News - www.fgrama.com

10/7/07

It is time for more climbing trips! I will be in Europe in November, for good and long routes for sport climbing and trad. I also want to check the new bouldering areas open in Romania. The month of January is also in schedule for a training trip over in South America. I am planning a couple of runs up and down Aconcagua and maybe another peaks in the area. Hopefully it is going to be good training for the next trip in April - June over in the Himalayas. Thank you to my sponsors: Blue Water Ropes, LaSportiva, Omega Pacific, Marmot and Teko.

04/26/07

Due to an unfortunate situation I am back in Atlanta. I am still waiting to find out what caused me to get sick up in the mountains (not related to high altitude), but I decided to come back after 5 days of not being able to eat or drink anything and getting dizzy from dehydration. I have seen four doctors by now, including one from Atlanta, but I still don’t have an answer if I got something from the water or food. All I know for sure is that I am registered for the expedition to Lhotse next season, including an expedition for training in Patagonia. Until then, I hope to reach the other goals I have in sport climbing and bouldering.

04/06/07

Namche Bazaar

Today, we arrived in Namche Bazaar, a village in the Khumbu region that is the gateway to the high Himalaya. This is the first place to acclimatize as it sits at 3440 metres (11,286 ft.). It is the major regional trading center and contains the headquarters of the Sagarmatha National Park. From here we will trek for several more days before reaching the base camp of Lhotse.

04/05/07

Arrival in Lukla

I arrived in Lukla this morning (ubelievable ride in a prop plane on a tiny landing strip), and I will trek with a sherpa for the next week to get to the base camp of Lhotse.

04/04/07

Arrival in Kathmandu

I arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal this morning (via Delhi, India). We fly to Lukla tomorrow (April 5th), and from there, we will make an eight day trek to base camp (same BC as Everest).

03/12/07

Mt. Lhotse (8516m / 27940feet ) expedition start April 1 through June 6 2007.

The expedition is organized by Summit Climb (Dan Mazur who has led Lhotse previously as a climber-leader-organizer of Everest, K2, and 12 "eight-thousand-metre-peaks"). A special thanks to Julia (my wife), Norman Pitt and all my sponsors for their support.

SPONSORS: La Sportiva, Blue Water Ropes, Omega Pacific, Marmot, Teko and REI

11/12/06

Spring 2007, Mt. Lhotse 8516m. A very challenging expedition to the fourth highest peak in the world. Click HERE for a detailed program.

01/16/06

Ama Dablam expedition (slide show) schedule:

Feb. 2   Buford REI       6PM-8:30PM
Feb. 9   Perimeter REI   6PM-8:30PM
Mar. 2 Atlanta REI       6PM-8:30PM

Sponsors: LaSportiva, Omega Pacific, Blue Water Ropes, Black Diamod

01/09/06

Ama Dablam expedition (slide show) Fundraiser Party to Benefit the Southeastern Climbers Coalition. The event start at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, January 13 2006 at Concourse Athletic Club, Atlanta. Sponsors: LaSportiva, Omega Pacific, Blue Water Ropes, Black Diamod.

11/14/05

Coco and I made it home safe and are enjoying the company of our families and friends (many who were waiting for us at the airport). It was a great experience for me in the Himalayas, and I was very lucky to be there for the first time and have the chance to succeed in my first trip. Himalaya is a new beginning in mountaneering for me, and so far, it is a good start. I want to thank those again who believed in me and supported this trip (my family, friends, and sponsors: La Sportiva, Omega Pacific, Blue Water Ropes, and Black Diamond). A special thanks to Summit Climb (Dan Mazur) for helping us with the permits for the expedition, as well as all the solid advice.

11/10/05

Pictures from Ama Dablam expedition coming soon

10/26/05

We are in Lukla, Nepal right now and the weather is not good enough for flying out. So, we will stay another day and will hopefully make it out of here to Katmandu sometime tomorrow.

10/21/05

On Oct. 20th, we started at 3:00am from camp 2 (~6000m) trying to go for the summit, but had some issues with acclimation, and by the time we got to camp 3 (6350m) 8:00 am, we decided to stay there for a night. The problem was that when we started for the summit we did not take with us any sleeping pads, sleeping bags, food or extra water. So we were forced to stay without all this. We found a tent that was empty and tried to stay warm all day and all night until 8 am on Oct. 21st, when we started for the summit. Coco reached the summit 30 minutes before me and started descending when I was 50m below summit. So that means he got there by 12 pm and I summited at 12:30pm . I took a picture of myself and around for proof, and I started descending too. After an hour I was in camp 3, but we stay for another 2 -3 hours for rest. By the time we decided to go down there were some people climbing up the rope and it was difficult to go around them . Then Coco started descending and I decided that was better to stay one more night at camp 3 than to try to descend during the night.

10/17/05

We were on the mountain for several days working our way up to establish Camp 3 (just 1000 m below the summit). We came all the way back down and decided to rest for a few days. We are heading back up starting tomorrow (10/18) and will attempt the summit by the end of this week (maybe Thursday or Friday).

10/8/05

Arrived at base camp on October 6th. We climbed up to Camp 1 at 5400 m on Friday and then came all the way back down to a village close to base camp to rest for the day on Saturday (and contact those at home!). We will return to Base Camp on Sunday, climb to Camp 1, and then on to Camp 2 (6230 m). This will occur over the next several days, and then we will rest again.

We just got in Namche Bazar at 3500m. This is a nice village and is called the "capital of the sherpas".
We are going to have a rest day tomorow and after that we continue the trek.
So far everything is up to schedule for now.

We arrived in Kathmandu late in the afternoon on September 29th, and checked in with the company for registration permits for the expedition. Everything is good to go except for a short list of equipment and food that we need to complete. On October 3rd, we leave at 3:00a.m. to fly to Lukla (2900m), and from there we will be taking a long walk (one week) to base camp (4650m)

I will be leaving on September 27th for Kathmandu where I will meet Cornel Galescu, my climbing partner, for Ama Dablam 6812m (22,349feet)

What can be better after an expedition than a vacantion in Red Rocks (Nevada). I planed to have this weekend trip just for recovering, but it was too hard to resist. It was a must to climb a few routes. It is such a great climbing area and it feels the same every time I go back there.

Expedition Matterhorn 4478m (14,693feet)
One of the best climbs in Europe with very exposed ridges and great medium grade difficulty. We climbed Breithorn 4164m (13661feet) for acclimatization the day before the main climb on Matterhorn. We were lucky to be the first to climb after the bad weather had recently passed, so there weren't too many climbers on the route. We reached the top on August 31, 2005 (10:30-12:00). It was a perfect training climb for the upcoming expedition.
Expedition members: Florin Grama, Cornel Galescu and Dan Brateanu.