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Climbing the World to End Alzheimer's

Everest 2013: A Sherpa Finally Talks About the Fight

 11 Responses »
Aug 152013
 
Everest 2013: A Sherpa Finally Talks About the Fight

On April 27th, s 2013, a fight broke out on Everest with ramifications that still echo four months later. It involved Sherpas and three European climbers. The Europeans have had many interviews, and press releases to describe the events. The Sherpas lacking the means or perhaps the desire, had remained silent. Now, one of the Sherpas who was directly involved in the fight has spoken publicly. Tashi Sherpa, 30, who worked for International Mountain Guides (IMG) was on the Lhotse Face on April 27th plus at Camp 2 where the real violence broke out. He was a member of the continue reading

Everest 2013: Season Recap: Summits, Records and Fights

 17 Responses »
Jun 032013
 
Everest 2013: Season Recap: Summits, Records and Fights

Everest 2013 was a good year for most climbers but a difficult one for the professionals. Overall it could be termed a normal year with little drama with one large exception. As of February 2014, capsule the final 2013 numbers on the Himalayan Database showed that 658 climbers made the summit. There were 539 from the south and 119 from the north side. 9 did not use supplemental oxygen and there were 8 confirmed deaths. This brings the total summits to be around 6,871 by 4,042 different climbers, meaning that 2,739 climbers, mostly Sherpa, have multiple summits. The south side continue reading

Everest 2013: Ladder on the Hillary Step? A Bad Idea

 27 Responses »
May 282013
 
Everest 2013: Ladder on the Hillary Step? A Bad Idea

At the end of each Everest season, operators and officials review the results. They look mostly at the number of summits, deaths, and the issue of congestion at the bottlenecks. There were over 600 summits this year and Everest took nine lives in 2013, ten in 2012. For 2013, this process has begun with gusto as recent articles discussed doubling the permit fees as a way to address crowds and installing a ladder on the Hillary Step to address congestion. I think both proposals are bad ideas. By the way, Nepali Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, has abandoned his summit climb continue reading

Everest 2013 Team Locations

 29 Responses »
May 272013
 
Everest 2013 Team Locations

Welcome to Alan Arnette’s Everest 2013 coverage My coverage is based on my own experiences, research, sources, and public information. I try to provide insight and interpretation of the activities ranging from routes to weather to the challenge of climbing Everest. Latest Everest News – May 31, 2013 A sincere and deep thank you to everyone who made a donation to one of the Alzheimer’s non-profits. That is why I do this. Very rough, unconfirmed estimates: Total at base camps: 415 westerners plus 625 Sherpas totaling 1040.  658 combined summits from both sides 63% summit to attempt rate. 8 total continue reading

Everest 2013: Weekend Update May 26

 14 Responses »
May 262013
 
Everest 2013: Weekend Update May 26

This past week was about as good as it gets on Everest. The winds were manageable, look the crowds tolerable and the summits plenty. There was little drama as the 2012 season neared the end. Every day we saw multiple summits on both sides. However the North side took the full force of high winds, as usual. Sadly, there were also deaths this past week. There were about 300 summits this week alone, well over 600 for the season. But they were orderly and the waits at the usual suspects were reported by climbers to be under half an hour. continue reading

Everest 2013: Cleaning the Mountain, 9th Death

 22 Responses »
May 252013
 
Everest 2013: Cleaning the Mountain, 9th Death

As most members are in Kathmandu or even home, the Sherpas continue to work hard on Everest. This end game on the expedition is called ‘cleaning the mountain’. Simply put, cheap it means that everything they brought, they take back down. That goes for tents, oxygen bottles, some ropes and anchors, garbage, everything. Throughout the season even the human solid waste was collected and processed down valley at one of villages. It is not a prefect system as human solid waste is left above Base Camp. On the North side, there are few rules and waste is a big problem. continue reading

Everest 2013: More Summits, It is Not Over!

 20 Responses »
May 242013
 
Everest 2013: More Summits, It is Not Over!

Climbing Everest is all about timing. And a few climbers are proving that they can sneak in a few summits after the masses have left. On the North, the second team from SummitClimb summited 19 in what was termed ‘high winds’. Part of their team was Leifur Orn Svavarsson, reported to be the first Icelander to summit from the North. On the South, Manish kumar Deka of Assam, India summited with his Sherpas. They were climbing with Arun. Senior Battle In the ongoing battle for records, 81 year-old Nepali, Min Bahadur Sherchan, is reported at Base Camp. I have from continue reading

Everest 2013: Summit Wave 8 Recap

 41 Responses »
May 232013
 
Everest 2013: Summit Wave 8 Recap

If this was the last night for Everest 2013 summits, advice it was a good one. But I learned a long time ago that just when I think it is over, there are a few more teams sneaking up! We had over 50 summits Thursday morning. First up is 80 year-old Japanese Miura Yiuchiro summits, setting an age record. He is an amazing man who I met in 2008 in the Khumbu Icefall. Very friendly and seems to enjoy life to the fullest! By the way, he had multiple injuries from skiing along with some surgeries and then summited Everest continue reading

Everest 2013: Summit Wave 7 Recap and Summit Wave 8: Update 3

 35 Responses »
May 222013
 
Everest 2013: Summit Wave 7 Recap and Summit Wave 8: Update 3

Update 3 80 year-old Japanese Miura Yiuchiro summits,  setting an age record. Over 50 summits on reported early Wednesday morning by Asian Trekking Dave Hahn, Benegas Brothers and Tim Mosedale with their remaining teams summits. This was Dave Hahn’s 15th summit, a non-Sherpa record.  Himex put  22 on the summit. Update 2: Asian Trekking reports a summit Wednesday morning by Douglas Scarborough and Phurba Sherpa and Ngima Dorji Sherpa . They summited at 5:40AM after leaving the South Col at 7:00 pm last night. Dave Hahn, Benegas Brothers and Tim Mosedale with their remaining teams are all either on top continue reading

Everest 2013: Summit Wave 6 Recap and Summit Wave 7 – Update 3

 29 Responses »
May 212013
 
Everest 2013: Summit Wave 6 Recap and Summit Wave 7 - Update 3

Update 3 Mountain Trip just sent this note out: We just received a call from the summit, we have 5 on top right now! 7.25am, Yahoo! Conditions sound perfect, very light winds, no crowds. Sounds like things started out very windy and have improved through the night. That’s super good news here. We have Manoj Vora, DaWang Chu Sherpa, Serki Sherpa, Gombu Sherpa and Norbu Sherpa enjoying the view. Manoj and all the sherpas sound good, no problems.  Carlos Pauner summited completing thus completing climbing all 14 8000m mountains without supplemental oxygen Melissa Arnot and Tshering Sherpa summit from South. continue reading

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