autumn Himalayan Update: Everest Summit Bid Underway – Update

UPDATE: It appears Kuriki has turned back due to high winds and deep snow thus ending his attempt to summit Everest. He posted:

However, case because of high winds and deep snow, we were determined not to go back to live and to proceed further. While you climb in the absence of oxygen, given the time limit of up to return to the wind and the final camp become more strongly the future.

The big news is that Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki has started his second summit attempt of his autumn expedition.

Manaslu – Summits, Death and Rescue

As previously reported, over 80 climbers made the summit of Manaslu threading the needle of difficult weather and conditions.

One climber died after summiting. Zoltan Benedek was climbing with Dan Mazur’s SummitClimb. Mazur tweeted:

Now we are on top of summit: Marin, Jean-Luc, Dan. Jangbu, NaTenji. We can see ?#?Everest?. Hope we will get down ok. Tricky. Be careful!

The Himalayan Times reported the death

According to Gyanendra Shrestha, an official at the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation, the expedition organiser confirmed on Friday afternoon that Zoltan Benedek breathed his last while descending from Camp IV.Benedek successfully summitted the world’s eighth highest peak on Wednesday, Shrestha said.

Born in Odorhei of  Austria in 1964, Benedek was a part of a 14-member-team led by Daniel Lee Mazur, according to officials at the Seven Summit Treks.

Another member of the SummitClimb team had to be rescued according to the Times’ article:

“Benedek’s partner Jean-Luc from France had to be rescued from Camp IV to Camp III on Friday morning and was flown by helicopter from 6,800 m. Both climbers were climbing without any support above base camp,” another team leader Arnold Coster told THT Online from Camp II.

I reached out to Mazur for details but he has not responded.

Nuptse – Climbing

Ueli Steck is acclimatizing in Nepal’s Khumbu region as he prepares to climb the south face of Nuptse 7804 m.

Dhaulagiri – Climbing

A small team lead by French Alpinist Yannick Graziani is aiming to summt Dhaulagiri (26794’/8167m) over the next few days. Their team provided this update:

Short interview with Yannick this morning. It Is Good Weather forecast for the next Few days and perfect timing to try to reach the submit around the October 11th / 12th. They Will join ABC (5200m) this evening. Weak wind Will Make Easier the journey.

Everest – Summit Bid Underway

Japanese Nobukazu Kuriki, reached 7600 meters on the climber’s left of the normal route on the Lhotse Face.  After establishing camp there, he rested and just posted that he is leaving for the summit in the next couple of hours.

He hit deep snow last week at 7700 meters and turned back. High winds have been common the last few days.

He is alone with no Os so he needs to move fast to stay warm. His previous  frostbite makes him more prone for frostbite now. He is starting 400 meters lower than the standard summit departure point on the South Col making for an extraordinarily long summit push.

This is his 5th attempt on Everest.

You can follow his progress on his SPOT tracker but be advised this is not always accurate in this terrain.

Best of luck to him.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything