Island Peak and Ama Dablam, Nepal

I have recently returned from a great work trip to Nepal expedition leading for www.adventurepeaks.com.  We flew into Kathmandu and then travelled up the Khumbu valley to climb Island Peak (6189m) and then on to Ama Dablam (6856m).  Island Peak gave a great climb as did Ama Dablam, however due to some very heavy late snow fall we couldn't summit Ama Dablam, we had a relatively short time slot and the fixing of ropes and finding good snow anchors was the issue.  None the less we had a great trip and enjoyed summiting Island Peak and some great mountaineering up to the camp 2 area on Ama Dablam, as well as all the great trekking between and Nepali culture.

Arriving at Island Peak summit (6189m)

First daylight on Island Peak summit day

Lhotse South Face above...

Bridge on route to Namche

First glimpse of Ama Dablam!

Good to meet the owners of the Sherpa Adventure Gear store in Namche

Everest left and Ama Dablam on right

Lhotse South Face memorial

Yaks to Island Peak BC

The Holy bird

Early start on Island Peak

Upper glacier on Island Peak

Island Peak summit

Lakpa Sherpa tells us about his attempt on Lhotse South Face (behind)

Summit ridge of Island Peak, Ama Dablam north ridge behind

The infamous Yeti skull and hand at Monastery in Pangboche Upper (allegedly) 

Carving in Monastery

Prayer wheels

Ama Dablam from BC

Jumar practice on the boulder near Ama Dablam BC

Mule loads arrive (not on little one)

On way to Ama ABC

Yak camp, or ABC, on Ama


My photos ended at this point when my camera took the quick way off from the camp 1 fixed ropes!

This is a shot I took of camp 2 from a previous expedition though and is around this years highpoint for our team...

Climbing, Gorges, Abseiling and Media...

We've had a variety of great courses running recently from private guiding on some of the Lake Districts classic mountain rock climbs, instructional scrambling courses and multi activity group events...

The last few days we were joined by Steve from  movieit.co.uk who has been putting together some great movies using various innovative filming techniques including a drone (remote helicopter) with camera attached.  The main aim is to produce incredibly fast turn around films for presentations after events or for promotional purposes as well as delivering aerial shots from unique angles, something that could be useful to a range of customers... have a look at their site using the above link.

Here are some stills from the group Steve joined us with over the last few days...

Church Beck

Cathedral Quarry

Langdale Climbing

Recent Courses

We have had a number of great technical courses running recently and have been lucky with generally great weather.  I have put a selection of photos together of some of our recent outings when I've managed to pull the camera out...

Summer Courses - places available

Lots of great 'Summer Courses' coming up, some still with spaces and the chance to join a course with others meaning great value as the cost is shared!

Coming up we have a - 

 'Learn to Lead Climb' course with 1 space - 1 Day - dates flexible - Lake District £80

'Technical Scrambling Skills' course with 1 space - 10/11th July - Langdale £150 for 2 days/£75 to join 1 day.

See our website for full details of other courses available - Mountain Circles

Its been a busy spell with all sorts of weather coming through!  Some photos below of a recent course we ran in Scotland for Ivan and Bobby taking in Tower Ridge in much better weather than expected and then using Polldubh Crags for a training day on day 2 to hide from the wet and windy weather which came in. We covered lots of skills at Polldubh which are useful to add to your 'bag of tools' when looking to become independent in your climbing and to be able to sort out any un-expected situations that could arise... We looked at abb retreat and set up, backing up abb anchors, hoisting a 2nd, climbing a rope using prusiks, placing gear as well as getting some big boot climbing in on the classic route 'The Gutter'.  Thanks for the photos Bobby!

 Ben Nevis North face

 Pitch out of the Douglas Gap

 Just before the Eastern Traverse

 The tunnel - snowed over for most of the winter

 Just after the Tower Gap

Day 2 on the 'Gutter' at Polldubh Crags