Everest: South African 2006 Expedition (South Col) |
On this
page: The Team | The
Sponsors | Satellite
Telephone Details |
Our Successful
Summiteers |
Sean and Vaughan 5 metres from the summit preparing to
top out together
(Click picture to view enlarged version) |
Chumbe Sherpa, Sean Disney and Vaughan De La Harpe at the
summit of Mount Everest (8848 m), 24 May 2006
(Click picture to view enlarged version) |
To
many, climbing Everest is a dream that never becomes reality. The
planning, organisation, time and motivation needed is awesome. Few
have the physical and financial ability to even consider the
dream. Even when the expedition goes onto auto-pilot, you still
wake up at 3 am wondering "What on earth am I
doing?!" After a full year of planning and organising,
and seven years of training, the time has come. We are a small
team of three: Sean Disney, Vaughan de la Harpe and René Hochreiter. |
Lhotse Face, South Col Ascent
(Click picture to view enlarged version) |
Sir Edmund Hillary and Norgay Tenzing in the Khumbu
Icefall
(Click picture to view enlarged version) |
The Team |
Sean Disney
(34) |
Vaughan De La Harpe
(49) |
René
Hochreiter
(48) |
Team Leader, CEO of Adventure
Dynamics International, a professional mountain guiding company; 25 successful ascents
of the world's seven summits; achieved a height of 8400 m (the Balcony)
on Everest in 2003. |
Businessman; has climbed Mont
Blanc, Mt Mera and six
of the world’s seven summits: Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, McKinley, Vinson, Kosciusko and Elbrus; highest altitude reached: 7000m. |
Investment Banker; has climbed in the Alps, Himalayas
and in Africa; has been training for 7 years for Everest; highest altitude reached:
6000m; dream is to climb the five most beautiful mountains in the world:
Kilimanjaro (achieved, 2000), The Matterhorn, Mont Blanc (achieved,
2002), Ama Dablam and Everest. |
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The Sponsors |
Very many thanks to the sponsors: Anglo
Platinum, Implats, Salene Mining, Eland Platinum, Nedcor Securities,
Aquarius Platinum, Mvela Resources and Nedbank Capital for financial assistance and their
belief in our ability to succeed. |
Satellite Telephone Details |
SMS your
messages to Vaughan on +88216 43332074
An SMS will cost approximately R2.20.
A 160-character SMS may be sent directly from
https://sms.thuraya.com/
Calls are charged at the standard satellite rate of R11 per minute.
Please note that Nepal is 3 hours 45 minutes ahead of South African Standard Time. |
Our expedition guiding company
www.adventuredynamics.co.za
|
Daily Report |
After
trekking for nine days, the team reached Base Camp (5360 m) on 9th April. On 17th
April, they successfully climbed to Camp 1(6065 m), returning to Base Camp on the
same day. Camp II (6500 m) was reached on 26th April and the team
returned to Base Camp two days later. Sean and Vaughan
successfully reached a height of 7450 (Camp III) on 7th May. René was
unable to complete this acclimatisation rotation due to health problems,
and flew back to Johannesburg on 14th May. Sean and Vaughan reached
South Col (Camp IV - 7950 m) on 22nd May. Their summit push began on
Tuesday evening, 23rd May, and they reached the top (8848 m) at 5.30 am on Wednesday, 24th May.
Sean and Vaughan
returned to South Africa on Friday afternoon, 2nd June, their dream of
reaching the summit of Mount Everest having been fulfilled. They have
also both become members of the elite "Seven Summits Club", having
climbed to the top of the highest peaks on all seven continents. We
extend our congratulations to the team. To you, the reader, many thanks for
all your interest in, and support for this
expedition.
Click on the Daily Report
link above for an updated account of each day's events. |
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