Kimshung Expedition 2016: François Cazzanelli, Giampaolo Corona & Emrik Favre establish Base Camp

Having set off on Friday September 30, 2016 from Italy, the mountain guides Emrik Favre and Giampaolo Corona, as well as Italian Military Mountain Squad member François Cazzanelli arrived in Kathmandu (Nepal) on Saturday 1 October 2016. They quickly completed the final preparations and then travelled via public transport to the Langtang valley. They continued on foot and reached the base of Lirung and Kimshung on Thursday, October 6, 2016.

The trio established base camp one day ahead of schedule on the grassy section at the edge of the large moraine in the upper part of the valley, where the alpinists have easy access to water and from where they can easily head upwards to explore the area.

The alpinists are highly motivated and currently on good form. The same does not hold true for the weather though, which at present is poor with visibility reduced significantly. The team will rest for a couple of days therefore before beginning the acclimatization stage and evaluating conditions on the surrounding mountains.

The Italian expedition is currently the first and only expedition in the area and saw first-hand how tirelessly the local population has worked to reconstruct the villages after the massive earthquake from a year ago.

Further information is expected as of Monday 10 October when the climbers will begin their acclimatization.