Climbing New Heights with Nyetimber  

Nyetimber are proud to sponsor Rupert Jones-Warner, on his ‘Summit to City’ expedition that sees him climbing the third highest mountain in the world, Kangchenjunga, and then descend and run over 330 miles through the high Himalayas and back to Kathmandu as part of the second and final part of his challenge.

Rupert began his journey last month and we have been closely following his progress each step of the way. Before he departed on this epic adventure, we were lucky enough to sit down with Rupert at the Nyetimber Estate to find out a little more about the man behind the mountain. Hear more about what inspired him to take up this incredible new challenge and how he also became the youngest Briton to summit Annapurna.

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The past couple of weeks have seen Rupert and the team successfully arrive at Kangchenjunga base camp and begin a series of acclimatisation hikes, heading higher and higher up the mountain to gradually adapt to the altitude before pushing for the summit.

After making an offering to the mountain for safe passage, the trips to camps two and three passed safely. Rupert reported, however, that the journey to camp three proved significantly more challenging for the lungs than he anticipated, therefore, ensuring effective altitude adaptation throughout has been key. Sleeping in two-man tents, the team have carried out progressively longer stays with the final rotation consisting of a five-day stay on the mountain before turning to focus on the summit.

“The team pushed up from Basecamp directly to Camp 2 at 6200m (moving directly past Camp 1). We then spent one night at camp 2 before heading up to Camp 3 which is 6900m. The route from C2 to C3 is far from easy due to its steep icy slopes, seracs, glaciers and high altitude.

From Camp 3 we pushed up to Camp 4. This was quite an easy climb and only took several hours but due to the extreme altitude made it hard going. Camp 4 is the last stop before heading on to the summit so after arriving at about midday we rested, ate and stocked up as much as we could on food before aiming to set off on our final summit push where we planned to leave at 20:00 and climb through the night and arrive at about 0800 on the 12th.

The team of six Brits set off with six Sherpas at 8:00pm on the 11th knowing it was going to be a tough night. Kanchenjunga is known for being one of the more challenging 8000mer peaks due to its massive gain in altitude and technical terrain once you hit around 8300m.”

Rupert and his team successfully summited at the end of last week, making it safely past the ‘Death Zone’ known for up to 1200m inclines and -25c expected temperatures.

Now safely back at base camp the team are beginning to turn their sights towards the next stage, the 330-mile journey through the Himalayas and back to Kathmandu. Nyetimber will continue to follow the journey and look forward to toasting a glass in commemoration of this magnificent achievement.

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Robert Jones-Warner

Find out more about Rupert and the Summit to City. https://www.rupertjoneswarner.com/