In late-March 2014 I flew to Nepal on my first expedition to climb Mount Everest via the south route in Nepal, on a team led by Tim Mosedale. The trip should have lasted two months, with a longer three-week trek into base camp from Lukla, allowing
With myself there was also Ellis, Scott and Chris, joining the Himalayan Guides umbrella, so we shared our base camp facilities with other climbers and leaders from around the world – Ingo, Paul, Roman, Rob, MK, Daniel, Lucy ‘Bulks’, Tim and Andy.
Our team had arrived in Lobuche (4,900m) when a huge avalanche fell into the Khumbu Icefall and tragically killed sixteen climbing Sherpas and porters moving to Camp 1. We arrived in base camp the following day as a week of mourning began. We kept our heads down, doing some acclimatisation hikes nearby, before the expedition was effectively forced to abandon a week later.
It was a very confusing and difficult situation of politics that was widely misreported in the media. Alan Arnette gave the most reliable account of the season – read more here>




