There were many summits on May 19 as expected. The winds seemed low in the morning but picked up as the day progressed. There were reports of delays at the Hilary Step and over on the North due to crowds.
I have updated the location table based on information available and estimated some in the “other” category. We know there were several large teams on the South and Chinese on the North but there is no way of tracking them.
The normal reporting practice on the South is once the team summits, ask they report the results to the Nepal Ministry of Tourism and they eventually publish a press release or report – this can take days or months for the official report. Hopefully the team you are interested in will publish something through their hometown press if/when they summit.
It was confirmed that Ueli Steck and Nepalese Tenzing reached the summit on May 18, ed 2012 without using oxygen.
South
The early reports are mostly from the traditional commercial teams. They had good success last night. Between Adventure Consultants, IMG and Peak Freaks, they put 45 people on the summit. All have a second wave either at Camp 3 going up today or base camp hoping to summit around May 25. These expeditions listed the names of their summiters on their websites.
The Indian Pune team also enjoyed success:
Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha and Giripremi — the two Pune groups — announced success of their respective expeditions on their Facebook pages. It was a bitter-sweet success for Sagarmatha group, though, as it lost one of its members, Ramesh Gulave, to altitude-related sickness in an earlier stage of the expedition a few days ago. Eight climbers from Giripremi, including Tekraj Adhikari and Krishna Dhokale, and four from Sagarmatha Giryarohan — Shrihari Tapkir, Sagar Palkar, Balaji Mane and Anand Bansode — reached the summit from the `South Col’ route, from Nepal.
Other summiters included:
- Will Calton and Tom Burton of Ogden, Utah
- Bangladeshi Nishat Majumder and M A Muhit
- UK Youth: Becky Bellworthy, Mollie Hughes, Matthew Dieumegard-Thornton (21)
- Fyodor Konyukhov age of 60
North
The Altitude Junkies team reports excellent success on the North in spite of high winds. Phil Crampton said:
We had the weather day chosen by Michael Fagin and it was perfect including the predicted strong summit winds. Grant with Pasang Nima, Mila with Pasang Ongcho, Mark D with Ang Gelu, Ian with Kami Neru, Mark H with Chhongba and myself all reached the summit this morning at different times. Unfortunately Margaret turned around after about 10 hours due to the nagging cough that has been hindering her performance recently. Margaret has already climbed Everest from the south side as well as Manaslu.
Grant Rawlinson with that team posted an emotionally drained audio post just after his summit.
Also, a new women’s age record was set by 73 year-old Japanese Tamae Watanabe who summited Saturday morning with Asian Trekking.
Wave 3
More to come, including Lhotse. Alpine Ascents has several climbers wanting to get Everest and Lhotse within 24 hours:
Alpine Ascents Guide Ben Jones is in the region doing a little personal high altitude climbing. He is currently fixing lines on Lhotse with Damion Benegas. They departed early this morning and are making great progress, fixing the lines as they go. At 27,940 feet, Lhotse is the 4th highest mountain in the world, and its proximity to Mt. Everest provides the opportunity to link two 8,000 meter peaks in under 24 hours. Currently only three people have managed the task; Alpines Ascents Guides Garrett Madison and Mike Horst, and Alpine Ascents climber Tom Halliday. Garrett Madison is hoping to repeat the feat this year along with climbers Leanna Shuttleworth and Mark Shuttleworth. They would become the 4th and 5th people to do so and Leanna would be the first female to climb two 8,000 meter peaks in under 24 hours.
My sincere congratulations to all who climbed yesterday in what sounds like difficult conditions.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
16 thoughts on “Everest 2012: Wave 2 Recap”
Congratulations to all the climbers. Great news. Particular congratulations to Dr Rob Casserley who has just summited for the eighth time.
Congredulations Rob!!!!
Felicitation Rob your great, will see if It will be the same on your first
Salmon fishing trip in july…
Gilles et ann
Xxxx
Hi Natalie, no Steph heard from Bob for a few minutes and only knows he summited and was at camp 4. I promise we will ask him if he calls back . I do know Hussein turned around
at some point. Will let you know any updates
Betty
I’m here again I’m not having luck with the audio blogs and living in the country I have difficulty with signals. If I haven’t said it before “that guy in the early morning mirror is a champ looking back at you” Cheers Kate S
Bob Sullivan with WMS called his wife and said he had summited around 1000-1100 Nepal time. He was resting at Camp 4. Don’t know about he ohers.
Hi Betty, Congratulations for Bob…how fantastic…have you heard about my brother Chris, Mark or Huseyin? Did they all make it together? We haven’t heard here yet ?
Hi Natalie and Betty, After talking with Betty this morning, I got a call from Mark at base camp. He and Huseyin have been at base camp for a few hours now (not sure how long with the time change and I don’t want to guess), and Mark thought Bob and Chris had come down to camp 2. Mark said he made it to the base of the triangle face between the SC and the Summit, and turned around with numb feet. He’s warming them at BC now, and isn’t sure if his toes have frost nip or 1st degree frostbite. I’m not sure at what point Huseyin and Chris turned back, but Mark said they were all headed to the summit from the SC. I told Mark that we are all eager for news, so hopefully they’ll update the WMS blog soon!
Congratulations to all the climbers with a special shout out to 73 year old Tamae Watanabe for her successful Everest climb! How amazing is that! Gives me hope that I still have time to climb to the top of the world some day!
Safe travels to the all!
Nice… 2moro 2 more indian teams- hmi n army news will be published hopefully. Good luck to leanna
Fantastic news! Alan, any word from Himex on the summits?
Don’t expect any comments from them. They acknowledged when they canceled that there may/would be summits but just not for them.
Great News. Has the first window closed due to high winds ? The tension in BC must be mounting awaiting 2nd window around 25th.
Would like to remind all climbers of Ed Viesturs’ famous quote on Mountaineering -” Reaching the Summit is Optional. Getting down is Mandatory. How true !
Come back safe, guys.
Teams are leaving right now for the end of the 1st window. Look for today to be the last before mid next week.
Alan,
Could you give an estimate of number of summits from North uptil now. How many more people are awaiting for the summit from that side.
Hard to say how many are left on the north but maybe another 50? See the table for current estimates http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/?p=7664
Congratulations First to oldest Female climber Tamae Watanabe for her Everest Climb. Astounding success. Congratulations also to Climbers of Two Pune Team from India. I express condolence for the loss of their one member.
Alan,Do you think with this success of various teams to Everest Russel Brice is repenting over his decision of withdrawing his expedition this year after all efforts & huge monetary involvment.
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