Little Bear-Blanca Great Traverse

Colorado has 58 mountains over 14,000 feet. Within this grouping many peaks have ridges that connect them but only four are deemed worthy to be be called great. On June 14th, 2013, I completed the last of these, the Little Bear – Blanca Traverse. In my opinion it is clearly the most difficult. First I climbed Little Bear, 14,037′ via the rare West Ridge direct route with partners Tom and Barry. This was not the normal Hourglass route. I then continued solo across the Little Bear-Blanca Traverse to summit Blanca Peak, 14,345’. It was an extreme day with unbelievable exposure continue reading

Climbing a Classic: Longs Peak

Longs Peak standing at 14,259 feet/4346m is the highest mountain in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. It is my base for training. There are over 100 routes on Longs, most on the extremely technical Diamond, which is one of the premier rock climbing faces in the world. However two routes dominate most of the traffic: the Keyhole route and at a distant second, the Loft route. What makes Longs so special is the opportunity to gain over a mile in vertical altitude and experience a wide variety of conditions. I summited Longs Peak on June 6th for the 30th time. continue reading

Everest 2013: Season Recap: Summits, Records and Fights

Everest 2013 was a good year for most climbers but a difficult one for the professionals. Overall it could be termed a normal year with little drama with one large exception. The final summit numbers will take some time to determine but there were well over 600 summits on both sides and sadly nine deaths. For many climbers, they accomplished a life long dream, returned safely home to a family who have started to breath again. With an unparalleled lifetime experience, for some their lives were changed forever. Big Expectations As the season began, 2013 was shaping up to have continue reading

Everest 2013: Ladder on the Hillary Step? A Bad Idea

At the end of each Everest season, operators and officials review the results. They look mostly at the number of summits, deaths, and the issue of congestion at the bottlenecks. There were over 600 summits this year and Everest took nine lives in 2013, ten in 2012. For 2013, this process has begun with gusto as recent articles discussed doubling the permit fees as a way to address crowds and installing a ladder on the Hillary Step to address congestion. I think both proposals are bad ideas. By the way, Nepali Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, has abandoned his summit climb continue reading

Everest 2013 Team Locations

Welcome to Alan Arnette’s Everest 2013 coverage My coverage is based on my own experiences, research, sources, and public information. I try to provide insight and interpretation of the activities ranging from routes to weather to the challenge of climbing Everest. Latest Everest News – May 31, 2013 A sincere and deep thank you to everyone who made a donation to one of the Alzheimer’s non-profits. That is why I do this. Very rough, unconfirmed estimates: Total at base camps: 415 westerners plus 625 Sherpas totaling 1040.  691 combined summits from both sides 67% summit to attempt rate. 9 total continue reading

Everest 2013: Weekend Update May 26

This past week was about as good as it gets on Everest. The winds were manageable, the crowds tolerable and the summits plenty. There was little drama as the 2012 season neared the end. Every day we saw multiple summits on both sides. However the North side took the full force of high winds, as usual. Sadly, there were also deaths this past week. There were about 300 summits this week alone, well over 600 for the season. But they were orderly and the waits at the usual suspects were reported by climbers to be under half an hour. It continue reading

Everest 2013: Cleaning the Mountain, 9th Death

As most clients are in Kathmandu or even home, the Sherpas continue to work hard on Everest. This end game on the expedition is called ‘cleaning the mountain’. Simply put, it means that everything they brought, they take back down. That goes for tents, oxygen bottles, some ropes and anchors, garbage, everything. Throughout the season even the human solid waste was collected and processed down valley at one of villages. It is not a prefect system as human solid waste is left above Base Camp. On the North side, there are few rules and waste is a big problem. All continue reading

Everest 2013: More Summits, It is Not Over!

Climbing Everest is all about timing. And a few climbers are proving that they can sneak in a few summits after the masses have left. On the North, the second team from SummitClimb summited 19 in what was termed ‘high winds’. Part of their team was Leifur Orn Svavarsson, reported to be the first Icelander to summit from the North. On the South, Manish kumar Deka of Assam, India summited with his Sherpas. They were climbing with Arun. Senior Battle In the ongoing battle for records, 81 year-old Nepali, Min Bahadur Sherchan, is reported at Base Camp. I have from continue reading

Everest 2013: Summit Wave 8 Recap

If this was the last night for Everest 2013 summits, it was a good one. But I learned a long time ago that just when I think it is over, there are a few more teams sneaking up! We had over 50 summits Thursday morning. First up is 80 year-old Japanese Miura Yiuchiro summits, setting an age record. He is an amazing man who I met in 2008 in the Khumbu Icefall. Very friendly and seems to enjoy life to the fullest! By the way, he had multiple injuries from skiing along with some surgeries and then summited Everest for continue reading