How Much Does it Cost to Climb Mount Everest? – 2021 Edition
Many people ask, “How much does it cost to climb Mount Everest?” For the past nine years, I’ve tried to answer this with a rather lengthy post outlining all the costs and options. This is the 2021 edition. With the COVID Pandemic devastating tourism across the globe, I expect ’21 to be somewhat quiet. In fact China has closed Tibet to all foreigners. There may be some Chinese nationals climbing, but I don’t expect a lot.
Winter K2 Update: Team Leaving Base Camp, Search Suspended
Seven Summits Treks is leaving K2 Base Camp, thus ending their effort for a winter summit. The strongest climbers on their team gave it their best effort but no one summited the world’s second highest peak. Tragically two died in their effort. By my approximate count, 14 of the 20 “members” made an attempt.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #8
Latest as of 3.30 am, Monday, February 8, 2021, – K2 Time: John Snorri, Ali Sadpara, and Juan Pablo (JP) Mohr Prieto remain missing with no trace. We are learning more about what happened at the Bottleneck directly from Ali’s son, Sajid. Of note he said he and his father were climbing without supplemental oxygen but had a bottle in their pack for emergencies. Also when he left the three, they had no radio or sat phone. He felt they summited and had an accident on the descent in the Bottleneck, but he is not sure. In this post, timeline of the season and events.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #7
Sajid Ali Sadpara is back in Base Camp. He is one strong individual. A helicopter did a cursory search but didn’t get very high and found no trace of the climbers. History has shown amazing high-altitude bivy’s. A brief review of some, including on K2.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #6
Latest as of 10:30 am, February 6, 2021.
First it’s reported that Sajid Ali Sadpara is descending from Camp 3. That Pemba Sherpa who was with Noel Hanna stayed at Camp 1 and will help him down. Also that a Pakistani military helicopter will take sherpas high on K2, exact height unknown, to launch a search party for the missing three.
They left Camp 3 for their summit push almost 30 hours earlier. They were last seen over 15 hours ago. It’s 3 am Saturday morning, February 6, 2021. The first rays of dawn will hit the shoulder in about three hours. Note that none of the GPS trackers seem to be working anymore. I assume their batteries have run out, perhaps also for their headlamps and even radios. Computer generated weather forecast have the summit temps at -42F/-41C with a wind chill at -80F/-62C.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #5
Upfront, there is no 100% confirmed news about: John Snorri, Ali Sadpara, and Juan Pablo (JP) Mohr Prieto. JP was climbing without supplemental oxygen. There is no conformation if they summited, their current status or plans. I’ll update when I have 100% confident news.
They left Camp 3 for their summit push almost 30 hours earlier. They were last seen over 15 hours ago. It’s 3 am Saturday morning, February 6, 2021. The first rays of dawn will hit the shoulder in about three hours. Note that none of the GPS trackers seem to be working anymore. I assume their batteries have run out, perhaps also for their headlamps and even radios. Computer generated weather forecast have the summit temps at -42F/-41C with a wind chill at -80F/-62C.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #4
And it’s over, but we still don’t know the ending. There is still no news from three climbers assumed to be descending at this point, almost 10 pm Friday night K2 time: John Snorri, Ali Sadpara, and Juan Pablo Mohr. They left Camp 3 almost 24 hours earlier. Sadly, another death on K2, this makes two now.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #3
Looks like none of the Seven Summits Treks members made the K2 summit. Snorri and team remain the only viable team for K2’s winter summit, but it’s very unclear as to their status. Winds moving in 24 hours from now.
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #2
The “Fog of Climbing” Sometimes getting precise information is difficult. John Snorri’s wife now tells me John is nearing the summit and is at 8100-meters, only 500-meters from the summit. However, she is going off the data from the tracker. His GPS track is crisscrossing above Camp 3. This happens occasionally with these trackers. We do know for sure several climbers have turned back and other seem to be not moving from Camp 3. The “fog” should clear in a few hours
Winter K2 Update: Summit Push Update #1
Climbers have left Camp 3 for their summit bid, half have already turned back due to the cold and fear of frostbite. The weather window has narrowed, now higher winds moving to K2 early Saturday morning, around dawn, basically 30 hours from the time of this post. They need to get up and down now, or turn back. The wind chill near the summit is -70F/-57C. There are 10 or less still pushing for the summit.