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)

Carstenz Pyramid, Papua New Guinea. one of the 7 Summits.

A small team from the Territorial Army and Royal Marine Reserve are working towards their goal of climbing the seven highest summits on each continent. Raj is the leader for many of these climbs.

So far the team have climbed 5 of these summits:

Everest (8,848m Asia)
Aconcagua (6962m,South America)
Denali (6,194m, North America)
Kilimanjaro (5,895m, Africa)
Elbrus (5,641m, Europe)

The remaining summits in the challenge include:

Carstenz Pyramid(4,844m Australasia)
Vinson (Antarctica 4,897m

In addition to these, 5 members of the team recently summited Cho Oyo (6th highest in the world at at 8201m).

This was by way of a training expedition to prepare for Everest and was the smallest British military expedition ever to attempt an 8000m peak. It also had the most successful summiters on an 8000m peak of any British military expedition bringing the total to 17 people ever.

The next phase of the project is to climb the remaining 2 peaks; Carstenz Pyramid (Australasia) and Vinson (Antarctica).

Here are a few words of support.....


"The seven summits are a diverse group of peaks including the coldest and highest mountain in the world. I wish the very best of luck to the Project 7 Summits team."

Chris Bonnington

"Project 7 Summits admirably demonstrates the qualities of the Reservist: love of challenge, adaptability and determination in large measure. I urge you to support this gallant effort."

The Duke of Westminster.

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Raj has now headed of to Papua Guinea, to tackle Carstenz Pyramid. One of the seven summits..

here is a note from Raj ..

So far what a journey.

Flew to Bali via Kuala Lumpur and today flew to Sulawesi, which is one of the Sunda Islands in Indonesia. Have another 3 dodgy flights to go even before we make it to the start of the route!

We probably won't make it to the start of the route for another couple of days. In a few hours we fly to Biak, which is on an island just off West Papua before flying onto the mainland on another flight shortly afterwards.

The whole team is in good spirits, if not jaded from all the travelling. I'm still jaded from the Comic Relief party! Hopefully things will settle down once we are on the route proper. The route is sounding pretty wild and remote. Better go and wake the others up as getting ready to leave for the flight soon.

Cheers guys for now.

Raj.

Big Thank-Yous from the celebrity team...

Here are a few wonderful comments from the team that were presented to Raj in a card:

"Well, what a journey! I know I said it was hell but thank you so much for the experience I couldn't have done it without you! Thanks so much" Kimberley Walsh

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"I'm a fat, overweight DJ that could never climb that mountain, but because of you, I did. Thank you" Chris Moyles

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"You're not human! I think you're superman! Thank you for helping me through my mountain madness!" Alesha Dixon

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"You have been awesome - 9 celebs, 1 mountain. Can't believe you were mad enough to do it" Ben Shephard

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"Thank you for your patience and help. We couldn't of done it without your support. Thank you"
Cheryl Cole

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"Thank you so much for getting us all up" Ronan Keating

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"Thank you so much for a fabulous week. I'm so happy the whole team made it to the top. It's all thanks to you!" Denise Van Outen

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"Thank you a million times over. You seriously got me through one of the most miserable nights ever and got me to the top! I still can't believe what we have all achieved!" Fearne Cotton

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"What a star!! Thanks for everything. What a result." Gary Barlow

Here are a few photographs capturing some of the fun on the expedition...


Raj helps team member Cheryl Cole................... Gary, Ben and Fearne






Raj with Kimberley........................... Raj and Kimberley on the Roof of Africa!

Raj and Alesha Dixon with Kili behind them .... Raj and Alesha on the summit!

the team..... ...................................................Raj and Cheryl

Again all of us at 360 would like to congratulate the amazing success of this expedition.. it was down to the top organization from charity challenge and down to having the best leader around. Raj.. well done to you all.

celebratory videos

The views of the summit...



Chris Moyles celebrating




After they reached the summit, Raj the expedition leader, praises Kimberley for her courage and determination.

"Kimberley was an absolute star. She struggled hard, she battled hard, but she had so much heart. She refused to give up."

With Raj's support Kimberley has now helped raise thousands of pounds for Comic Relief..



The party mood on top of the summit..




well done again to all that took part, with a huge thank you to Charity challenge for organising this and helping everyone raise all the money that they have.

congratulations to the whole Kilimanjaro team.

A massive congratulations to goes to Raj and the whole team for Comic relief...All have now summited. What a result!

I have no doubt that this success was down to Raj. His professionalism, his way with encouragement and understanding of such expeditions. The organisation was top notch and a huge congratulations goes to Jeremy and Simon at Charity Challenge for this exceptional work.

We are all very proud of his hard work.. well done....Some clearly had to dig very deep, but they all got there.. this is totally awesome.
xxx

You tube has so many videos i will try and list as many as possible..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N89e0S

BBC News Video.

Here is a great video that can be seen on the BBC web site, under red nose day.

You will be able to see the team and Raj in situ talking about what is in stall and how they are feeling about the climb. All good stuff.

The team have now reached camp one and are all in good spirits..

for more vidoes click on this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/climb/

The BBC on Kilimanjaro.

The BBC on the recce with Raj and Rolfe for the comic relief gig.

They found it slightly more challenging than anticipated...

All smiles from the boys....

camping kili style

Due to red tape at the moment we are unable to show you more photos of the guys involved.. but will keep posting more of what we can!!

The celebrity circus is in full swing

The long hours sitting in the office now are being sporadically cheered up with calls from Raj on his sat phone from Africa..

Seems as if he is having a very interesting time over in Kili region.. the paparazzi are out in force as are all the followers of the celebs!! madness!!! the mountain has turned into a circus and much of the BBC film equipment is stuck in customs.. so I think back-handers are now in full swing to try and get it out.. it all sounds like a totally mad classic African adventure.. !!

Raj has spent the last 4 days on a recce with the BBC on the mountain, where he caught up with Rolfe. (photos will be wiring there way courtesy of the BBC to us hopefully in the next few days) along with a first hand account of the goings on.. which did keep me very amused.. Raj had a dream he was leading this expedition only to actually wake and see the reality unfold around him!!! (not sure i feel that sorry for him though!!) It seems that its not easy controlling these kind of events in the back country of Africa. Raj described the atmosphere as "totally crazy" with people trying to get on the mountain for a glimpse of the action!! The worry is that this is a tough climb were high altitude sickness and fatalities is not uncommon..

It also has become very apparent to the BBC that filming in these conditions is far harder than they anticipated and the whole plan is being re thought out.. this has taken much time and effort in the past 4 days which should be all finally coming together ..

Raj is now off to the airport to do the first pick up, Ben Sheppard and Alisha Dixon ...so its all go now....

We are looking forward to seeing how this all pans out!! I will of course keep you posted.

360 Supporting red nose day

Kilimanjaro is the theme for this month...!!

Both Raj and Rolfe are now based in Africa..catching up with old freinds and meeting new faces..

Raj has already completed two kili expeditions this season...The first seeing him get 32 out of 33 on top and the second the full 31 on top… pretty impressive with such numbers, so a huge congratulations to him. here is one of many compliments that are coming into t office for Raj...

"your support and encouragement to get me to the top was outstanding. Still can't believe I did it. It feels like I dreamt it all. Thank you.”

Between expeditions the boys hooked up in the very early hours and headed off to the town for some crazy Africa action.....it seems sleep was not on the agenda that night as Raj was out celebrating his two very successful trips.. awesome!!...from all accounts though it seems Rolfe suffered the next day.. !!

Rolfe is not so good at coms when away..!! But again talked to Raj today who said Rolfe was in good spirits as he had met him up on the mountain earlier . Hes heading for the summit in 2 days time.. so good luck to him for that.

Comic Relief.

So its Comic Relief time again in the UK.. a fantastic cause that we are totally happy to be supporting..

Raj will be leading the celebrity red nose day Kilimanjaro climb for Charity Challenge, who have put in many months of work organising this amazing expedition.

The whole build up in the UK is massive … its all taking place for a very worth while cause..

Raj is rising to the challenge of leading this group, (not to mention the entourage!!) which is growing by the day!!

The crew consists of some big names:

Chris Moyles(Radio 1 DJ)
Cheryl Cole (Girls Aloud)
Gary Barlow (Take That)

Fearne Cotton (seen on X Factor and Britain's Got Talent)

Ronan Keating (Boyzone)
Alesha Dixon (Singer and dancer and Strictly Come Dancing champion in 2007)

Kimberley Walsh (Girls Aloud)
Ben Shephard (TV Presenter)
Denise Van Outen (celebrated musical theatre performer)

By helping the BT Red Nose Climb team reach their goal of raising a million pounds you'll be helping people in real need across Africa and the UK.

We will give you a new up date on this soon along with photos and behind the scene stories, all of which i am sure will keep us amused!!

You will be able to follow the whole expedition on line or watch it on the BBC. It is scheduled for Thursday 12th March 8.00pm BBC.

I will leave you with my favorite photos taken from the kilimanjaro expedition...