Month: May 2025

While a successful weekend was achieved across four of Nepal’s 8,000-meter peaks, tragedy struck on Kanchenjunga. An earthquake struck near the Tibetan side of Everest, and more climbers summited Makalu; however, high winds have stalled plans for Everest summits for now.

According to the Everest Chronicle (the Nepal Ministry of Tourism has stopped providing public updates on its permit data), Everest currently has 456 foreign nationals, up from 421 the previous year. The largest contingents are from the United States and India, each with 83 climbers, followed by China with 64 and the United Kingdom with 29. Of the total climbers, 372 are men and 84 are women, spread across 45 teams.

On the Tibetan side, there are 48 foreigners, along with 68 Chinese, and 100 support climbers, totaling around 200 people, according to Adrian Ballinger of Alpenglow.

#everest2025

The last few days of low winds have allowed the rope fixing teams to make excellent progress. The rope team from 8K Expeditions summited Lhotse this afternoon, May 8, 2025, marking the first summits of the year. A separate team from 8K will summit Everest tomorrow. This opens the season to the plethora of climbers already staged at Camp 2, just waiting for this event. The Tibetan rope-fixing team has reached 7900 meters or higher on the Tibetan side. I anticipate they will summit over the weekend. Also, a narrative on the anticipation of summiting. #everest2025

The weather forecast calls for lite winds any day now  allowing the rope team to continue fixing to the summit. As of May 6, they’ve got it to the South Col on the Nepal side and proabably above 7900 meters on the Tibet. This will open the mountain for scores for clients with one or more Sherpas in support. Look for a busy first wave of summits later this week. We get a first hand report of the conditons from EBC to C3. #everest2025

As the Sherpas continue fixing the route to the summit on both side, other events are capturing climbers attention on Everest and Makalu. The drone that landed in a crevasse last week was recovered, but is damaged. #everest2025