Aconcagua .. the mission is on.

Spoke with Rolfe yesterday and all is going well on the mountain.

Unfortunately Paul , Alexander and Lynn have all decided to turn around and head back to Mendoza. They are going to wait for the rest of the group there. They are all OK

The remaining 9 members are doing really well and seem to be pretty strong, Rolfe is fairly confident that they’ll all give the summit attempt a good go!
The weather hasn’t been great on the lower slopes and they’ve had a fair bit of snow. The upper slopes have been kept relatively clear of snow by the strong winds. There are 2 other teams (Canadian and Japanese) who are in front of our group so they’re doing a lot of the ground breaking for us!

The group stayed at camp 1 (5000m) last night and have already stocked camp 2 (5500m) over the last couple of days. They will move up to camp 2 (5500m) today to stay for a couple of days whilst stocking camp 3 (6000m). They plan to have their first summit attempt on the 31st Jan with a good forecast for then. The only issue will be the winds they’re experiencing on the summit giving a wind chill factor of about -45 c but Rolfe is happy at this stage that it won’t prevent them from trying.

We will of course keep you posted.

team 360

Mera.. complete success.

November 2009 saw a 360 expedition on Mera Peak (6476m) in Nepal. There had been little success by other teams earlier in the season partially due to an unusually late monsoon and extreme cold. Thankfully we timed it right and snow conditions were good but still extremely cold. There were reports of previous groups suffering frostbite so we paid full attention to detail to what kit would help stop us becoming hypothermic and prevent frostbite.
Our group was predominantly Scottish (Miles, Jimmy, Alan, Donny, Sandy) but there were still two from England (David, Lana) and a token Aussie (Adam) who more than made up for being the solitary Australian.

The route we took was stunning. It was a longer route than what most people take to approach the mountain. This allows for improved acclimatisation not to mention the remoteness and beauty encountered along the way.
The group was simply fantastic, what stood out was their attitude which is one of the most important aspects of mountaineering. There was great banter along the way and the group gelled into a proper team early in the expedition. This was complemented by the hand picked local crew who were all phenomenal throughout. Something has to be mentioned of the food. It wasn't just food to keep the group going with much needed energy but each meal was eagerly anticipated as they were always delicious and nutritious. Well done to Genu (Head Chef) and his cook team for helping to keep both the group's energy levels and morale high with his fine cooking.

As we approached the Mera La, which is a pass formed by a magnificent glacier, the ever increasing altitude started to kick in as expected. This was where the group's attitude and team spirit shone through as they stayed focused and determined on their objective, the summit of Mera Peak. The good spirit even allowed an impromtu snowball fight close to 5000m!

Once on the glacier the team was divided into rope teams. A night was spent just below the Mera La and then a further few hours resting at the High Camp, situated on the edge of a rocky outcrop at 5700m. In the early hours of the morning we departed for our summit attempt. The bitter cold (close to minus 30C) was kept at bay by the breathtaking views enjoyed by us all during sunrise. As we were climbing the mountain and the sun was rising we were blessed by not only one of the best views in the Himalaya, but I'd say on the whole of this planet! Before us rose majestically five out of the six highest mountains in the world..... Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu.... all seen in just one panorama!
This inspired the group further to push on and after about 6 hours from leaving High Camp we had all reached the summit!

It was a pleasure climbing with the team and a big well done goes to Miles, Jimmy, Sandy, Alan, Donny, Lana, David and Adam.

Photos of Mera Peak here.

Round up of the Year With 360 Expeditions

As our successful teams are coming back from Nepal (Everest Base Camp and Mera peak) it is time to look back and recognise what a great and varied year we’ve had. We not only introduced a whole new group of clients to the world 360 style but achieved some fantastic objectives with the guys that keep coming back!

After Raj’s successful ascent of Carstenz Pyramid (West Papua) Rolfe picked up the baton and headed out to tackle a technical route on the mighty Mt Kenya with Simon. They not only succeeded in doing a wintery ascent of the Shipton route but managed a great repeat of the Italian route on Pt John and a quick dash up Pt Lenana. A Fantastic time with a great client!





Upon returning home in May Rolfe found Ian, Dave and Phil sitting on the doorstep wanting to climb Aneto Peak (3400m) the highest in the Pyrenees. They spend a festive night in the ominously deserted High Mountain refuge being served a glorious 3 course meal by a hut warden welcome of their company before heading off to bed ready for the Alpine start. It rained as they left the refuge and this turned to heavy snow 200m higher up. Being used to this kind of weather they pushed on until being stopped high on the glacier by deep snow which made the conditions not safe enough to continue. Logic prevailed and the 4 returned still having had a fantastic day on the hill and with sufficient enthusiasm to consider coming back this winter for a snow shoe ascent! Talk about upping the Ante!

Summer (June and July) saw Raj head off into the unknown territory to simultaneously do a recognisance and to guide Dave and Paul in an untouched section of the Ukraine Carpathian mountains. This is a stunning part of the world where the 3 enjoyed the feeling of being of the beaten track. Each considered this to be the essence of mountain walking and we are looking forward to taking more folk out to this yet un-spoiled part of the world.





As Raj returned Rolfe headed into the Swiss Alps with the un-stoppable Simon to have a crack at the Matterhorn. They were successful in climbing the Hornli ridge in less then favourable conditions coming back with hairstyles only achievable after being exposed to extremely high winds.





Simon lives up to his Reputation as being unstoppable and upon his return signed on for Aconcagua. Where will all this end? Also in the Alps our amazing Chamonix guide Steward Macdonald managed to summit Mt Blanc on 3 occasions with a total of 7 clients. ( Marcus, Rich, Roland, Alex, Ian, , Karl and Kevin) What a superb achievement for each of them. And Judging from the photo’s and enthusiastic emails we get a sneaky feeling that for each this is not the end all and be all but only the start of more mountain adventures!





July saw another of our superb 360 guides Dave Thomas lead a group up the Rongai route of Kilimanjaro. This team consisted of the father and son team of Geoff and Chris (Ireland’s youngest person to summit!) Katie, Rebecca and Claire. It was Claire’s second pop at the top and we are happy to congratulate all for making the summit of this majestic mountain.





As the summer heated up Rolfe tackled the local climbing venues in a Hot Rock Pyrenees frenzy with visiting American climber Chris. They managed to climb 14 routes in a day (up to F6B) and Chris went back to the USA with blistered fingers and a huge grin proclaiming to one and all the virtues of Hot Rock Pyrenees.
Then in August Rolfe having heard from Raj about the magic of the Carpathians headed out to Romania to do a recognisance for possible ski touring possibilities. He too came back raving having met up with the local ski legends and the worlds craziest police commissioner.

Autumn arrived and Raj and Rolfe headed to the Himalaya . Raj to take Laura Kings group of 10 to trek to Everest Base Camp and to Climb Kala Patar. They had a fantastic dinner party at the base camp of the world’s highest mountain and enjoyed some seriously mouth watering food. Another 100 % for Raj in a season otherwise marred by both bad weather and illness. Not happy with one EBC for the year Raj turned tail and did it all again with Amy and Carol to provide a trip that each found thoroughly enjoyable not least from being part of a small team but from having such an experienced guide as Raj.





Then Raj delivered his Coupe de Grace by bringing 8 clients to the top of Mera Peak (6500m). A hugely successful team of Scotsmen, Brits and an Aussie. (Donald, Miles, Jim, Alan, Sandy, Lana, Adam and Dave). Awesome achievement guys! We are looking forward to hearing your stories!





This year also saw Rolfe and Raj guide for both charity groups and companies needing their expertise on tricky itineraries. Together they led 360 groups not only to the above places but they broadened their knowledge on Kilimanjaro (if that’s possible by doing a further 8!! ascents between them), they also guided groups through the Sahara desert, China, Iceland and the Langtang and Annapurna region of Nepal.

Phew! What a year, time to catch up with family and friends and to put some lard on those skinny frames again. Next year promises to be even bigger! Bring on the adventure...

Mt kenya done and dusted.

Rolfe is finally hanging up his kit for two weeks after a crazy time spent in Kenya where he and Simon successfully climbed the technical shipton route on Mt Kenya. well done to him and Si..

Tomorrow will see rolfe heading off to N Africa for time out with his rock shoes whilst Raj is in the the Australian desert playing about in 4x4s!!

See below for Rolfe's account of the latest mission.. Mt Kenya. Photos will be posted soon.

Kenyan Trilogy is complete...

Considered to be the gem of African climbing Mt. Kenya is without a doubt a most worthwhile objective in itself.... However on our way out to the mountain as we began flipping through the guidebook we found that there was much more alpine fun to be had. The plans grew proportionally more ambitious as the courtesy drinks bar of BA airline drained lower and lower..

Finally we settled on attempting the non technical Lenana peak (4985m) as a good way to acclimatise, then to attempt the 8 pitch grade D “Italian climb” on Pt John (4880m) and finally to have a bash at the 18 pitch grade D “Shipton route” of Mount Kenya (5200m).

For our trek in we chose the spectacular Chogoria approach descending via the speedy Naru Moru route.

This being an alpine climbing trip our support was minimal. The only concession to Alpine purity was Morris our porter who brought up a food bag full of unbelievably delicious food (thanks Si!) and Ken bringing up a few ropes to high camp.

All the rest of the gear, tents and equipment was up to us..The only niggling doubt as to whether we were going to carry out this plan was that the beginning of the wet season was catching us up and that conditions would be to severe to climb in. In fact every day on the approach we were slammed by fierce electrical storms and a lot of snow. But there seemed to be a distinct pattern in the weather in that it started to turn bad after 2 o’clock so we adjusted our plans to really early starts and getting to the summits before it was “show time”!

The Climbing was great especially on Pt John where the rock was dry and we managed to chew up the pitches in a good time. Mt Kenya itself (to Nelion Peak) was a different story as for half the route there was lots of snow and the crux pitches were totally iced up. Never fun when you are only wearing rock shoes! Still we summited in good time and managed to beat the worst of the snow storm down. I can’t rave enough about what a superb climbing these range of peaks provide.

A fantastic expedition made all the more special by having a superb climbing partner along!

Fantastic effort Simon and with all these great successes behind us the future looks positively scary!

looking forward to Aconcagua and the karakoram next year. BRING IT ON...

Rolfe Oostra

summit success

Due to battery problems the news was slow to come. However i had a good chat to Raj yesterday who was in good spirits if not a little shattered. Its Been a long haul but moral is high and they are all buzzing from this success. The expedition has been a wild one and certainly one to be remembered making reaching the summit even more rewarding.

here is an account of the summit day push..

Arriving at BC yesterday afternoon the team rested and rehydrated until 0100 when they got up and prepared for the summit push. They departed at 0220 and reached the summit in 6 hours. It was then 5 hours back to BC where they are currently resting. Tomorrow they set off back down the route they came in and hope to reach their start point in 4 days (it took 6 on the way up) in order to make their flight connection.

well done again to Raj and the whole team.. now we cant wait to see all the photos to go with this expedition (which of course we will post here and our our site,) and to have the team home.

Its not over yet, there are still many tribal patches that need crossing.. so good luck for the final push out-of-there!

Into the jungle.

The only form of communication the team have at the moment is by text message from Raj's satellite phone, all is well and they are now en-route to Carstenz pyramid.

The following are the latest messages:

1158GMT:2030. Boys just feasted on rice, sardines and corned beef fresh from a tin. All felt the long day today, very hot earlier followed by continual downpour in afternoon making conditions underfoot tricky. Most of our legs have cramped up this evening. Simon has some grazes on his legs as battle scars. Treated to prevent infection in jungle environment. Planning long day tomorrow, maybe 12 hour continual through difficult jungle terrain to try make up another hot day.

0813GMT:- 1700. Hooray! reached first nights camp after 10 hour day. done 2 days in 1. first part of trail OK then entered jungle. more wild and unforgiving. Trail no more than 1 foot wide in some places with long drop offs into steep valleys. No mistakes could be made. the jungle allowed Simon to reminisce about his jungle training all those many years ago!

0108GMT:- 1000 on 21/03/09. finally set off this morning at 0630 after tribal negotiations. way blockaded before next village suangamma by more tribesmen. negotiations begun. P.S. please tell all we are fine and no need to worry.

0308GMT:- 1130 arrived safely in suangamma after getting past blockade. 2 days behind itinerary. stuck at this village for further negotiations. village should have been first night camp but tram keen to push on if negotiations go well to make up lost time. some long marches ahead.

0442GMT:- 1330. finally left village after 2 hours negotiations. we got 200 metres before path blacked by man with bow and arrow. we have 4 man police escort armed with assault rifles but they seem to have no influence over tribesmen.

Tribal trouble in West Papua ...........

The team are currently in Sugapa, West Papua.

Raj had a few minutes to call home as they were barricaded in a school waiting for tribal disputes to be resolved...

It has been a long journey so far including 6 flights over 6 days. The areas they have been travelling through are stunningly beautiful although is almost constantly raining. On arrival in Sugapa they were treated to a 3 hour church service in the local language and have been there for a few days waiting to set off and sleeping in a church (for their own safety!).Shortly before calling (at 1600 local, 0700 GMT) they set off walking but only made it 20 yards before the route was blocked by angry knife-wielding tribesmen.

Choosing discretion over valour they withdrew to the village school where they are currently holed up awaiting the outcome of a tribal dispute over who gets to provide porters for the expedition.

The team hope the tribal trouble will be resolved shortly and they will be on their way soon. The problem is that they are running short on time so may have to march through the night and do some very long days if they are delayed any longer.

They are however in good spirits and fairly optimistic as they now have the local Chief of Police on the payroll.

watch this space!!

(we would like to thank Dominic Porter for helping us keep up to speed on whats going on over there)