, what's next!

Climb On!

I caught up with British climbing Guide, Jon Gupta of Mountain Expeditions to discuss his amazing 2021 where he guided mostly one client, fellow Brit Rebecca 'Becks' Ferry on six 8000-meter mountains. He also climbed a 7000er with a friend and is now on Ama Dablam. Overall he climbed (time the discussion starts in the video)

We cover a range of topics from how he got into climbing, why he prefers private guiding over the large commercial team model, his experience on Everest (at 19:50), especially with COVID (at 22:48), their experience on Makalu (25:05) which Becks considers her best moment even though they didn't summit, their K2 summit (25:05) - a first for Jon and Becks, their summit experience on Manaslu (40:00) and the current discussion around the true vs. fore summit, and why they turned back on their summit push on Dhaulagiri (36:09).

I think you'll enjoy meeting this highly experienced Mountain Guide and enjoy watching some of his videos that can also be found on his Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Climb On!

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It was an honor to do this video interview with three of the nine members, seven male, and two female, of the Full Circle Everest team. They hope to make history as the first Black climbing team to attempt to summit Everest. As of late 2021, there have been 10,184 summits but only eight Black climbers have stood on the top.

According to the Himalayan Database, South African Sibusiso Vilane became the first Black to summit on May 26, 2003, and returned in 2005 to summit from the Tibet side, both times with UK operator with Jagged Globe. American Sophia Danenberg became the first Black female to summit on May 19, 2006, with IMG. However, they were with standard commercial teams as there has never been an all-Black only team. 

The team is quite diverse with several members holding a Ph.D. One, Abby Dione, is an AMGA certified climber and runs a climbing gym. The leader, Phil Henderson is a longtime NOLS leader and attempted Everest in 2012 with Conrad Anker reaching Camp 3. Two are North Face-sponsored athletes, Frederick Campbell and Manoah Ainuu. Rosemary Saal is a NOLS instructor who led the first all-Black American team to the summit of Africa’s Kilimanjaro in 2018. Demond “Dom” Mullins is is a combat veteran of the Iraq War,  where he served as an Armor Crewman. After service Demond became a National Spokesman for Iraq  Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and worked as a United  States Senate staffer on veterans health and education issues.  See the entire team at their site,

I spoke today with Phil, Rosemary, and Dom about the expedition. We discussed their "why", who they are trying to reach and of course, all things Everest including their acclimatization and training efforts.

The Full Circle Everest team is asking for financial help at their GoFundMe site. They've reached $21,368 of their $50,0000 goal as of this podcast, September 21, 2021. Any amount will help. I donated.

You can follow their progress on their site at Full Circle Everest and on Instagram

Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything

I caught up with German Alpinist Jost Kobusch, who now lives in Chamonix, France to discuss his upcoming winter, no O's, solo attempt of Everest's West Ridge. This exact style and the route had never been attempted or accomplished.

In 2019, Jost tagged his high point at 7,329-meters/23,750-feet. He said before starting the expedition, he would be pleased to tag 8,000-meters so he got close. This time he is again targeting 8,000-meters and I hope he reaches the summit.

We cover a range of topics from how he got into climbing, what he learned from his 2019 attempt, what he's doing differently this time, his style of solo, no O's and more. I think you'll enjoy meeting this 29-year-old climber.

Climb On!

Alan

Memories are Everything

In this episode I close out the summer climbing season in Pakistan's Karakorum area. Also I discuss what we can expect in the world of mountaineering over the next several months.

The summer Karakorum season is over, well, I think so. There are always a few surprises. The 48 summits on K2 were close but not a record. 2018 saw a record with 62 total summits, followed by 2004 with an estimated 51. This season saw two deaths, one on a new route on K2 and one on Broad Peak. Overall there were around 100 summits in the Karakorum.

With COVID lurking, the climbing season in the Karakoram was not as large as everyone hoped. Permits issued this summer were for 75 support climbers with 128 foreigners. Many BP climbers were also on K2, so there are duplicates; thus, the total is less than 203, probably around 185. permits for the various peaks, including the four 8000ers: K2, Broad Peak, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, and Gasherbrum II. Overall there were around 90 to 100 total summits across all the 8000ers, with none on Nanga.

As usual in the Karakorum, the weather played a role this summer. Conditions began well, but soon a steady mix of snow and wind halted progress allowing only a few sporadic days where teams tried to thread the needle. It wasn’t until late July that a long enough window emerged that allowed climber to ascend and descend K2 safely.

A new factor this season was the new 4G cell tower recently installed in Concordia. Even with sporadic outages due to weather and power, teams were able to send updates to social media and home, plus I was able to do live Zoom interviews directly from Base Camp! Now on to who did what.

Climb On!

Alan

Memories are Everything

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering has now summited K2 three times. Only one other person has more. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan. He was the leader for the 21 person team who submitted on July 28, 2018, at approximately 6:07 AM PKT (local time)

We discussed his team summit plus the latest on finding the bodies of the 3 missing winter climbers. And an update on the West Ridge effort - it's not over. 

In Garret's own words:  

"Yesterday our whole team stood atop the world’s 2nd highest peak, today we all reached base camp safely. We were very lucky with not even a breath of wind at the summit, clear views in all directions, and excellent route conditions. It was spectacular! . In a season where most teams canceled their K2 expedition plans due to Covid travel restrictions, we found a way to make it happen thanks to great partners, persistence, and a positive attitude. We had the mountain and route nearly all to ourselves compared to the last time I was here during a ‘normal’ season in 2019. . Things went so smoothly and ahead of schedule once we arrived in Pakistan just over a month ago that I was nervous something unanticipated would stop us dead in our tracks…or worse. But the mountain opened its arms and welcomed us to the top, granting us a 5-day weather window to make our summit bid. Our @madisonmtng Sherpa / Pakistani team worked tirelessly with the other Sherpa team here and got the route fixing done, a major component of our success on K2. . K2 is likely the world’s most deadly mountain with a ~25% death rate (deaths on attempt vs summits). K2 and Annapurna have traded places as the world’s most deadly peak in recent years…Currently, only I and 2 other climbers have reached the top of K2 three times (a Pakistani and a Nepalese Sherpa). I’ve never lost a client or staff member on K2, but I’ve seen others perish here. It’s a lot more rugged and dangerous than climbing Mount Everest, to say the least. We’ve had a few ‘near misses’ with rockfall and avalanches but all okay so far. I’m grateful we are all down safe from our climb on the ‘Savage Mountain’!" 

Climb On!

Alan

Memories are Everything

In this Podcast I cover the recent events in Pakistan's Northern Territories on K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum I & II. Heavy snowfall and high winds have delayed progress on K2 but there have been summits on Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak along with the death of Mr. Kim Hong-Bin, 57. The bodies of winter K2 climbers Pakistani Ali Sadpara, Icelander John Snorri, and Chilean Juan Pablo Mohr Prieto who went missing were found between the Bottleneck and High Camp.

Over 50 climbers are expected to summit K2, barring any major problems over the next two days, July 27 and 28. I discuss all of this and more.

Climb On!

Alan

Memories are Everything

Garrett Madison, founder of Madison Mountaineering is one of the few people on the planet to have summited K2 twice. He's hoping to get his third this 2021 summer. This is his sixth expedition to K2 making him the most experienced western operator to run regular trips to the Northern Terrorities of Pakistan.

With the new 4G Cell tower in Concordia, Garret took the hour walk from K2 Base Camp to Broad Peak Base Camp to talk with me over Zoom about his expedition. We discussed their rotations to Camp 1 and 2, the snow conditions on the mountain, what happens when he finds bodies on the mountain and more. 

I think you'll enjoy getting this first-hand information directly from Northern Pakistan.

Climb On!

The 2021 summer climbing season in Pakistan's Kararum Range is heating up as we approach mid-way through the season. Teams are making great progress with Camps set as high as 7,000-meters, C3 on K2 and Broad Peak. Also, we already have summits on Gasherbrum II by a French team who skied down. Then there was a guide who paraglided off Broad Peak around 6600-meters. So lots of activities I discuss in this episode plus I talk through the climb on K2 from Base Camp to Advanced base Camp, then Camp 1 and Camp 2 along with a lot of pictures of the YouTube version.  I hope you enjoy it.  Climb On! Alan Memories are everything

The summer season has begun in Pakistan's Karakoram range with climbers on K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum I/II, and Nanga Parbat. The ropes have already reached C1 on K2 and climbers have slept at C1 on both Broad and GI. Due to some mixed signals from Pakistan authorities, many operators canceled their climbs this summer making for a relatively low number on the peaks a bit less than 200 across all five with K2 having the most at 88. 

 Climb On! 

Alan 

Memories are Everything 

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