Over 50 people summited Everest between 5:30 am and 9 am on Tuesday morning, May 11, 2021. There are least that many at the South Col ready to go tonight.
Before looking at who made it note that Nepal extended the ban on international flights until May 31. Note: Many of the Nepali teams are using this quote “…summit of Mt Everest with the new height of 8848.86m” What a PR spin! See my analysis of this “new height.”
Summits
From Seven Summits Treks (SST) on the Bahrain team, however, it remains unclear why there is no complete list of names for the Bharains and the Sherpas. Initial press reports said the team has 16 members, not including Nepali Sherpa support, a few reports have 12 summited. SST’s co-founder, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, lead the team along with six Sherpas.
The team of Bahrain Royal Guard, including prince Sh. Mohammed Hamad Mohammed Al Khalifa, successfully climbed Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) this morning between 5:30 – 6:45 Am ( Nepal Time ).
Also, the youngest Pakistani at 19, Shehroze Kashif, summited with the Bahrain team.
From Madison Mountaineering;
And their summit. Kenton Cool gets his UK record of 15 Everest summits, tying him with American Dave Hahn for most non-Sherpa summits
Good news in sunny #Everest base camp this morning! Our first climbers of the season just made the summit: @kentoncool , @mountexpeds , Rebecca Ferry, along with Dorjee Gelgen Sherpa, Chhetan Dorjee Sherpa, Lakpa Wongchu Sherpa. Big congratulations to them!
Ascent Himalayas got 16 people on top 5 members and 11 (!) support:
All our team made to the summit of Mt Everest(8848.86) this morning approx 08:00am -10:30 am.We would like to thanks all our guides,sherpa,kitchen crews for their hard work to make this expedition and documentary successful without any problem.We would like to congratulate all our Team Members and Sherpas for the 100 % successful summit of Mt Everest with the new height of 8848.86m. All the teams are on their way back to camp 4.
Team Members
Elia Saikaly(Canada) :08:40am
Scott Simper(USA): 08:40 am
Helene Drouin(France):10:30 am
Frank Loke(Norway):08:05 am
Javier Remon(Argentina):08:40Climbing Guide
Pasang Tenzing Sherpa:08:40 am
Tsering Pemba Sherpa:08:05 am
Pasang Kaji Sherpa:08:40 am
Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa:10:30 am
Tsering Dawa Sherpa:08:40 am
Danurbu Sherpa(A):08:40 am
Danurbu Sherpa(B): 10:20 am
Pasang Yella Sherpa:08:40 am
Kalsang Dorji Sherpa:08:40 am
Lakpa Sherpa :08:40 am
Mingmar Sherpa:08:05 am
Other peaks
Peak Promotion got at least six people on the top of Pumori. It appears the season is over on both Makalu and Dhaulagiri due to avalanche conditions, and in some cases, lack of rope – a reoccurring theme other than on Everest.
Wave 2
The Chinese are expected to summit from their side in a day or so. They have made global headlines with a stunt to put a “barrier” on the summit to prevent fully masked, down-covered climbers heavily laden with boots and gloves from infecting one another with COVID while in a 30 mph wind on a 10 sq mt block of ice..
More teams are positioned at the South Col expecting to leave around 9 tonight including from Climbing the Seven Summits:
The will leave the Col around 8-9pm tonight, climb through the night with the goal of summiting at first light around 4-5am. The 7 climbers (Michael N, Michael P, Rob S, Steve S, April L & Ryan A) are supported by 13x very strong Sherpa & Sherpa Guides.
Cyclone Fears?
Michael Fagin, long time Everest forecaster at Everest Weather tells me of a potential cyclone in the Bay of Bengal:
Cyclone may form in Indian Ocean and Potential Impacts on Everest
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center has issued https://www.metoc.navy.mil/jtwc/products/abioweb.txt a warning that an area of convection “Invest 92 A” is currentlyin the North Indian Oceanand has the potential of forming into asignificant tropical cyclone in the next 24 hours.
Impacts on Everest?This is the difficult part!The US Navy model (see map below) has this off the west Indian coast on May 14. Then between May 14 to May 17 has this tracking north to northeast and closer to Everest not as cyclone but as a moist area of low pressure. .The concern is by May 18 this could track towards Everest and bring some moderate snowfall.
US Navy Model 500 mb map (18,000’ -5454 meters)
However US based GFS models has this tracking away from Everest and no impacts on Everest.
COVID and “Touching Grass”
Many teams went to Namache to suck in the oxygen-rich air (relatively to EBC) but concerns surfaced if they were really serious about maintaining their proclaimed “bubbles.” Garrett Madison who told me in an interview his team was virus free and practicing a strict protocol posted today on their holiday to Namache:
The rest of our team is doing well. We had some members return from Namche today and the rest of the team is coming back from Namche tomorrow. We will be doing our distancing and isolating when people come back – staying away from the group for 72 hours and testing upon arrival and after 72 hours. So we’re feeling good about that and looking forward to a good long time here in base camp resting up before we head up on our summit rotation. We’re waiting for that weather forecast to look good for us.
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
The Podcast on alanarnette.com
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2 thoughts on “Everest 2021: Summit Wave 1 Wrap-Up”
I just want to thank you so much Alan for this news about Everest. It almost feels like life is normal (as we keep to our semi lockdown in BC, Canada).
A shout out to Pemba Sherpa, an EBC guide who is stuck in Kathmandu under complete lockdown in a rental room with his family.
Hey world-let’s get the vaccines to Nepal ASAP and help our brothers and sisters get back to work and life.
Love reading your blog Alan. Again thanks so much for this.
Thanks Nadine.
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