This is the end
As you might have noticed, we didn't have a lot of stories to tell here lately. The Himlung expedition is over, we are all back home & back to work and - yep - thinking about our next summit to conquer. Who knows... maybe you'll hear from us soon.
Meanwhile, thanks for clicking & supporting us (mail- & guestbookwise)!
Ciao!

- posted by -lvv- @ 12:02 AM

 
Look @ us!
Yesterday, we had a party in the Rum Doodle, the restaurant for mountaineers and climbers. We left our signature on the Everest wall. Yihaa!
And we took a photo of the group. You shud see us. Our cheeks, our beards, our hair, our weight...! >>>Go check the pictures

- posted by -lvv- @ 1:31 PM

 
This is it
Voila, this is it. Over and out. This morning (thursday), we took a plane (?) from Jomosom to Kathmandu. halalujah. And here we are! Strange to be back in the noisy, stinky city, after spending almost one month in the middle of nowhere.
And then there is the good news: we've had our shower. A cold water one, but yeah, who are we to complain...?

Our last trekking to Tilicho was really beautiful, but icecold and we had this icy wind.
Yesterday, on our last expedition day, we had the traditional goodby-party with the sherpas. We spiced it up with rakshi (local drink), brandy and more of local brewery. And not everybody felt better afterwards ;-)

This morning, we went to visit Yannic. Nice to see him again!
And as we speak, aka now, Davy and Kris are running to the ministry of moutaineering for a debriefing and to pick up our diplomas (!?! yihaaa!)

Anyway, we hope that the flight back will cause us less trouble than our flight in. If everything goes as planned, we're back in Belgium on sunday around noon!

And now for something completely different: where is that bar? where is that resto? who is throwing the next party? ;-)
- posted by -lvv- @ 12:01 AM

 
Still recovering
News from the rest of the team. More than a week after we hit the summit, we finally feel like recovering. Only now, we realise how exhausted we were.
This last part to Tilicho lake is really fun, even tough sometimes we have some heavy climbs. The weather is mega and everyyone is doing fine. The main stress in our life is stuffing our thermarest and our sleeping bag, day after day. Try doing that with cold hands...
We jump into bed at 7.30 pm and get up at 7am. Yep, even on saturday night.
And no, we still haven't had that shower...
- posted by -lvv- @ 11:49 PM

 
Yannick is doing fine
It’s been almost a week now since we reached the summit, and maybe it’s time now to tell you something that we kept silent this week, because we didn’t want to cause any panic, and because we wanted to get in touch with Yannicks familie first. But since the situation is rather stable now, we can go ahead.
The thing is: shortly after we left the Himlung Summit, Yannick got in trouble: snowblindness and frostbite at his toes and fingers. At that moment, we still had to return to basecamp, and Yannicks condition wasn’t upto it. Fortunately, we got lots of support from the climbing sherpas and we made it. Immediately after the arrival at basecamp, a heli brought Yannick to the hospital in Kathmandu, where he got the necessary medical care.
For the moment, he’s staying at the Garden Home Hotel in Kathmandu, where Jo Logghe and Betty (anders reizen) take care of him.
He wrote me (= Lieve) this mail to let everyone know that he's doing fine.

- posted by -lvv- @ 2:31 PM

 
yihaaaa!
We did it. The first flemish- belgian team at the top of the Himlung!
Christel, Herman, Yannick, Geert, Davy and Johan did it. It all happened on saturday. That day, we left at camp 3, at 6.30 am. The climb was heavy, really heavy. You can't believe how much wind we had in the last part. The wind literally smashed us to the ground. Sometimes, it even made us laugh. Standing up and.. hop.. there we were again, back down to earth. All of us, we had this constant struggle between our bodies begging us to stop and our minds, eager to reach the summit. Halfway, Kris turned back, the rest went on.
at 3.30pm, we reached the top, after 9 hours of suffering.
Far too late, indeed. So, we had to hurry to get back to camp 3, where we arrived at 8 pm.
Yesterday we went whole the way back to base camp. Right now, we're giving our bodies some rest. Recovering and thinking back about that climb.
Now we understand why so many people we met told us that they had been climbing 8000's, but never the Himlung. Because The Himlung, they said, is something different. And now, we understand what they mean.

- posted by -lvv- @ 8:54 AM

 
Summit attempt one
Friday night. After that horrible superwindy night in camp 2, we took all our remaining strength for the climb to camp 3. Meanwhile Davy and Kris joined us. Jordaan went back to base camp, tough.
That makes seven of us (Christel, Herman, Johan, Davy, Geert, Kris and Yannick) preparing for the final climb: straight to the summit! The weather is ok. Cold - allright, tell us something new - but not too windy.
So, thumbs up! Hope to get back soon with really good news.
- posted by -lvv- @ 4:10 PM

 
Exhaustion
At this very moment, exhaustion is our middle name. No kidding.
Yesterday, Johan, Geert, Herman, Yannick and Christel climbed from camp 1 to camp 2. In other words: from 5600m to 6300m. That took us eight (8!) hours.
It was killing. Almost literally, even. Well, we don't wanna be dramatic, but when Christel lost balance and found herself hanging in full emptiness, we sure didn't laugh. It took her a while to regain balance (the heavy backback didn't help) and in her attempts to get on shore, the edges of the mountain got a bit damaged, what gave the others even more trouble to cross over. So we had to establish a more systematic approach and first pass the backpacks and then the humans...
We were nearly dead when we,finally, arrrived at camp 2.
We intended to head further to camp 3 today, but we don't know if that's going to work. Our physical condition isn't optimal. And the wind is still making life & climbing very difficult. We didn't sleep for 24 hours now. This gigantic blast wind makes so much noise that we simply couldn't keep our eyes closed.
The cold and the lack of oxygene are exhausting us by the minute. Even closing a sleeping bag seems to take too much energy now.
At this very moment, we are sitting in the tent, without saying a word. Talking is useless. The wind makes it impossible to understand what someone says.
Our plans? Hesitation. some of us want to go back down, the others want to get up. So, we decided to stay here today, and see how things are tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Kris, Jordaan and Davy should be back in camp 1 by now. If they are courageous enough to face the wind, they might arrive here, at camp two, this evening. They should have news from the third group too.
- posted by -lvv- @ 9:27 AM

 
Blown by the wind
Monday. message from Camp One. And why not start with the predictable news? Bare slash stone slash fu**ing cold here!
Today, there were three groups of Himlungies. Since Frank, Omer and Hedwig stayed at base camp yesterday, they were still there today. And while Christel, Herman, Johan and Herlinde decided to regain some forces at camp 1 today, the others climbed towards camp 2. They didn't get really far, tough. Cause they were - literally - blown from the moutain. You can not believe how much wind we're having. Really! Even the sherpas, who went upthere to set up camp 2, had to come back.
Bottomline: it's not looking good. At this moment, we can't tell for sure if we're ever going to get up there. But we keep trying!
Anyway, our plans for the next days: after their attempt, Davy, Kris and Jordaan went down to base camp. They need some recuperation. After a recovery day tomorrow, Herman, Christel, Johan and Yannick intend to give it another try on wednesday.
Apart from the wind and the cold, everything is going fine here. No big accidents or deseases. Only that freeze dried food is starting to bothbothbother us.

- posted by -lvv- @ 10:24 PM

 
Elegance lost
Sunday today. But we didn't see much sun. While we were climbing from base camp to camp one, we were surrounded by clouds. It even snowed this morning. Only an hour, tough.
Omer, Frank and Hedwig stayed at base camp, They didn't feel fit enough to do the climb. And honestly, It wasn't easy. Not only because we had to carry the rest of our material up, but on top of that, some of us involuntarily took the wrong way. Getting lost, that's what they call this phenomenon, no?
The circuit itself was rather tricky, too, and was partly covered with ice. And, euh, one thing is sure: we definitely weren't the worlds most elegantly moving climbing team today. Improvisation was our middle name. But finally, we arrived safe and well at the campsite.
For the first time, we cooked in the tents. Our delicious freeze dried food, remember? And yep, as to be expected, Kris had to endure all the tent-burning jokes.
Talking about jokes, it was Jordaans birthday today. Up he goes!
Anyway, going to bed now. In this camp, we sleep two by two in the tents. There is one tent for three. A warm and cosy night is awaiting us.
- posted by -lvv- @ 7:03 PM