The Team Sherpa Blog

Put on your thermals and pack up your –20 sleeping bag, because my next destination will involve lots of SNOW! In the coldest month of the year, I will travel westwards, to the States and Canada. I will visit the areas around Chicago, San Francisco and Vancouver, to see new places, enjoy the wonders of winter, and challenge myself in the mountains again. Being
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I wanted to escape the Christmas ‘hurly-burly’, so I booked the last minute flight to Geneva to open my ski season in Chamonix. Very nice nippy -6 C, snow covered village bathing in sunshine welcomed me back and I couldn’t wait the next morning to have a change to hit the slopes and make the first turns of the season. I spend the first
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The start of the year has been slow going and we’ve been suffering from a most awful weather in Finland. No snow means no skiing, so training has been mainly easy jogging three times a week. I have also tried my new Ecco boots by just walking in the woods to see how they fit. The Chamonix X-Factor model is very rigid and even though
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Summary: Death Valley, 23.5 mile Round Trip, Overnight Backpacking Trek Trails: Emigrant Campground, x-country, South Fork, x-country, Lemoigne Canyon Picture Gallery: Click here After two postponed attempts to backpack through Death Valley since the beginning of the year, plans finally materialized last weekend. Weather conditions throughout the west coast the last weekend of January were treacherous. Park rangers heavily advised against attempting backpacking
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Last week Peter wrote: ”Why go to the end of the universe, when you have a pearl in your backyard?” I really agree with you Peter!Only 3 hours driving from my home I find my favourite hut to hut hiking area.Trekking maps: Snøhetta 1: 100 000 Dovrefjell 1: 100 00Tourist map: Sunndal 1: 80 000 This area is also a perfect place for cross-country skiing in winter,-
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I decided again to skip the ‘Heart attack breakfast buffet’, which they served across the street from my motel and settled for a coup of coffee and a multi vitamin pill. Anyhow the rich elk steak from previous night was still making me feel more than content and by my age I have learned that my body will tell me when I need to
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"in the Nizke Tatra, nobody knows”, I was told. And it’s true. I had left Canada about 10 days earlier, after following weather and snow conditions in Central Slovakia for the past month. It was supposed to be spring. I was anticipating snow above 1500m, maybe some wet stuff a bit lower, but not deep winter. Needless to say, as I arrived in Donovaly amid
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I awoke in the morning at around 5 o’clock, as I usually do in the mountains. There is something special in wakeing early, starting your day as the world around also rouses itself. I fixed myself a cup of tea, and a heard some shuffleing around outside. I opened the door to a transfigured world. More than 80cm of snow had fallen during the night,
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I was “Sherpa blog quiet” for quite some weeks, mostly trying to combine my work and training for summer Nanga Parbat expedition. Being the leader of the team I have already important tasks now in order to get everything ready in Pakistan before we arrive. But this is the nice part of the everyday and it keeps me motivated. My “scientific” life at the moment
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Date: May 10-18, 2008Summary: 25 mile, 3 day Trek along the Salkantay Trail culminating with an excursion into Machu PicchuLocation: PeruPicture Gallery: Click here Departing San Francisco on Saturday afternoon, with layovers in Miami and Lima, I arrived in Cuzco Sunday morning. The flights were largely uneventful and the jetlag imperceptible. The Cuzco airport is a small strip of asphalt nestled in a small valley. Disembarked at over 11,000
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I was very exited to be invited to participate my first Expedition and especially in Peru and southern America this May. It was organized very quickly and I received the invitation only three weeks prior to the start. Fortunately I had a very good and effective winter behind me doing all sorts of different activities. Mainly on skis, but the basic of the physiques
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I just viewed the top of Kilimanjaro from the streets of Moshi, Tanzania and it is hard to believe that just three days ago, I was on the very top of that mountain. It is HUGE, i kid you not! Trekking the area was beautiful. Kilimanjaro has many small micro climats and to trek from luscious green fairlylike forests to alpine moorland with ghostlike trees, to skree desert
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The Canadian rockies are a tough place. Especially in early spring. Snow, ice, rock, water and anomalous weather can all be expected and encountered at any elevation at any time. Needless to say, packing can be a bit of a challenge (or not- I usually just end up bringing it all for the early season adventures). On the first weekend of June, I left with
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Our main goal for this spring trip was to do some high glacier hiking and trying to summit Mont Blanc and Mont Maudit. The pre-trip weather forecast promised unsettled weather and possibly heavy rain, or snow, so we were not that convinced for possibility of higher peaks.Our suspicion was confirmed when we arrived to Chamonix at Friday afternoon. Big snowflakes came heavily down and the
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Salama!! Another update from Africa. After climbing Kilimanjaro, i had to get used to cycling again, as its such a different discipline then walking. BUT, cycling on local style tanzanian bikes, the so called ‘Fonix’, means that you get to hike a lot!! The terrain is quite hilly and there are no gears on a Fonix, so even when you’re going slightly uphill with al
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There are several routes of Via Ferrata ("iron way" routes for which you need climbing equipment,) that start along this plateau.The Alps dominate Northern Italy and are well known to both hikers and climbers. However, in June this year, we discovered the lesser known Julian Alps which border onto Slovenia and Austria. The scenery is spectacular whilst being very accessible. We saw 2 people all
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After a successful jaunt into the Julian Alps, we thought we’d revisit a haunt of Jonathan’s - Sella Nevea where he learned to ski as a child. This ski are is the closest to the city of Udine so it’s popular with the local italians too. But it was June, so we thought we’d have a walk around the mountains without the snow. Again, we referred
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It was a long haul to Jasper, especially after a tough day of work. Carmen picked me up at exactly 18.00, and I jumped into the bright red car she had rented. It didn’t suit our style at all- a mid-eighties Volvo sedan would have been perfect, but it seems the rental agency has more demand for brand new sporty looking bean-shaped automobiles and thus
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