{"id":29252,"date":"2018-03-21T05:51:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T11:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=29252"},"modified":"2018-03-21T07:23:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T13:23:08","slug":"everest-2018-interview-with-imgs-greg-vernovage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/21\/everest-2018-interview-with-imgs-greg-vernovage\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2018: Interview with IMG’s Greg Vernovage"},"content":{"rendered":"

This interview is one of an ongoing series I do each season with Everest climbers and guides. I welcome suggestions for anyone\u00a0climbing\u00a0in 2018 that I should interview. My last interview was with climber Patrick McKnight.<\/a>\u00a0This is with Greg\u00a0Vernovage,\u00a0International Mountain Guide<\/a>‘s (IMG)\u00a0Associate Program Director & Everest Expedition Leader.<\/p>\n

If you have been to Everest on the Nepal side since 2010, you most certainly felt Greg’s presence. He along with IMG’s\u00a0Ang Jangbu Sherpa not only operate IMG’s Everest expeditions with precision, they also help coordinate all the activity on the mountain from rope fixing to rescues. They have helped 141 members summit Everest since 2010 and almost 500 members, Sherpas and guides from 1991.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a>
Greg Vernovage with Alan Arnette- Everest 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greg began\u00a0guiding in the Eastern Sierra 14 years ago. \u00a0Most of his early guiding was on Mount Whitney and on the Palisades Glacier, just up the road from Big Pine. \u00a0He joined IMG in 2006 when he\u00a0met and worked with George Dunn on Mount Whitney. When IMG was awarded a concession on Mount Rainier, he moved to the Seattle area permanently.<\/p>\n

His\u00a0first trip to the Himalaya was in 2007 with a small team for a first ascent in Tibet of a 6000-meter peak. Since then has summits of Everest Lhotse and Cho Oyu on his CV in addition to Denali, Vinson, Aconcagua, Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico and more.\u00a0Little known is that Greg played and coached collegiate volleyball and was a coach for two US Olympic volleyball teams, winning a Gold Medal in the 2000 Sydney Games.<\/p>\n

I first met Greg in 2011 and he was instrumental in helping me summit Everest that spring. He is a positive, pragmatic leader with a clear sense of purpose and makes safety the top priority. He has a degree from Pepperdine University in public relations and applied communications. Of no surprise, Greg met his future wife, JoLee McLean, in June 2013 while guiding a climb in Bolivia. They were married last August\u00a0on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. This guy gets around!<\/p>\n

Now for the interview<\/p>\n

Q: The 2018 season is around the corner. I know you have made your CostCo run for food, snacks and surprises for the team. How long does it take to buy, sort,\u00a0repackage and get all that food to Nepal?<\/strong>
\nWe have the food shopping and packing pretty dialed these days. \u00a0We crank the food shopping, sorting and repacking out in about 3 days. \u00a0It starts with putting\u00a0together the strong boxes we use to ship the gear to Nepal\/EBC. \u00a0From there, we head to a few stores including Costco and load up on food. \u00a0After all the shopping is\u00a0done, it is time to get rid of the unnecessary cardboard and packaging. \u00a0We pack the food into the strong boxes and weigh them so they make up a Yak load. \u00a0Door to\u00a0door, the food is in Jangbu\u2019s hands in less than a week.<\/p>\n

Q: Out of curiosity, how many boxes of Swedish Fish do you buy? \ud83d\ude42 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0<\/strong>
\nSwedish Fish-The ultimate high altitude energy candy. \u00a0Before your readers’ stomachs turn over with the thought of eating actual fish on the mountain, we should note\u00a0that Swedish Fish are similar to gummy bears or gummy snacks. \u00a0There is really no time in the mountains when Swedish Fish should not be eaten. \u00a0One of the best\u00a0times is when you have an oxygen mask on. \u00a0That oxygen has a tendency to dry out your throat. \u00a0If you throw a few Swedish Fish in your mouth, they can help keep\u00a0your throat wet. \u00a0To answer your question, I bring about 10lbs over for the Everest Expedition.<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/a>
Greg Vernovage – Everest 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q: I assume the IMG teams are full this year?<\/strong>
\nYes, we have about the same sized Team as past years. \u00a0It is a great Team again this year and they are ready to climb. \u00a0The IMG Team will start heading to\u00a0Kathmandu next week. I head over early next week as well.<\/p>\n

Q: IMG continues to offer, in my humble opinion, one of the best values for a safe attempt on Everest. Is there a secret you can share on how you balance cost with\u00a0safety?<\/strong>
\nThank you for saying that. We work extremely hard on keeping the cost of the expedition as reasonable as possible for our climbers, without cutting corners. \u00a0We have\u00a0been organizing Everest Expeditions for over 35 years, so we’ve built a strong infrastructure, and have an extensive network of friends and partners in Nepal. \u00a0Couple\u00a0these things with the fact that we have the best Sherpa Team on the mountain, and you’ll start seeing why we are as successful as we are on Mt. Everest. We are also\u00a0always looking for ways to make the program even better.<\/p>\n

Q: How do you address the growing public perception that the Nepal side is crowded and dangerous?<\/strong>
\nThere is no question that climbing Mount Everest is dangerous. \u00a0Unfortunately, Mount Everest becomes even more dangerous when there are climbers and operators\u00a0who put themselves and people in situations that they cannot get out of without a ton of help. \u00a0Climbers, and guide services need to better understand the level of risk\u00a0that they are comfortable with. \u00a0The good news is that most of the operators on Mount Everest are doing a better job communicating with each other about when they\u00a0are climbing. \u00a0It is important that we continue to communicate. \u00a0We are also working to continue flying the rope-fixing equipment to Camp 2. \u00a0Flying the rope-fixing\u00a0gear to Camp 2 lowers the amount of traffic in the Icefall. \u00a0That is huge! \u00a0It also helps if we can get the route fixed as early as possible so climbers who are ready, can\u00a0summit during an earlier weather window. \u00a0There is a lot of logistics that go into this planning and the weather has the ultimate say.<\/p>\n

Q: I know IMG once guided on the Tibet side, would IMG ever return to that side?<\/strong>
\nWe have been talking about running a small expedition to the North Side again and will absolutely consider going to the North when we find the right Team.<\/p>\n

Q: Any thoughts on the Hillary Step? Is it there and just under snow or really changed by the 2015 earthquake?<\/strong>
\nGreat question. I have seen so many photos of that area over the last number of years and have studied photos from before the earthquake and after the earthquake,\u00a0and I’m still not sure. \u00a0You know, they actually used to go up on the right hand side of the step on the snow but then switched over to the actual step. \u00a0A few years ago\u00a0we were at Base Camp all working together to find a solution to the bottleneck and someone offered up the idea of heading back out onto the snow for an alternate\u00a0route, but the rappel happened instead. \u00a0Now we have another puzzle to solve. I believe that if nothing else, the Hillary Step has shifted or is gone altogether. \u00a0Did the\u00a0shift create an area for more snow to accumulate? \u00a0Let\u2019s get back up there this year and take another look!<\/p>\n

Q: Greg, you have been in this business along time. Why do you think Everest has the attraction and mystic\u00a0(mystique)\u00a0it does?<\/strong>
\nOne of the obvious attractions to Mount Everest is its height. \u00a0The tallest mountain in the world will always attract climbers, as it should. \u00a0Beyond its elevation, Mount\u00a0Everest is a beautiful mountain surrounded by other beautiful mountains making for an incredible expedition for climbers looking for one of life’s ultimate challenges.<\/p>\n

The attraction for me is the opportunity to work with like-minded people with a common goal. \u00a0Mount Everest offers different challenges every year and I enjoy\u00a0navigating those challenges with my Team. \u00a0As the Expedition Leader, I find a lot of enjoyment in helping other people achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you have the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness, you take that opportunity.\u201d \u00a0Mount Everest is Great!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks Greg for your precious time as you were getting ready to leave for Kathmandu. Best of luck this season. You can follow Greg and the IMG team on the IMG Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This interview is one of an ongoing series I do each season with Everest climbers and guides. I welcome suggestions for anyone\u00a0climbing\u00a0in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Greg\u00a0Vernovage,\u00a0IMG's\u00a0Everest Expedition Leader has helped 141 members summit Everest in the last 7 years. He talks about #Everest2018 and what to expect in this interview.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[147,494,162],"tags":[448,503,510,40,453],"class_list":["post-29252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everest","category-everest-2018-coverage","category-interview","tag-everest","tag-everest-2018-coverage","tag-greg-vernovage","tag-img","tag-interview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DSC_3617.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}