Hi all, David Duncan here on wednesday the 6th. Today at about 7.20am, under mostly clear skies, we reached the summit of Island Peak or Imja Tse at 6180m.

For many of us this was the culmination of years worth of thoughts and dreams, months of training, and many hard days of trekking and acclimatisation in Nepal and the Himalayas.

The day started off officially at 1.30am with the usual hot tea in our tent. However, I suspect that like me, for most people the day had started earlier during the night contemplating what lay ahead.

We had a set schedule to follow up to our departure time of 2.30am so no-one would be waiting outside in the cold (aroud -8 degrees). Everyone worked well and we were out on time and ready to go.

The group consisted of Paul, David A, Rosalba, John, Ray, Rohan, and myself. Plus of course our trusty Sherpa's and guide Dewa, Kami, Kaldon, and Ang Nima. These guys had already been to the summit yesterday laying rope and checking conditions - just amazing. We were in good hands.

Rugged up in our down jackets and enough thermal layers to make even NZ sheep jealous we set off from advanced base camp in the dark towards island peak.

Of course before too long, layers were being stripped or adjusted as everyone heated up.

The path from ABC was steep and made up of loose rock and shale. Over the next hour the temperature slowly dropped as we pushed higher. Even Rosalba (who is famous for always being too warm) had her down jacket on.

With every step the air got increasingly thinner, but our well staged days of acclimatisation seemed to be working, with everyone in the group moving up the rocky terain well.

In the dark the trail seemed steep with sheer drops off to the side at times. I just concentrated on each step making sure not to slip.

At what must have been around close to 2 hours into the climb we came over a ridge and onto ice! This was the start of the ice fall coming down from the summit and meant it was time to put our crampons on. With plenty of previous practice this was accomplished quickly under the light of our head torches, followed by the group being roped together as we were entering crevase territory.

At this point before dawn it was bitterly cold (maybe about -15 degrees C) and shedded layers were put back on with hoods cinched in tight. The air at this height freezes your runny nose and is sharp on the lungs when breathing.

Our entry into the ice left no room for the faint hearted, with an immediate climb up and over what could best be described as a 30 to 50m ice arch with drops to the left and right into crevases. I was reassured by the existing footsteps that showed this path had been taken beforehand.


The route had changed from the last time Paul and David A had been up Island Peak. Even though this is expected season to season, it meant that the route up through the ice to the bottom of the main rope climb had more exposed crevases and meandered much more than previously making the climb longer and harder than anticipated. In some way I was glad the limited light our head torches cast didn't reveal what we were walking through and allowed me to focus on the footsteps ahead.

Finally as dawn was breaking we got our first view of the ice wall we had to accend to make the summit ridge. Now a lot of descriptions and estimates had been provided by Dave A, Paul and others about the length and steepness of this wall. All I can say is clearly time must erode the accuracy of ones memories as what I saw was bigger and steeper than accurately described.

I like to think I have pretty good endurance but at the end of already several hours of climbing up in altitude to just below 6000m the wall looked BIG!

But we had come this far and we were not going to be stopped by two hundred plus meters of 70 degree ice. The ropes were in place so up we started. There was a little movement on the ropes and much to Ray's delight he found himself swinging sideways over a crevase to the right of the roped path. To his credit, either through his calm approach or possibly because he couldn't do anything else he just waited till the Sherpas swung him back to the left. This crevase is now known as 'Ray's Crevase'.

The climb up the wall was done on already low fuel tanks, but finally there we were on the summit ridge, tired, sucking in thin air, and looking up at still another several hudred meters of steep ascent along a razors ridge to the true summit! In Homer Simpsons words - DOH!

It was time to regroup, drop the backpacks on a flat section and go for it. A special mention to Rosalba at this point. The only female of the group, in her early 50's, she really showed us mental toughness and grit to get up here. With Rosalba in front with two Sherpas, we set forward along fixed lines, and after a lot of puffing and exertion we reached the summit, totally exhausted but elated at being in a place that not too many people get too see firsthand. We were clipped into a safety line and just marveled at the 360 degree panoramic view that surrounded us.
Emotions were high as we related a sat phone audio update to myeverest, and took many photos of the group on the summit.

Personally I felt totally elated and felt a deep longing to share this experience with my wife Emma and the kids.

Well I have to get this update finished now. I will finish by saying that coming down was a lot easier than going up, although we were all very cautious not to slip up in our tired states. We got back down to base camp at 12.20pm.


Special thanks to our trip leaders Paul Adler and David Armstrong for the planning and expertise in making this a safe journey for us all. And all our gratitude and thanks to our Nepalise Sherpas, guide and porters for their over the top giving nature to almost complete strangers.


As most of you will know this trip has been organized to raise money for Anandaban Leprosy Hospital in Nepal. If you have enjoyed reading our updates and would like to contribute to our efforts in helping raise money for the very important work the hospital carries out in Nepal, then you can go to the website for The Leprosy Mission Australia and follow the links to 'beyond base camp trek' donation page to contribute.