DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Just interesting video on what a day is like when summiting Everest. Crazy to see how many people your sharing the summit with!

-Eoinod-

-Around kerry this Bank Holiday weekend? Fancy a big run up a big mountain this Sunday? Not for the faint hearted I’d imagine…..

-Entries have opened for the Carlingford Lough Endurance Challenge. It’s on 12th July and entry is €150 per team.

-Ian Taylor of the Everest 2008 team returns home this Saturday evening into Dublin airport at 9:30pm. Break out the flags! Well done to all those involved, be great to hear all about it. :-)

-Aisling-

Image is of Rosie Swale Pope.

Mick Murphy and Gerard McDonnell are the first Irish climbers to scale the peak in the anniversary, 50 years since the first climb by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Irish expedition leader and Everest veteran Pat Falvey turned around and failed to complete the climb, as did Hannah Shields.

I think I heard on the radio earlier that Graham Kinch and Ian Taylor, from Everest 2008, were due to reach the summit later tonight. Lots of Everest new over here! ;-)

-Aisling-

Photo of Graham Kinch and Ian Taylor from Everest 2008 and qoute from RTE.

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - The Irish team have issued a press release May 8th 2008 from Everest Base Camp. The mountain is open! Now… let’s hope the rush of 285 climbers for the top doesn’t cause a loss of life. Fingers crossed.

Chinese Summit Puts Irish Everest Plans Back On Track

Climbers Graham Kinch (29) and Ian Taylor (29), the youngest Irish men to attempt Mt Everest and also the first Dubliner and Kildareman respectively were woken today on day 48 of their Everest expedition to the sound of an aeroplane flying over the summit. “We all knew what it ment” said Taylor, “and the good news that the Chinese had summited at 5:20am Nepalese time (12:35am Irish time) followed with resouning cheers throughout base camp”. The Chinese who are hosting the Olympics in June had imposed restrictions on the Nepaleese side of the mountain until after they had summitted with the Olympic tourch. The 285 climbers at base camp, including the two Irishmen have spent over a week waiting for the Chinese to summit so that they can continue with their summit attempts.

The two Irishmen have only one more aclimatisation trip up the mountain before their ascent proper. They will leave at 2:00am on Friday morning, going straight to Camp 2 at 22,000ft for two nights before pushing on up to Camp 3 at 24,000ft on the 11th. “Although we have effectively been idle at base camp for the last 8 days” said Kinch, “donations for the Kitandwe School Project in Uganda have continued to flow in via our website www.everest2008.ie, for which we are very appreciative”.

The two Irish climbers are in the final weeks of a year long journey that will see them climb four mountains on four continents in order to raise €85,000 for a school in the Ugandan village of Kitandwe in partnership with the Irish charity Fields of Life. If all goes according to plan they will complete their journey by summiting Mt Everest on the 23rd May.

-Robin.

UPDATE 2215hrs - Video of torch on summit via Reuters:

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - An incoming report on the news today started like this…

EVEREST BASE CAMP, China (Reuters) - The Olympic torch was lit at the top of Mount Everest on Thursday, the crowning moment of the Beijing Games torch relay which had been dogged by anti-Chinese protests on its world tour.

Live reports from ‘Everest Base Camp’ have such a historic ring to them it generates excitement before reading them. The Everest flame will be reunited with the main flame later in the relay, possibly when it passes through Lhasa in mid-June.

Three months to the day before the Games open, the first batch of climbers from a 31-strong team set out at about 1.30 am (1:30 p.m. EDT) from a camp at 8,300 meters.

The climbers trudged slowly to the summit, in the final stages, staging a mini-relay. They unfurled the Chinese national flag, a flag with the five Olympic rings and a flag bearing the Beijing Olympic logo.

The real news here is that the Chinese authorities banned anybody else from stepping onto the mountain so far this season to insure themselves against having anybody get in their way to the summit. Now they’ve summited the other teams can start moving above camp 2 where the army have been preventing them from moving.

Is it right to close a mountain?

-Robin

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Guide, Kenton Cool has begun posting photos of Ran Fiennes on Everest. They’ve begun acclimatising and the latest photos come in from Camp 2. You can follow them on the Mountain Hardware Sessions flickr stream which is well worth subscribing to.

Why is this expedition big news? Because as “Guinness Book of Records - Worlds Greatest Explorer” this is one of Ran’s last uncompleted challenges - he’s already tried three times as Eoin told us when he announced this expedition. Heart problems within 1000ft of the summit caused him to descend.

They’re not the only ones up there either, business is booming at the world’s highest post office thanks to the Olympics…

The Mount Qomolangma (Everest) post office has been inundated with journalists, Olympic officials and engineers who’ve moved into the area to prepare for the Everest torch ascent.

Video from Reuters:

-Robin

(Image Credits: Mountain Hardware on Flickr)

DUBLIN, IRELAND(Team Geared Up) The first climber from the South side of everest has been sent packing after authorities found a Tibetan flag on the man. The banner was found on the man at B.C. Earlier this week Nepalese soldiers had been given the authorization that they are allowed to shoot protesters on Everest. It is certainly going to be an ‘memorable’ season to be on Everest.

From MountEverest.net:

The mountaineer has been footed from the peak after police found a Tibetan flag on him. The American reportedly joined permit with the Everest ECO expedition, led by Dawa Sherpa whose dad Ang Tshering owns the popular climbing agency Asian Trekking. The American climber has not been named and is probably just sharing the team’s Everest climbing permit.

It’s not clear if he flew it or if he was searched for it. The officials immediately told the mountaineer to pack up and currently enroute back to Kathmandu; to many this American is coming home a hero.

-Eoinod-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Spotted on GO Blog, here’s a movie I will be queuing up to see. Blindsight the documentary/movie follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers on their journey to climb a mountain in the shadow of Everest.

Lhakpa-Ri peak, the goal of the expedition, is 23,000 feet high. The expedition leader is blind climber Erik Weihenmayer. On May 25, 2001, Erik became the first blind man in history to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.

In 2002 I shared a pint with Erik’s climbing sherpa from that expedition in Kandersteg, Switzerland. He was on a hut exchange where he ran a swiss alpine hut for a summer while a swiss guide helped out in a Nepalese one. I can’t remember his name, but I swooned in awe when I saw his Everest Summiteers Association membership card. Not only had he helped Erik place his hands & feet up the Hillary step, but he had also carried the IMAX camera to the summit on his back during ‘Everest’ movie (and was wearing the cap to prove it in the bar!).

Watch the Blindsight trailer:

There’s a nice line in there by an American:

The difference between westerners and easterners, we want to stand on top… it’s just ingrained in our make up.

Eastern response:

Get one person to the summit and everyone succeeds.

Very true of the east from my experiences.

Nice… see you there with the popcorn.

www.blindsightthemovie.com

-Robin.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) It looks like the permanent permits for the South side of Everest have been issued for this year. However climbers will not be allowed move above camp 2 until the 1st of May and they will have to take a ‘rest’ at Base Camp between the 1-10th of May. This is due the fact China are trying to carry the Olympic torch to the summit between these dates. The question this year appears to be however will a ‘Free Tibet’ banner appear on the summit as has been rumoured? Below a picture of the gear the torch relay team will be wearing on summit day!

The Kazakh national team decided to abandon their attempt at a Lhotse-Everest traverse a while back but had said they may attempt just Lhotse. This is unlikely now with the mountain not effectively open until the of 10th of May.

-Eoinod-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Apologies to everyone who sent in all the excellent emails, tip-offs, press releases and links over the last 2 weeks. I’ve been offline (adventuring - so I’ve an excuse!) and missed posting them.

Rather than post lots of old news - I thought I’d do a round up.

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Starting on the 16th of June, Ireland will host ‘The Turas’, a six-day World Series Adventure Race. A global television programme will follow teams of athletes as they compete across Southwest Ireland for €100,000 in prize money.

Close TGU contact Vanessa Lawrenson, publisher of Outsider magazine and an experienced international adventure racer and founder of ARI the organising company says:

“I’ve competed in a lot of these events before, including world championships, but this will raise the standard to a whole new level. Not only are we offering the biggest prize in Adventure Racing history, but the athletes will love the buzz of the festivals and will appreciate the community support.”

Forty mixed teams of four will travel from all over the world to compete over a 400-mile course spanning the 5 peninsulas of Kerry and West Cork.

It looks huge & great! If anyone wants contact details for the PR Team - leave a comment below and I’ll mail you the direct phone number that I was sent.

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Ian Taylor emailed to say the Everest2008.ie team are now leaving Namche Bazaar and trekking to Deboche. Their official permit has been granted and their expedition freight arrived.

Our bags that had been in freight finally arrived this morning as they were fast tracked, or should that be fast yak’d up the valley.

Good luck in the acclimatisation boys!

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Sean Murray organiser of the Total Experience Adventure Race on April 19th 10am in Blessington, Co. Wicklow, mailed to announce the race to TGU.

Please contact Total experience if you would like to have some time in a sea kayak or open boat previous to the race. Leave a comment below if you’d like contact numbers mailed to you.

The race looks great with Sport and Extreme classes. Get it on your calendar!

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Via press release, the Irish Coast Guard have launched a Automatic Information System (AIS) and encourages small leisure boat users and small fishing vessels to install AIS and other safety equipment onboard their craft.

Small craft fitted with AIS will therefore be electronically visible to commercial traffic in poor visibility. The boats current position and historical track will also be visible as a live picture in the Coast Guards rescue Coordination Centres in Dublin, Malin and Valentia.

if an alarm is raised as to the whereabouts of a vessel the AIS system can be queried to look for the missing or overdue boat and draw a picture on the electronic chart of where it was last visible to the system and what track it had followed over the preceding hours. The Coast Guard considers that this will greatly improve their ability to find missing and overdue boats fitted with AIS once the 999 call is received.

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Alan Masterson paratiger.co.uk
mailed to point out Dave MacLeod’s has become the first person to climb the notorious “Don’t Die of Ignorance” route on Ben Nevis without the use of aids.

It wasn’t Dave without ropes that was at risk, it was the roped cameraman who had an ‘incident’ midway!

The hairiest moment the pair experienced was when Mr French slipped on one of the most difficult sections of the climb and was left hanging by a piece of rope known as a wrist loop above a 300ft drop.

It took two hours before he was able to drag himself back up the rope to join Mr MacLeod, who by then was shivering with extreme cold after shedding several layers of clothing to make himself lighter for the climb.

Read it in the Herald
and on Daves blog.

Thanks Alan!

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An email from Fearghal O`Nuallain from RevolutionCycle.ie met Ben Saunders last year at the Explore conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Ben is now going for the North Pole Speed Record!

We previously posted a profile of Ben in October as the youngest person to ski to the North Pole.

Check out this great teaser video!

Ben Saunders from Ben Saunders on Vimeo.

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(Image Credit: The Turas, Valerie O’Sullivan)