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Welcome to The Mountain Company's Autumn 2008 newsletter!
Roland has just got back to the UK after leading our K2 & Gondogoro La trek in Pakistan. This year the Gondogoro La was in good condition and the whole group successfully crossed this challenging pass.
The Mountain Company has an exciting program arranged for 2009, please get in touch if you are interested or require any further information for the following treks:
K2 & Gondogoro La (August '09). If you are planning on visiting Nepal in March, April or May we encourage you to book your flights soon in order to get reasonable prices for your dates. Roland will be in the UK until September 19th so please call if you would like to chat about a trip to the Himalayas or Kilimanjaro. Our office telephone number is 0207 4980953.
The Mountain Company team |
| Late availability |
There is still availability on our western led treks for the post monsoon season in Nepal and Bhutan, they are:
Lunana Snowman trek Sept/Oct '08:
Roland is leading this epic trek across northern Bhutan, for more information on the Lunana Snowman trek
Manaslu Circuit October '08:
Mike Farris has recently returned from an expedition to climb K2 and is looking forward to leading the Manaslu Circuit trek for more information on Manaslu Circuit
Mera Peak November '08:
Roland is returning to Mera Peak again with a group for more information on the Mera Peak expedition
All of these trips are now guaranteed to run and there is still availability, please get in touch very soon if you are interested in joining any of these groups. |
| Pre monsoon treks in Nepal |
 Our passion at The Mountain Company is exploring remote areas of the Himalayas.
As a result of the increased political stability in Nepal there are many more trekkers coming back to the country, therefore if you are looking to avoid the crowds we suggest heading to some of the less visited areas.
We have carefully selected our pre monsoon program to visit more remote and quieter areas of Nepal:
Manaslu Circuit (April '09)
Alan Ward is leading our Manaslu Circuit trek in April, please get in touch soon if you would like to join him for more information on the Manaslu Circuit
Makalu Base Camp (April '09)
This trek has been on Roland's wish list for a while and he is really looking forward to exploring this area for more information on Makalu BC
Dhaulagiri Circuit via French Col (May '09)
Roland led a group around the Dhaulagiri Circuit in May '08, he rates this trek as one of the best treks in Nepal! for more information on the Dhaulagiri Circuit
Take a look at the Dhaulagiri photo gallery ----> please click here
The Mountain Company uses Mountain Hardwear Trango 3.1s for all of our camping treks in Nepal (pictured above). We also bring a Thuraya satellite phone as well as providing a full expedition medical kit. |
| The Mountain Company Blog |
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In June The Mountain Company set up a new blog where we intend to post updates from our travels and communicate anything else that might be of interest to you. Please take a look at:
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| Summer 2009 in Pakistan |
 The Mountain Company is planning to run two treks in Pakistan next summer, in July Snow Lake Biafo & Hispar glacier trek and followed by K2 & Gondogoro La in August.
We already have received enquiries for both of these treks and at this stage are confident they will run as planned. Please get in touch if you are interested in joining Roland on one of these treks.
We received good feedback from our August '08 K2 & Gondogoro La group, see Luke's comments below:
"Thanks for a brilliant trip, it exceeded all of my expectations both in terms of scenery and the organization. I can't find fault in your planning and running of the trip, you've clearly put a lot of effort into making sure your trips run smoothly and it's shown in the level of satisfaction afterwards" Luke Mather, K2 & Gondogoro La August 2008 |
| Best dressed porters on the Baltoro! |
 We believe in providing the right equipment to our porters especially when climbing a high pass such as the Gondogoro La at 5,600m.
In line with our ethical approach to porter protection we invested over USD$5,000 purchasing porter equipment in Pakistan this summer.
All of our porters crossing the Gondogoro La in August '08 were lent the following items: wind jackets and trousers, good quality walking boots, sunglasses, socks and gloves. We also paid the porters their equipment money as per government regulations.
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| Mountaineering news from the Karakoram |
K2 K2 at 8,611m is the second highest peak in the world and is known as the "Savage Mountain" or the "Mountaineers' Mountain".
This summer sadly 11 mountaineers lost their lives while climbing on K2. It was sobering to visit the Gilkey memorial in late August with the TMC K2 & Gondogoro La group and see the new plates for all of the dead climbers.
The events leading up to this disaster on K2 have been widely reported in the press. We will not repeat the story in this newsletter but have copied links to various news sources below:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/31/9
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7542164.stm
http://www.k2climb.net/
http://www.everestnews.com/
Expeditions blogs:
http://www.mfarris.net/blog/
http://www.nickrice.us
Nanga Parbat
An Iranian expedition summitted Nanga Parbat on the normal route, however sadly one member died on the descent.
Italian Karl Unterkircher died on Nanga Parbat's Rakhiot face when a snow ledge collapsed and he fell into a crevasse. His two climbing partners were unable to descend although finally skied down to 5,700m and were airlifted from there to BC.
Broad Peak
Of note Valery Babanov and Viktor Afanasyev summited Broad Peak on July 17th via a new route.
On July 30th French climbers Stephane Portier and Claude Labatut, Italians Mario Panzeri and Daniele Nardi and Finnish Veikka Gustafsson also summited Broad Peak. |
