The fourth wave of Everest summiters are beginning to reach the summit, with more female youngest records being set. With the Jet Stream MIA, the weather is unbelievably perfect, thus allowing the 500-600 climbers to spread out and minimize crowds, not that they don’t exist.
Everest now has a formula. It’s straightforward: a high level of Sherpa support, a high level of oxygen support, and this year, an extremely lucky weather system, absent of the Jet Stream. Thankfully this has allowed day after day of 100 or more summits with minimal (but no) crowds and no reported (but still could have occurred) deaths or rescues. Let’s hope the weather continues until the queue is empty.
Another headline from this season thus far is the young female summiters, albeit with massive support, in some cases a 1:7 ratio. Putting style aside, we need the next-gen to make a difference in conservation (LNT), adventure, exploring, and ambition. They will find new routes in the old mountains.
However, Everest is hard, damn hard. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I love this candid post from a climber
We all know Mt Everest has an “ugly side”; it’s the stories about tragedy, illnesses, injuries, breaking mentally, dramatic weight loss, etc. that the masses seem to enjoy hearing about; I guess that’s just human nature. While on Everest I witnessed my share of these things. By now you are questioning my status – regardless of being fit and prepared, the mountain got the best of me. I had an unexpected, significant health-related issue occur that required me to make the decision to put my health and safety first and call off my expedition before the season’s end.
As most of you know, my absolute first objective when climbing is to come home and to come home as healthy as possible. I also had to consider others on the mountain and how might my issue impact them. Bearing all of this in mind, it was still an extremely difficult conclusion to come to.
I was doing super well until I suddenly wasn’t. I’ve learned that when you set a goal that is larger than most you have a stadium full of of supporting fans, but when things occur that stop you from reaching that goal, most of the seats become empty. For those supporting individuals remaining, I am truly appreciative because I am not defining myself solely as an “Everest climber”, defining myself by this one individual goal as so many do. This is only a portion of the experiences I’ve had and will have.
The discomfort of Mt Everest is real. Though it’s inhospitable it is also so amazingly majestic and beautiful. There are so many unknowns, and one must adapt and make choices, often very difficult decisions.
The summit is not a guarantee and not making it this time doesn’t cancel out the worthiness of my climb. I always take away “lessons” and personal insight from a climb and this one has provided more than any previous one.
For now I am consulting doctors to find an answer to what plagued me on the mountain and I’ll go from there and for those of you wondering if I will try Mt Everest again? It’s highly probable that I will.
Summits, Saturday, May 14, 2022
Summiteer List:
- Gantulga Bekh Ochir
- Yorick Daniel Vion- Leader
- Nathaniel James Douglas
- Liliya Ianovskaia
- Kasturi Deepak Savekar – India
- Tsering Samduk Sherpa – Nepal
- Brian David Glen Bethell – Canada
- Jose Armando Navarrete Ulloa – Mexico
- Darya Ianovskaia
- Aziz Abdileilidaghi
- Tsering Dawa Sherpa
- Pema Chhiring Sherpa
(Lead) IFMGA
- Pemba Tashi Sherpa
- Lakpa T Sherpa
- Ang Pemba Sherpa
- Mingma Dorchi Sherpa
- Pemnurbu Sherpa
- Dawa Lama Sherpa
- Pemba D Sherpa – Nepal
- Lakpa Sherpa – Nepal
Mike Hammils’ Climbing The Seven Summits reports more top outs after a huge day yesterday with Gabby Kanizay, 18, reportedly the youngest Australian to Summit Everest, with her mother, Jane Kanizay, and Sherpa support from Tendi Sherpa and Pasang Sherpa. She joins Lucy Westlake (she already has a Wiki page!) as the youngest, 18 also, setting an American female record.
There are many more summits this Saturday morning that I’ll report with the recap.
Looking Forward
The Jet Stream seems content to stay away from Everest due to the incredible high-pressure sitting over India, which is bringing horribly high temperatures there. However, this results in the Everest climbers having an unprecedented timeline to summit this year with this pattern. This computer-generated forecast shows only a few hours of wind gusts over 30 mph/.50 kph on May 17. The standard rule is for winds to be under 30 mph/50kph on the summit to make a safe attempt.
Previous Summit Recaps
Climb On!
Alan
Memories are Everything
The Podcast on alanarnette.com
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Summit Coach
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