Everest 2019: Summit Wave 4 Recap – First Tibet Summits

The rope team made the summit on the Tibet side and I’m being told there are no winds at Camp 3 as climbers are leaving for the summit on Wednesday night, May 22.  Meanwhile over 200 people summited from Nepal on Wednesday morning. There were long waits reported from the Balcony to the South Summit.

On the Tibet side, Adrian Ballinger proudly told me late This Wednesday night that their member who left the US only 12 days ago summited just behind the Chinese rope team:

Alpenglow Lightning Ascent summited to day with rope fixers!!!!! 10 days in country an 12 days since leaving USA. Lydia and Roxanne along with Pasang and Mingma summited with rope fixers in light to moderate winds and warm temps. They are back down to c2 and continuing to abc tonight, Shegar tomorrow and USA on 24th. It worked!

Everest 2019 Tibet Side. Courtesy of 7 Summits Club

Nepal

Many, many teams summited early Wednesday morning:

Mirza Ali summited today making him the first Pakistani male climber to complete the Seven Summits. And Fatima Deryan and Ralph Kisso of Lebanon also summited. I note these because Everest summits by climbed from the Middle East has been rare, especially female climbers.

Tibet – Ropes to Summit, No Winds

Apparently, there was a crowd following the Chinese rope fixers through early Wednesday night. Summits are being reported by:

Adrian Ballinger, told me his late Wednesday night that they will wait a day to let the crowds thin out and “I’ll take wind over crowds”

Teams that were expected to summit Wednesday included

Wave 5 Last Day of this Window

Those were who were planning a push for a Thursday, May 23 summit include:

Nepal – at South Col ~8,000m

Tibet – at C3 ~8300m

Follow the Climbers

These climbers/teams are using GPS tracking devices so you can follow along:

Tibet:

Nepal:

I do my best to track the teams I can during the summit push but don’t have direct communication with any of them or know the status of any individual. You can see what I am seeing on the tracker table.

Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything!

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5 Responses

  1. Thanks for the updates, I would like to point out that Fatima is the first Lebanese woman to summit Everest.

  2. Alan, great update as always. Do you know or can you get the information on what the acclimatization routine was for the climbers in country for only 12 days? In and out in 2 weeks? This could start a trend that could be dangerous… or extremely workable?

  3. I have a summiting question. Once they reach the balcony how long will it take to reach the summit?
    Then how long to get back down?

    1. It varies depending onto strength of the climber and the crowds. I usually say 3-6 hours up and about half down. These were my times in 2011 at age 54. We were the first few people on top that year so zero crowd issues:
      South Col – Balcony: 3:40
      Balcony (with 20 minute break) – South Summit: 2:30 hours
      South Summit (with 20 minute break)- top of Hillary Step: 1:00 hour
      Hillary Step – Summit: 30 minutes
      Descent Summit – Balcony: 2 hours
      Balcony – South Col: 1 hour