Month: May 2022

Nepal issued 68 permits to foreigners for Kanchenjunga, 8586-meters, this spring. Today, May 5, 2022, at least 32 stood on the summit, and a few very strong climbers turned back. Hungarian climber Varga Csaba noted, “Today’s climbing was made difficult by the scorching heat. However, since it snows every day, fresh snow slows down the progress.”

As usual, there is a bit of fog around who summited, turned back, and who is still moving up the mountain. So take all media reports, including mine, as an approximation and not perfect, even though we all do our best.

A second Chinese team of 13 climbers summited, making the total now 44 Chinese in this season. Five of the climbers installed a series of weather stations on Everest. The highest station was installed around 11:00 am, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, located just beneath the summit at 8800-meters.

They live-streamed the climb and installation on Facebook on May 4, 2022.

We knew there was a Chinese team on the Tibet side of Everest and that the rope team had made good progress. Now we learn from Mingma G that on April 30, 2022, 11 Chinese with support summited. I have not been able to independently verify the summits, but Mingma is usually in the know. 

The Chinese posted this video on YouTube of installing weather stations on Everest, including at the summit, in 2022., but it’s unclear if they are actually showing a weather station on the summit in a staging area. On a station, the elevation, 7790m, is written which would be between Camps 2 and 3. The summit is at 8848m.

I’ll stay on this, but I won’t be surprised if the Chinese summited.