On what could have been the final push for 2010, many climbers summited from the south including a record 12th summit for Dave Hahn who was guiding Leif Whittaker. The weather cooperated for the teams however it was extremely cold at 18 below zero F. Once on the summit, the winds started to pick up so climbers hustled down as quickly as possible. In addition to Hahn and Whittaker, climbing under the First Ascent/RMI banner, the rest of team made it to the top including Michael Brown topping out for his 5th time. They commented once back at Base Camp [continue reading]
Summits
May 252010
May 242010
update #3: South summits. First from RMI: Seth Waterfall is on the summit of Mount Everest. He has the summit all to himself. It is a bit chilly but he has plenty of oxygen and is feeling good! The rest of the team is at the Hilary step continuing up. Then Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker. Thus far another 12 summits. Their announcement: Dave, Leif, Seth, Casey, Michael, Scott, Tendi, Tshering Dorjee, Dawa Jamba, Da Gyldjen, Nima Tenji, Pasang Temba. On top of the world. All are doing well. Robert Hill and his team reached the South Summit and made [continue reading]
May 242010
Sunday night saw the last large push of the season however, climbers still remain in position for summit bids Monday night, May 24th. There were summits on both sides in spite of variable conditions and heavy snow at time. Most of the summits occurred in very snowy and cloudy conditions. On the South AAI (17) and IMG (9) put a combined 26 climbers on top. AAI commented on the heavy snow resulting in not only difficult climbing conditions but also making radio communications challenging. This was IMG’s second group and put a total of 42 on the top of the [continue reading]
May 232010
update 7: Summits!! With late news, as expected, there are more summits Monday morning on the north. Adventure Dynamics reports 6 members and 7 Sherpas on top. 7 Summits Club put their second team up with 6 members plus an undetermined number of Sherpas, they do not list their Sherpas unfortunately. A foot of new snow was noted at the North Col making conditions difficult. update 6: Summits!! I would estimate we had at least 50 summits tonight on both sides making season total approaching 400. Still more on the north and a few on the south for tomorrow, Monday [continue reading]
May 232010
updated with more team summits. more than 108 for both sides now! It was another long day on Everest for an estimated 200 climbers, split evenly on both sides. The weather at the high camps was reported to be so warm that climbers were in T-Shirts and complaining about their down suits. The ever-present wind was nonexistent. At that point their biggest concerns were getting ahead of the crowds to avoid the bottlenecks on the way up, and down. However the weather forecast had a nasty kick up in the winds for Sunday afternoon. And there were summits! Starting with [continue reading]
May 222010
update #6: As we are in mid afternoon, Nepal time, it appears the south side had a lot of success with over 50 new summits. The north remains very, very unclear with limited reporting. IMG reported 100% success with 15 climbers plus 15 Sherpas summiting and are back down now. Patagonia Brothers puts 8 Argentinians and 5 Sherpa on the top of the world. The Australian Everest placed 3 there as well. In a bit of a mystery, Mountain Trip’s home team said they received a phone call that went dead then a brief audio blog implying a summit and [continue reading]
May 222010
May 22nd, 2010 will be a day recorded in history: the youngest person to summit Everest and the person with the most summits in history on the same same day yet from different sides. Apa Sherpa at age 47 made his 20th summit with the Eco Everest team and on the other side of the mountain, 13 year-old Jordan Romero along with his dad and Sherpa team made the top of the world, his 6th of the 7 summits. What a day. Jordan showed his strength by going directly from camp 2 to the summit. I am not sure of [continue reading]
May 212010
update #4: the next wave of summits are moving up in good weather. Best of luck to all these climbers. Saturday morning climbers are moving down the mountain on both sides. No problems reported as of now. The weather continues to be good. update #3: Multiple south summits from Adventure Consultants and Eco Everest team in excellent conditions. Special congratulations Ang Dorge Sherpa with his 14th summit and Apa Sherpa with his 20th. Mandy Ramsden, 1st SA for 7 Summits and Arjun Vajpayee, youngest Indian to summit. Jordan Romero bags his summits as well at age 13. His SPOT map [continue reading]
May 182010
Excitement is building once again for more summits as team after team left Base Camp for camp 2 on the south and ABC on the north. Their enthusiasm, however, was tempered by talk of monsoons in India; more on that in a moment. There were talks of additional summits for Tuesday, May 18th, but nothing has been reported. As the weekend summiters return to base camp on the south, more details are coming in of summits. First up is on the north, Julio Bird’s wife Maribel sent me this email: I just talked to Julio. He reached the top on [continue reading]
May 172010
There were at least 40 summits on Monday morning, May 16th from the south side. It is still not clear if there were any from the north. The winds did pick up late Monday bringing a stop to this brief window. There were no reports of serious problems with any of the climbers at this time. After a false start on Saturday night when the winds did not cooperate, teams huddled at the South Col, some spending an extra night which is usually avoided. But Sunday night, the winds still between 40 and 50 mph at the Col, let up [continue reading]
update #4: Multiple teams are reporting summits this morning in Nepal. I estimate well over 30 summits from the south, probably much more. Weather was holding as of early morning. Congratulations and well done to all. The tracking chart is updated based on available information but so please check their sites for details on their sites and a summary later here. update #3: teams at South Summit. Note: Please remember that my Everest coverage is to raise money for Alzheimer’s research. Please read my story. Please make a donation that goes 100% to research, nothing to me. Thank you. update [continue reading]
Threading the weather needle and taking a gamble that paid off, Domnhall O’Doughartaigh, an independent climber, and Lucille deBeaudrap from Tim Rippel’s Peak Freaks team along with their personal Sherpas Tshering Sherpa and Pemba Sherpa made the summit of Everest on Friday, Nepal time. On the north, Bill Burke reported in from ABC on the north that the fixed lines are not in to the summit thus no summit push for him and David Liano. The lines are only up to 27300 or camp 3. The China Tibetan Mountaineering Association (CTMA) is responsible for fixing lines on the north.
There is a summit bid currently underway in what could be difficult conditions. But first a small surprise on yesterday’s summits. Previous reports emphatically said no western climbers were to be allowed to join the Sherpa rope fixing team, however, it seems that western guides were exempted.As I have previously mentioned the search for Sandy Irvine and the infamous 1924 camera might be underway again this season. This has become an annual event with most searches conducted under a tight veil of secrecy. The question everyone is trying to answer is did Mallory and Irvine summit Everest in 1924? Well, Jake Norton is writing a multi-part series on his site about the mystery.
May 052010
Eric Simonson’s IMG Blog is noting the first summits of 2010 on Everest. As expected it came on the south side from the Sherpa team fixing lines to the top. Adventure Peaks, amongst other teams, reports on heavy snow on that side. They noted a meter (3.3 feet) of snow at the north col limiting further clibms up the Northeast Ridge for the moment. Summit Climb commented that high winds destroyed some tents at the Col as well.
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