Peak Mountain Guides Blog

Peak Mountain Guides staff member Chad Peele is currently guiding an expedition to Ama Dablam with client Dan Ewen.  They are making good progress and we’re so excited for them!  Here is an update we just received from Chad:

Hello from Nepal!

The weather was a little “shifty” in Kathmandu so we decided to hire a helicopter to fly us to Lukla where we started our trek into Ama Dablam Basecamp.  The weather improved in Lukla and Dan and I have been enjoying the autumn scenary and sunny weather with cool temperatures.  All in all, it has been beautiful and the trekking has been great!  Yesterday we arrived in base camp which sits at 15,000′ish feet and it felt really good to finally arrive under this incredible mountain!  This morning we celebrated our Puja Ceremony with our climbing Sherpas and after lunch we practiced fixed line travel in preparation for our summit push which we will embark on next week.

Tomorrow, we will climb up and touch “Yak” camp which sits at 17,000 ft in order to further our acclimatization, and then we’ll return to basecamp for the night.  The following day, we will camp at Yak camp and then make a push to camp one and camp two before descending back to basecamp.   Then, after several days of rest in basecamp we should be ready for the summit climb.  Stay tuned, more updates coming!

Dan on the way to Ama Dablam Basecamp

Troy arrived in Las Vegas on a warm Saturday night and I could tell by the smile on his face that he was eager to climb.  After a busy fall with limited time for climbing, he was really excited to get on a big route and log lots of mileage on the rock.  The forecast was calling for one more day of good weather before a big storm system was scheduled to arrive, so we made a plan to go as big as we could with the weather window we had.  After discussing different options, we settled on an ascent of Johnny Vegas & Solar Slab.  These two routes combine to offer 11 pitches of climbing in the 5.6-5.7 level of difficulty, and amount to nearly 1500′ of climbing.  Mileage here we come!

On the approach to Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab. The route ascends near the lefthand skyline of the peak.

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Red Rocks National Conservation Area, located just 35 minutes West of Las Vegas, is known throughout the climbing world for high-quality sandstone rock climbing.  Larry, John, and I had the pleasure of experiencing the great climbing in this area last week, and everyone agreed the reputation is well-deserved!

Larry making moves high off the ground on Cat in The Hat, 5.6.

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