Everest south receives a lot of attention due to the sheer number of climbers but let’s not forget the north side. Adventure Peaks’ large team of 21 climbers have arrived and now will spend the next 5 days adjusting to the altitude before trekking to ABC via the Interim Camp.
Many of you followed Bill Burke, who at age 67 summited last year with Asian Trekking. As I have previously mentioned, mind Bill is back this year along with David Liano to attempt what they are calling a double summit. This entails a summit climb from the north, then a swift move to Nepal for another summit attempt.
Originally they wanted to traverse the summit from north to south, however, similar to Andrew Lock, they were unable to secure a permit from the Chinese. In his last update, Bill is now saying that he and David might try to tag Lhotse on the way down from Everest. Bill is now 68 years-old! They should be near north BC now.
To prepare everyone for a bit of confusing nomenclature on Everest’s north side, climber Ed Laughton’s home team made this clarification to track his progress:
Just a little addition as Ed has been in touch to say that the naming systems he has on the website are the Chinese style, but they plan to use the European system, which is as follows…..BC is BC, camp 2 is intermediate camp, camp 3 is now advanced base camp, camp 4 is now camp 1, camp 5 is now camp 2 and camp 6 (from where they hope to make the summit push) is now camp 3. Hope that prevents any confusion.
OK. This actually makes a lot of sense however you sometimes see references to a C6 but not so much in modern times. I’ll keep my system the way it is with the North Col being Camp 1 and so on. Most reports mention the North Col as the North Col. I don’t list the Interim Camp since it is normally only used one time. Why is everything so much more difficult on the north side?
Not be left out, teams are relaxing at BC this Sunday on the south as illustrated by the Adventure Consultants team:
Well, it’s been a pretty chilled out day here at BC. We started the day in the spirit of all good Sunday mornings? French toast, bacon and fresh coffee in the sun with Jack Johnson on the stereo, what more could you ask for?
It looks like most teams at BC will have their Puja Monday which means trips up the Icefall and into the Cwm next week.
I usually focus on Everest this time of year but there are other expeditions throughout the Himalaya. Mark Hose is over on Shishapangma and is doing a nice job with his blog. Nick Rice is on Annapurna and just had a semi epic coming down for some of the high camps. IMG is over on Cho Oyu this spring. Climbers are also on Manaslu, Makalu and Dhaulagiri.
Climb On!
Alan
One thought on “EBC on the North Gets Crowded”
” camp 4 is now camp 1, camp 5 is now camp 2 and camp 6 (from where they hope to make the summit push) is now camp 3. ”
Of course this is the British 1921-1938 numbering system: The North col is C-4, etc.
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