November 2nd - Success on Lobuche Peak

This is Wally Berg calling you from that beautiful base camp for Lobuche, which I described in an earlier dispatch. Once again we have a sunny, clear, November morning and we are drying out a little. Our climb was very successful - we are back down safely.

BAI team on summit of Lobuche peakI should mention that, I talked about this climb being small and in preparation for Ama Dablam, but I should report that when this team got back down, yesterday, they were quite exhausted, tired, in a good way. We had a good climb, it was very challenging and the descent on our rope team was slow, but beautiful all the way down and we couldn’t wait to get back to base camp.

Today we are going back to Pheriche, where we will have lunch. We are going to descend a different way and we will go by the Chortens, or memorials for all the Sherpa Climbers and others who have been lost on Everest over the years. We are going to Dughla - the terminal moraine of the Khumbu glacier. We will soon be in Pheriche and then in Ang Temba’s house, in Pangboche, tonight.

We have been in touch with Nima Tashi via radio over in Ama Dablam and things are falling into place very nicely over there, on the lower part of our route. We will all be in Ama Dablam base camp tomorrow and this is time to start thinking about the big one - Ama Dablam, our climbing goal for this season in the Khumbu.

Ama Dablam 2002
BAI team:


Wally Berg,
Canmore, Alberta
Brent Bishop,
Bozeman, Montana
David Burger,
Boulder, Colorado
Garry Porter
Olalla, Washington
Ryland Gardner
Edwards, Colorado
Doug Frost
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our objective:

22,494 feet
6857 meters

First Ascent:

March 13, 1961
Barry Bishop
Wally Ramanes
Mike Gill
Mike Ward