Everest North

The FA Team continues to prove year after year they are a top expedition organizer & leader. 2019 was no different. Are you going into the Baltoro, up a Tibetan 8,000m route, or to a similar big mountain objective? If so, Furtenbach Adventures is a sound choice. The principles & standards FA deliver on make a significant experiential difference when you're on the mountain. My most recent FA climbing team enjoyed thorough pre-trip organizing/prep, amazing food quality through to the last moment of the trip, impressive camp infrastructure, and world-class guides. On top of that, their climber selection process yielded an incredibly strong team to which I was fortunate to join. Taken as a whole, the FA Team was one of the strongest on the mountain during the 2019 Everest season. I would not hesitate to choose Furtenbach Adventures for any high-consequence expedition in the future. Lukas is of course fantastic. The FA team members he surrounds himself with are also fantastic (e.g. Patricia, Luis, Rupert, FA's Makalu Posse, & more).

Dear Lukas, I would like to send you a very big THANK YOU for making my dream possible. I participated various expeditions during the last years, but I have never seen a better set-up than yours during the 2018 Everest North SIDE Expedition. What you offered was just perfect, professional and safe. I have spent more than seven weeks with your company and team. To be honest there is no single point I could complain about. The entire set-up like equipment, staff, Sherpas, guide, food, hygiene, weather forecast was the best I have seen in any expedition. Staff and Sherpas are always doing the hardest job at the mountain, but what your guys where pulling off was just amazing. The mountain and the surprises mother nature has are hard enough for the rest Furtenbach is a guarantee that things that could be under control, are under control. I always recommend your company to my friends and there would be only one operator for my next expedition, it would be Furtenbach. Thanks a lot! Viele Grüße! Dennis

The expedition was so well organized, staffed, and executed that I won't climb an 8000m peak with any other guide service. It's tough for me to think about what the Furtenbach team could do better because the expedition was so well done. Most importantly, the guide and Sherpa teams were very, very experienced. I'd argue that they were the most experienced group on the mountain. I noticed right away that they tended to be a bit older, more mature, and had more summits than other teams. The lead Sherpa, Mingma, had summited 22 times and was tied for 2nd most summits ever. Our lead guide, Rupert, had not only climbed Everest solo without oxygen and without Sherpa support but also he performed a harrowing rescue of a snowblind climber 300 feet below the summit. My personal Sherpa partner Renji had 8 summits, and all the Sherpa that partnered with the members had summited before, often from both North and South sides. These are people you want to have around if something unexpected were to happen. Second, the Furtenbach team screens the other members very well. This allowed the team to move and function safely. Naturally, if there is one person on a team struggling or in trouble, then all resources should and do rush to that person to help them. Furtenbach prevents this as best they can by making sure all the members are truly qualified and prepared for the climb – with enough experience and prior summits to safely and successfully climb Everest. It’s important to them not only that they summit each year, but also that every member does so – therefore, they screen members well, and as a result, every member benefits. This is unique and rare and yet of the utmost importance. Finally, the accommodations, camps, and food were amazing. My team joked that we all came back from our Everest climb fatter because Thiren and the kitchen staff made such good food. We ate dinner at a table with armchairs and dessert every night except the 3 to 4 nights above 20,000 feet. Additionally, no one on my team had any GI or stomach issues, which speaks to the high hygiene standards of the kitchen. It’s almost inevitable that each climber will experience GI/stomach issues during an expedition, so the fact that none of us did with Furtenbach speaks volumes of their standards, staff, and quality. I highly encourage my climber friends who want to climb Everest to do so with Furtenbach. A friend who had climbed Everest twice (second time without oxygen) recommended Furtenbach. It’s the best Everest advice I ever received, and I want my friends to be safe and successful. I’m happy to talk with any prospective Furtenbach climbers directly (courtney.a.reardon@gmail.com).

In spring 2018 I had the amazing experience of climbing Mount Everest together with Furtenbach Adventures. In short – it was marvelous. Previous to the trip I have done quite a lot of research on different providers and options. And as you are probably aware, there are many in the market. In retrospective, I must say that it was just fantastic. Lukas Furtenbach and his team are doing an outstanding job. - Pre-trip organization: It was just perfectly organized. There were continuous updates that gave full transparency and clarity on progress and planning. It was just so easy to follow, and not even one moment of doubt or ambiguity. - Pre-acclimatization: The pre-acclimatization at home was definitely worth it. Especially when climbing from the north side, where you arrive in the base camp quite quickly. Nobody of the team had any problems with the altitude. We arrived in basecamp and were extremely fit and felt great! When I looked at other camps the picture was quite worse at some points – lots of suffering and illness. - Base camp: The base camp is just fantastic. The tents are great, ranging from the supreme, heated living room tent, to the cozy dining tent, shower tent, our private sleeping tents – all perfect. The food and kitchen were astonishing. The kitchen team provided excellent food (up to 7000m actually), snacks and drinks were available all the time and everywhere. Like living in a giant supermarket with a personal chef. - Climbing: We were doing 3 rounds in total which shown to be super effective. First round was to ABC (for two days), second to 7300m and third to summit and back. The approach ensured that nobody of the team felt sick at all. While the moving days were given, I was quite happy that everybody was able to walk on his on (slower or faster than the others). There was always a possibility to get accompanied by a Sherpa (or Rupert) which gave us all the feeling of safety and freedom at all times. Overall, it was astonishing. The team is absolute great, super nice, funny and helpful at all times. Rupert (our guide) did an outstanding job – an absolute dream team with the Sherpas. Feel free to contact me in case of questions. Best Michael Lutz (lutz.michael@bcg.com)