Wave 3 Recap
Sunday night saw the last large push of the season however, climbers still remain in position for summit bids Monday night, May 24th. There were summits on both sides in spite of variable conditions and heavy snow at time. Most of the summits occurred in very snowy and cloudy conditions. On the South AAI (17) and IMG (9) put a combined 26 climbers on top. AAI commented on the heavy snow resulting in not only difficult climbing conditions but also making radio communications challenging. This was IMG’s second group and put a total of 42 on the top of the world for 2010. From the Australian team, Brad Jackson and Sandy Hobby sumitted! well done you two! Simone Moro also summited. he used supplemental oxygen due to the difficult conditions. The elite climber explained: Only 48 hours of climb and the 22nd May I was on the summit of Everest. I planned a no oxygen climb but it had been not possible to realize it due the cold. In fact when I arrived at South col 8000 m coming from 6300 m of C2, the weather deteriorated and started to snow. After 2 hours the sky get clear but the temperature drop down. So I started after midnight to climb without oxygen but it started also my fight with the cold. At 8500 meters I lost the sensibility of my feet and hands and to avoid dramatic frostbites I decided to use oxygen for the last 300 meters. At 6:25 I arrived on the summit and enjoyed for the 4th time that moment. Probably I will go back for the fifth time to attempt a no oxygen climb but I’m happy also for this climb. I had a wonderful view from the op and realized how free and lucky I’m to enjoy this life…. An update on Chad Kellogg’s status with an interesting twist that will add fuel to his detractors: Update from the VertiCulture Editor; Sun. 5/23: Chad began his summit bid Saturday at approx. 3 a.m. For those waiting on the word, we have not directly heard from him, but received an update from Sam Bricker that Chad has returned to basecamp. A technical glitch prevented us from getting the SPOT coordinates, but we will update with this information as well as details on Chad’s ascent as soon as we can. Thanks for checking in On the North, the very proud South African team, Adventure Dynamics, summitted 6 members and 7 Sherpas including expedition leader Sean Disney, who now has a double for the entire 7 summits. Another 6 people from 7 Summits Club made it as well. Plus the Mexican climbers Yuri Contreras and Laura Gonzalez Montagna.org reports 5 north summits from Silvio Mondinelli’s team including a no O’s summit from Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner who is looking to be the 3rd woman to summit all 14 8000m mountains; Everest was her 13th. The Austrian team lead by Kari Kobler’s company put 11 climbers up made up of 4 members and 7 Sherpas to the north summit. Congratulations to all these climbers for making it in difficult conditions. Check the location chart for links to all the teams plus summit numbers. A new post will begin for the what could be the last push for 2010. Climb On! Alan
Summit Wave 3 (update 6)
update 7: Summits!! With late news, as expected, discount there are more summits Monday morning on the north. Adventure Dynamics reports 6 members and 7 Sherpas on top. 7 Summits Club put their second team up with 6 members plus an undetermined number of Sherpas, they do not list their Sherpas unfortunately. A foot of new snow was noted at the North Col making conditions difficult. update 6: Summits!! I would estimate we had at least 50 summits tonight on both sides making season total approaching 400. Still more on the north and a few on the south for tomorrow, Monday night. Specifically Monday, May 24th on the south. AAI reports 9 members and 8 Sherpas summiting around 8:00AM Nepal time. This means it took 10 hours to reach the summit from the South Col. They note: … this has been a very challenging summit day. It has been snowing heavily between Base Camp and Camp 2 for most of the night, which has drastically interfered with radio communications. Up high the Ice Ninjas had less snow but more wind. But they persevered and pulled it off. We’re really, really proud of them. IMG reported 5 members and 4 Sherpas summited as well with this report on the conditions from Eric Simonson: The weather up high on Everest has been light winds with some clouds and a few flakes. Down lower there was more snowfall overnight, but the sun is now starting to burn through. We have a group of Sherpas on their way to the Col from C2 to start carrying down the empty oxygen bottles and equipment. We’ll keep you posted on the team’s progress. Gabriel Filipi reports his summit from the north side. PS: Je suis au sommet d’Everest! PS: I am on the summit of Everest! Also AC Sherpa summitted from the south at 9:00AM Nepal time. As always check the team’s website for details and all the names. Hearty congratulation to all the climbers, regardless of their result. update #5: AAI just noted they are at the South Summit! They are pushing hard and I would assume the IMG more senior team is right there. However, it appears the conditions are getting tougher on the south side. A couple climbing under a Henry Todd permit just reported: Brandon and Kristine started their summit climb early in the morning but had to return to Camp 4 three hours into the climb due to blizzard conditions (heavy wind and snow). They will try to summit again tomorrow. If there is heavy snow, it could interfere with sat phone connections so don’t worry if you are expecting one. update #4: In spite of tough conditions, AAI and others, I assume (dangerous) are making their way to the Top of the World! AAI names each team with a ‘cute’ name, thus the Ninjas. This from AAI: Our little Base Camp community has come together in a big way to track down the Ice Ninjas. The 4 or 5 inches of snow we received last night and the clouds up through the Ice Fall have made communications a bit of an interesting project, but we have managed to get direct word from the Ninjas! They are currently at the South Summit and steadily making their way to the top!! We have certainly been juggling radios around down here; calling to other expedition base camps, relaying messages through Ang Tshering at Camp 2, and running around camp with our antennas out to find the radio reception. Ellie has an 8 battery ?super? radio that, as it turns out, seems to get optimal reception from inside her tent. I brought her a giant thermos of Sherpa Tea and she is nestled comfortably into her sleeping bag, backing up my communications here at the Base Station here in the Comms tent. It?s not uncommon for her to receive a message that doesn?t make it through to the Base Station at which point she will radio the message to me across the snowy 60 feet that separate us 🙂 Up near the summit the climbers are, perhaps, not quite as comfortable as Ellie, but they are progressing well. The sky is still cloudy up there, but the snow has stopped and it is now daylight. There is a steady wind with some stronger gusts but nothing strong enough to phase the Ninjas. The South Summit is at 28,700 feet and it generally takes a few hours from there, traversing to the Hillary Step and then onto the summit! On another note, the Altitude Junkies home team reports all members are fine and an update on their site will happen soon. They are descending to camp 2. update #3: There is progress on the north via the 7 Summits Club: At 7 a.m. local time, the second group is in the “snowy triangle”, an hour from the summit. Snow is strong, there is no wind at all. It seems that this is the first day of the monsoon. Alex Abramov. Group members: Guide Sergey Larin, Ma?gorzata Pierz-Penkala, Daniel Mizera (mother and son from Poland), Lena Gorelik (Moscow), Zdravko Dejanovic (Macedonia). Summit Climb and Adventure Dynamics are also headed up on the north but no word from them. It appears the only major teams on the south are AAI and IMG, and they have not reported any problems. There are other team wanting to summit but they do not update websites so there is no way to track them. update #2.5: Teams continue to be mixed early Monday morning on Everest on the south side. RMI has postponed their summit bid for 24 hours similar to Robert Hill. Meanwhile AAI continues to climb led by Vern Tejas. IMG’s second team is at the Balcony saying the weather is good. Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker stated their intentions on their summit bid tonight. Hahn and Whttaker have now decided to wait 24 hours due to the snow and winds. On the north Gabriel Filipi just reported that
Wave 2 Recap (updated)
updated with more team summits. more than 108 for both sides now! It was another long day on Everest for an estimated 200 climbers, check split evenly on both sides. The weather at the high camps was reported to be so warm that climbers were in T-Shirts and complaining about their down suits. The ever-present wind was nonexistent. At that point their biggest concerns were getting ahead of the crowds to avoid the bottlenecks on the way up, and down. However the weather forecast had a nasty kick up in the winds for Sunday afternoon. And there were summits! Starting with Adventure Peaks on the north and Peak Freaks on the south, the reports came in slowly over the next 18 hours. You can visit their websites for all the names since there are over 50 named on them but we had summits from (total number of names listed including members, guides/ Sherpas): Adventure Peaks (5+/6+) Altitude Junkies ( Anne-Marie and Jussie plus more) Australian Everest (3/3) Extreme Everest (6) IMG (15/15) Patagonian Brothers (8/5) Peak Freaks (6/8) Melissa Arnot, Dave Morton Mountain Trip (7/12) 7 Summits Club (10) 7 Summits club reported going up but no word from them yet. The winds did pick up as predicted per this update from Adventure Peaks: We’ve just had some broken communication with Stu – unfortunately the radios between C3 and ABC give broken communication so we could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation. Things are not great in C3 and they have decided to stay the night there – this includes Stu, Nigel, Brendan, Steven +1 — . There are 8 sherpas at C3 to assist Stu to assist everyone down tomorrow. The weather up there right now looks terrible and Matt Dickinson confirmed that conditions were extremely challenging. Having said that, the forecast for tomorrow looks good so hopefully the gusts will die down over the next few hours. Their next update confirmed the entire team was down to ABC (north). For those following 68 year-old Bill Burke, he turned around per this from his wife Sharon: I got a phone call tonight from Bill at 7:50 PM. He was back at Camp 3 after reaching the “Second Step” and turning around. He said it was dark, windy, cold, and his legs got very weak and wobbly. He said it was the same feeling he had in 2007 when he turned around. He knew he couldn’t make it to the summit and then back down. He will be posting when he gets down to a lower level and gets some energy back. I’m so proud of what he has accomplished and now I want him to get back home. Great effort Bill! There has been no information posted on Chad Kellogg who was doing a speed ascent. He was scheduled to be back at the south Base Camp at 10PM on the 23rd, 7 hours from this post time. I have updated the location chart with all these numbers. We have well over 300 summits from both sides as of Sunday night Nepal time. A new post will cover the summit bids starting Sunday night, wave 3. Congratulations to all! Climb On! Alan
Summit Wave 2 (update 6)
update #6: As we are in mid afternoon, online Nepal time, it appears the south side had a lot of success with over 50 new summits. The north remains very, very unclear with limited reporting. IMG reported 100% success with 15 climbers plus 15 Sherpas summiting and are back down now. Patagonia Brothers puts 8 Argentinians and 5 Sherpa on the top of the world. The Australian Everest placed 3 there as well. In a bit of a mystery, Mountain Trip’s home team said they received a phone call that went dead then a brief audio blog implying a summit and now their logistics company out of Nepal has confirmed seven summits from the team (Scott Woolums, Bill Allen, Cynthia Lou Abbott, Paul Fejtek, Denise Fejtek, Ania Lichota, Vivian James Rigney). On the north, Bill Burk turned back at the 2nd Step. His wife posted this on their site: I got a phone call tonight from Bill at 7:50 PM. He was back at Camp 3 after reaching the “Second Step” and turning around. He said it was dark, windy, cold, and his legs got very weak and wobbly. He said it was the same feeling he had in 2007 when he turned around. He knew he couldn’t make it to the summit and then back down. He will be posting when he gets down to a lower level and gets some energy back. I’m so proud of what he has accomplished and now I want him to get back home. and Adventure Peaks reports 11 summits and: No news for definate in the last few hours, we are still waiting for Stu to give an update. It is understood however (not confirmed) that a number of team members turned round between 8600-8700m. All these are without doubt below the first step and probably in the high camp at 8300m. Geordie was the last person who may have made the summit before the turn around time. We await news. Dave Pritt There has been no information posted on Chad Kellogg who was doing a speed ascent. He was scheduled to be back at the south Base Camp at 10PM on the 23rd, 7 hours from this post time. Please visit various team’s websites for all the names and congratulations to all! There are still many more teams on both sides looking to start their summit bids on Sunday night. update #5: My thoughts only: With the large number of climbers, it may take longer than you would expect for them to go from the South Summit to the top. They have to negotiate the Hillary Step and now there are climbers coming down. There should be two ropes, an up and down rope to aid in moving people along but it can still be a bottleneck. Similar situation on the north with the 2nd Step. If you have not head from your team, this is probably what is going on. Winds were expected to pick up later today but still expected to be manageable albeit a bit uncomfortable for some. Posted at 9:30AM Nepal time update #4: Summits beginning: These teams are already there or very close: IMG, Patagonian Brothers (Damien and Willie Benegas), Peak Freaks on south and Adventure Peaks on north. Good weather, calm winds and clear skies. Views should be incredible! Check your team’s website for current list of names. Congratulations to all! update #3: IMG reports climbers above the South Summit and others near. Adventure Peaks is at the 2nd Step on the North commenting on great weather. Summits should happen between 7-8 Nepal time (see sidebar). update #2: South teams that left earlier should be approaching the Balcony in early morning, Sunday May 23rd. Usually this is where oxygen bottles are swapped out for fresh ones. Over on the north, with the good weather (albeit some wind), teams are taking advantage of it. It looks like there could be some bottlenecks on the north according to this update from 7 Summits Club: In the camp 3 at the altitude of 8300 meters there are about 100 climbers. In such situation, a turn on fix ropes could be a major obstacle for success. Therefore, our first group decided to go to climb before everyone else – in 9:30 p.m., before getting dark. It looks as a new word in tactics of Everest climb. According to our calculations, our group should reach the top of Everest in the 4-30 – 5-00 a.m. local time. The second group came to the camp 7700 meters, everything is OK. First group: guide Noel Hanna (Ireland), Andrey Filkov, Vadim Nadvodnyuk, Mikhail Turovsky (all – Russia), Steve Berry (UK) , James Wilde (USA). update #1: Many teams have left for their summit bid including the IMG and Peak Freak climbers. Melissa Arnot has changed her mind and will climb with supplemental oxygen after a long climb to the South Col. Winds are reported manageable. There are around 100 climbers on the south side headed up today. Probably a similar amount on the north. Bill Burke is headed up tonight on the north for those following the 68 year-old who summited from the south last year. start of original post With excellent conditions and a successful summit wave the previous day, new teams are now leaving the high camps once again on Saturday evening, May 22nd to the top of the world. On the north, there are a large number of climbers heading higher including Adventure Peaks and 7 Summits Club are at Camp 3 for a few hours. There were 100 climbers reported at the North Col a day ago. On the south, several teams are at the South Col. AAI will spend 24 hours there and go for the top Sunday night. They report lite winds and mild temps as well. Altitude Junkies, Peak Freaks, IMG, Mountain Trip and the Patagonia Brother’s team plan on going up today, Saturday. Also Melissa Arnot, climbing without supplemental oxygen is there with her teammate Dave
Wave 1 Recap (updated)
May 22nd, 2010 will be a day recorded in history: the youngest person to summit Everest and the person with the most summits in history on the same same day yet from different sides. Apa Sherpa at age 47 made his 20th summit with the Eco Everest team and on the other side of the mountain, 13 year-old Jordan Romero along with his dad and Sherpa team made the top of the world, his 6th of the 7 summits. What a day. Jordan showed his strength by going directly from camp 2 to the summit. I am not sure of the exact time but believe it was around 9 hours. They are reported to be back at camp 2 and will descend to ABC. The SPOT technology and the map produced by ESRI worked extremely well. There were only a few times when a signal was not plotted on the map – two periods of about 45 minutes, which was probably due to the line of site being blocked to the satellite. But the world watched as the flashing red dot moved in a steady pace. Yet with all this excitement, many other “mere mortals” also summited including elite Sherpa climber Ang Dorge Sherpa who made his 14th summit with Adventure Consultants. With the AC team was Mandy Ramsden, 1st South African woman to complete the 7 Summits. With the Eco Everest team were the youngest Indian climber ever Arjun Vajpai at age 16 and David Liano, who intended to climbed Everest from both sides but became ill and had to go back to Kathmandu during his north attempt, was cleared, and returned to the south to climb with Apa Sherpa! Also on that team were two members of the Finnish team: Timo Jaatien and Mika Pitkamaki plus 9 Sherpas. There were many more summits Saturday morning, including the large Himex team, and I will try to note as many as possible over the next few days. I have updated the location chart based on what I know from last night. In the next post I will begin today’s summit wave. My sincere congratulations to all. update: This from Himex guide Adrian Ballinger: All 12 members, 4 guides and 17 sherpa successfully climbed to the roof of the world, and back down to Camp 4 at the South Col. The weather was perfect, no wind, cold at the summit, but quite warm lower down. The summit was totally clear, with incredible views all around. There were very few other climbers summiting at that time, affording our climbers time to savour their triumph at the top, and meaning they did not face the traffic jams that occured last year at the Hillary Step. Half the team have opted to continue on down to Camp 2 before stopping for the night, the others will overnight where they are at Camp 4. Great job everyone! Climb On! Alan
Wave 1 Summit (update 4)
update #4: the next wave of summits are moving up in good weather. Best of luck to all these climbers. Saturday morning climbers are moving down the mountain on both sides. No problems reported as of now. The weather continues to be good. update #3: Multiple south summits from Adventure Consultants and Eco Everest team in excellent conditions. Special congratulations Ang Dorge Sherpa with his 14th summit and Apa Sherpa with his 20th. Mandy Ramsden, sick 1st SA for 7 Summits and Arjun Vajpayee, discount youngest Indian to summit. Jordan Romero bags his summits as well at age 13. His SPOT map showed him at the summit but I wanted to wait for verbal confirmation via his website’s home team. No word on the Himex team but we could have seen 100 summits from both sides tonight. Congratulations to all the climbers and climb safe back down. Hundreds more to make their own history tomorrow night as the rest of the teams are now moving to the high camps for their summit bids Saturday night, Nepal time. update #2: Dawn in breaking on Everest. Adventure Consultants is at the South Summit so should summit in 2-3 hours max between 7-8 local time. Jordan Romero has cleared the 2nd Step. Should summit about the same time. Weather still is good. No reports of crowds. update#1:Looks like a great night on Everest with teams on both sides moving steadily higher. Adventure Consultants is doing a great job of keeping everyone informed as is Apa Sherpa and the Eco Everest home team. Both are above the Balcony. All eyes are on Jordan Romero’s SPOT map which shows them between the 1st and 2nd step. This will be the crux of their ascent; of course they need to descend as well. A strange comment was posted on their site that ” Update from the team: Everything is going super well and they may attempt to summit today.” Not sure what that means. If you are to the 2nd Step and feeling well, most climbers will push on to the top. Eric Simonson, IMG, posted this overview as seen directly from his team on the mountain: Ang Jangbu reports that the winds started to die down this afternoon. AC, Himex and Asian Trek group continued and made it to the Col today, so they will be climbing for the summit tonight. Greg and Mike, with their respective IMG climbers up at Camp 3, decided it was better to wait and not get so trashed in the wind going to the Col, so they have spent the day hanging out and will aim for the South Col tomorrow morning. Justin and the IMG climbers at C2 will go to C3 in the morning. That means for tomorrow night (the 22nd in the US and the 23rd in Nepal) it will probably be our first team, along with Willie Benegas’ team, and possibly Mountain Trip attempting the summit with our second IMG team the following night (the 24th in Nepal) along with RMI, AAI, and some of Henry Todd’s group. We have the new weather forecast that shows the cyclone weakening and moving to the east over the next few days. We may still get hit by some of the moisture from this system, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed! Good luck to all! start of original post Looks like there is serious movement on both sides of Everest. With the good news of the winds calming a bit per the forecast and Adventure Consultants reports seeing stars at the South Col; always a good sign! Also it looks like the cyclone is sliding to the northeast and may not hit as hard as expected but some impact is still anticipated. Some who pushed hard to reach their Advanced Base Camps have decided to take an extra day to rest up and also to stretch out the crowds. The South side feels a little less frenzied but there are reports of 100 climbers at the North Col. Many teams are now at their high camps for the night looking at summit bids on Saturday night but a few have posted their current status of heading up tonight. As of Friday night, May 21st at 11:00 PM Nepal time, this is the activity, certainly not all by any stretch: Apa Sherpa and Eco Everest team: left camp 4 (South Col) David Liano: left Camp 4 (South Col) Elia Saikaly: left camp 4 (South Col) Adventure Consultants are well on their way with 6 climbers, 2 leaders and 9 Sherpas split into two groups Jordan Romero: North; approaching 27,000. Still below the ridge proper. They just posted this update on their site: The team just called from their iSatPhone. They wanted to say hello to everyone and to give everyone an update. Right now they have stopped for tea, but they said that everything is going well and that they are ahead of schedule. They also mentioned that the clouds were clearing and they could see the ridgeline all the way up to the summit and it looked absolutely amazing. The team is using oxygen for this part of the climb. Everyone is strong; especially Jordan. On a very sad note, a death has been reported on the north side by news agencies. This from ScandAsia.com: Tom Jørgensen Tom, a 56 year-old Danish mountaineer, died on the way back to Zham Port in Tibet on May 19, said Zhang Minxing, Secretary-General of the CTMA. After found to suffer from serious high altitude sickness, Jorgensen was sent back to Zham Port from Mt. Everest, but died despite rescue efforts. My sincere condolences to all his family, teammates and friends. More updates throughout the day. Climb On! Alan Personal Note: As regular followers on my site know, I do this for Alzheimer’s causes. Read my story here. I am excited to update everyone that am finalizing my 7 Summits quest to raise $1M for Alzheimer’s research, awareness and education and will start later this year. More details to follow. If you have
Positioned for the Summit Wave 1
After fighting fierce winds on Wednesday and Thursday, team after team made progress and climbed to the launching point on both sides of Everest Friday, ask May 21st and are ready to go for their summit bids starting Friday night, Nepal time (see sidebar for current time). The good news is the winds have calmed somewhat as reported by several teams at the South Col and Camp 2/3 on the north side. I know many people are following Jordan Romero, the 13 year-old on the north and from his SPOT tracking unit, they appear to have left camp 2 going higher. This would put them on the summit Saturday morning. You can follow them real time at this link. A caveat, I have rarely seen or experienced any of these satellite units function 100% perfectly throughout a climb. Batteries die, it is turned off accidentally, the signal bounces off rock walls or is completely lost; so if the track looks strange it is more than likely the technology, not the climbers. Some reports from teams over the past 24 hours: This in from 7 Summtis Club: Today, 21 May, as previously predicted, wind was decreased. It allowed the first group to climb to the camp at an altitude of 7700 meters (camp 2). The second group climbed up to North Col (7000 m). Sherpas continued carry goods to upper camps. So, the expedition is going up with a lag of one day. And now dates of summit assault are defined, respectively, for 23 and 24 May. Most of expeditions from the north and south moved to high-altitude camps. The summit wave on the south will be 22 May. On the north most of climbers are behind for about a day. Apa Sherpa’s BC updated us hours ago from the North Col: Everybody is at Camp 4. There was a possibility of some very high winds, maybe up to 60 mph, but the team reports that all is calm. They will be leaving for their summit attempt in about 4 and half hours. These next reports show that many teams hit the wall on Thursday, May 20th battling the weather and will be looking at an actual summit attempt on Saturday night with a Sunday morning summit. Alpine Ascents joined the teams that tried to move to C3 and reed as the winds hit harder: We were planning on going early this morning up to Camp 3. However, with the wind and the snow blasting away we decided that our option was to take another rest day. It certainly was agonizing, making that decision, but we think we made a good one. The wind has now been roaring all day long as well and we prefer for people to stay warm and keep all of their digits. We’ve had a restful day, although it’s been pretty emotionally taxing. A lot of people were having moments of doubt while trying to decide how committed they were to this mountain. It happens often on a days when it is this windy and nasty, people start thinking about back home and all their loved ones. But, with a lot of good open discussion, we’ve become a new stronger better team and we’re excited about getting up early tomorrow morning and moving on to Camp 3. Once again Gabriel Filippi gives us insight into the conditions on the north: I am still at camp 1: the weather winning over my efforts. I just saw something quite amazing: two flying tents! What is even more spectacular, is that the first one was still occupied by a climber. Fortunately, his flight was only a few centimeters long, and he is fine. The other tent literally disappeared with all its content: clothing, sleeping bag, food, oxygen. We still don’t know who owed it, but it is safe to say that his expedition is seriously compromised by the loss of his equipment. Lhakpa and I evaluated the winds at 140km/h. I will leave for camp 2 tomorrow… until then, I am streching the soup! As I have mentioned throughout this season, the First Ascent site has excellent video and outstanding writing from Leif Whittaker and now Melissa Arnot. I previously mentioned, via my Twitter feed, this video from Dave Hahn on the conditions. Dave has summited Everest 11 times and knows his stuff so when he says they will be “lucky” to summit, that says a lot. Take a look at the video for his full report. It is difficult to know who will go for the summit tonight, given the variable conditions so check your teams’s website for their latest and I will try to provide a summary as often as possible. Many who said they would go on the 21st are now delayed a day or may change their minds once at the Col or Camp 2/3 on the north if the conditions are not favorable. Bottom line however: there are climbers climbing towards the top of the world right now and will be throughout this weekend. I will create a new post for ongoing updates in a few hours or mid day Friday; US time. Climb On! Alan
Injuries on Everest
The last summit window was heralded as a great success by many teams. However it was not without incidents and many were not reported. EverestER, the base camp medical facility on the south posted a very revealing report on this summit window. And there are other reports on both sides from this season. First from the south and EverestEr: Approximately 90 people reached the summit of Everest in the last few days, a rough total of Sherpas and foreigners. Congratulations to all for getting down alive, summit or no summit. There were no fatalities. Along with summit bids, however, comes frostbite. The exposure to higher winds and lower temperatures on summit day is substantial. In addition, it’s hard to stay hydrated on summit day. Most frostbite results from unanticipated exposure, such as a forced bivouac, or delays due to accidents on the mountain or becoming immobilized from trauma or exhaustion. A climber who can’t move for any reason high on Everest is in great danger of frostbite, as well as hypothermia. The extreme hypoxia itself contributes to frostbite risk in addition to the freezing temperatures. Hypoxia diminishes the normal vasodilation that flushes the fingers with warm blood in response to getting cold. In addition, hypoxic brains can lead to poor decision making. Hydration is difficult when all water has to be made from ice, and cold water may not be appetizing in these conditions. I think it’s surprising we don’t see more frostbite. The high-quality equipment is no doubt one reason for this. What the Brits in the 20’s would have given for high-tech lightweight double boots and modern gloves and mitts! Another factor is today’s climber not having to remove gloves for tying knots, fixing ropes, handling stove fuel, etc, since the Sherpas do all these things. The guided member is also handed large mugs of tea or other liquids in camp and filled water bottles for the summit hike. The most serious frostbite so far this season was in a climber who made the very poor decision to sleep just below the South Col, feeling too exhausted to make it the last 100 meters to camp. He slept on a rock, apparently attached to the fixed line, and somehow lost the mitt on his right hand during the night. He was climbing alone, his “teammates” apparently unaware of his location and he had no Sherpa support. Amazingly, he survived the night out without a tent, sleeping bag, stove to make water or any help. In the morning, he ascended to Camp 4 on the South Col and there received help in starting back down. His mind was obviously not working well; he was stumbling and confused, the main symptoms of high altitude cerebral edema. An Argentinean woman and two Spanish women must have seemed like angels to him – they assisted him down to safety without regard to their own schedules; others helped as well. He was still a bit confused when he arrived in our camp in the early evening. Physical exam showed severe frostbite to his hands, right more than left, and to his ears, but no frostbite of the toes, a testimonial to the quality of his foot gear. We soaked his hands in warm water with Betadine, bandaged them with sterile gauze, and started him on ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug helpful for frostbite. There is actually little more we can do for frostbite ment here at base camp. (The ment is within 24 hours of injury in a specialized center.) The next morning a helicopter whisked him to Kathmandu. The picture shows dark-colored fingers without blisters, indicating the tissue is without circulation and will likely require some amputation. Blisters are a good sign, indicative of live tissue underneath the skin. The next day we had 3 more cases of severe frostbite. As usual, they were related to questionable decision making, hypoxia and dehydration. One climber decided to stop at the Balcony, on the way up, at about 27,700 ft. He was moving too slow and was very fatigued. He decided to wait for his teammates while they continued on to the summit. They returned 5 to 6 hours later. This man could have very easily descended, since ropes are fixed all the way from the Balcony to near his tent on the south Col. His self-imposed immobilization cost him most of his toes and one finger. See the picture below. The blister on the left great toe is a good prognostic sign, but blisters are absent on the other toes. Unless promptly ed, subsequent care rarely makes a difference in outcome. That is, once the tissue is frozen and then thawed spontaneously on the mountain as the climber descends, the damage is done, and the result is already determined. The one thing doctors can do is to help prevent complications such as infection and give the tissue the chance of healing. Since prehospital ment is essentially futile, prevention is absolutely critical. Meticulous attention to keeping socks and gloves dry, staying hydrated, avoiding unnecessary stops and delays, and the use of electronic or chemical heaters are all strategies to prevent frostbite. This post submitted by Dr Peter Hackett And on the North, these reports. Bill Fischer posted a debrief on his last few days on the north side this year. He left the expedition with eye problems. As I have said before, I thoroughly enjoyed Bill’s posts. He was candid, funny and had the courage to tell it like he saw it. In particular, I like this excerpt for his last post, the Blog of the Day: While I am very sad that I wasn’t able to reach my goal of 26,000 ft and then the summit I realize that I made the right decision to come off the mountain. It is tough for me to realize that my body won’t accept going higher than 20,000 ft but that is the way it is. It isn’t possible for me to go back and try
Focus on Everest
Teams are all over Everest today, no some climbing; other stuck. High winds on both sides made progress difficult and sometimes impossible for some teams as they continue to push hard to avoid the impending weather. It is snowing at Base Camp on the south and the winds are pummeling the north side; stopping some teams only as high as the North Col. This from 7 Summits Club: The first group of expedition 7 Summits Club is blocked at the North Col (7000 m) by strong winds. For the second day, no one could go up. Sherpas, who were unable to carry loads to the upper camps, are also sitting in the tents. The second group remains in the camp ABC. Waiting on Everest, tedious, anxious – it is a heavy need. The main thing is not to get sick, save a form. Wind is expected to become moderate already the next night. However, in the coming days are expected with snowfalls. Would it be a good window for climb ? But a report just in shows Jordan Romeo’s SPOT tracker as having them at camp 2. Gabriel Filippi is proobably there as well based on his last dispatch: Violent gusts are beating at the summit right now. Still, I am going to attempt a climb to camp 2 (7900m) since the winds are calmer under 8500m. I am leaving in a few minutes, and if i can move in these conditions, Lhakpa will come to meet me later. It is pure pleasure to work with him again: he was with me on the summit in 2005. Always positive and ready, his superhuman strenght and his energy motivate me to the core. On the south, some teams are moving up as shown by this from Adventure Consultants: As I write this the Adventure Consultants’ Team are settling in for the night at Camp Three. When the team arrived early this afternoon they were experiencing gusts of up to 40 knots – not to be taken lightly at 7350m! However, Mike and Ang Dorjee have informed me that the winds are dropping and our forecasts support this continuing trend. Cyclone Laila, in the Bay of Bengal, is already threatening to add some excitement to the mix but current reports still suggest a dependable decrease in summit winds tomorrow night. But the winds did stop some teams. This in from Paul Fejtek with Mountain Trip: Unfortunately, the wind-swept snow blowing high above, and a new weather forecast received this morning, factored in to a decision by Scott to turn us around. He said during his last 5 Everest expeditions he has never seen wind this strong. We were disappointed to be sure to lose a day but feeling much more secure that our tents won’t blow away here at Camp 2 rather than up at Camp 3. However, the looming concern on everybody’s mind is the rapidly approaching end of the summit window. Every year near the end of May the monsoon arrives effectively shutting down the mountain. Last year this occurred on May 25th. Our new plan, assuming no more weather delays should put us at the South Col with a shot at the summit on May 23rd. I thought that some teams may wait out the threat of the cyclone and look for a very late summit in late May or early June; however this may not be the case as even Himex is moving quickly after skipping the first window: Russell opted for a bigger weather window and after having given his famous ’30 percent’ speech, the members, guides and Sherpas were off to Camp 2 in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. You might now wonder, what the famous ’30 percent’ speech is. Well, it is Russell’s ‘lecture’ to remind his members that once they get to the summit, they are only half way up. “You need to preserve some of your energy as you will still need 30 percent of your strength for the descent. Getting to the top is only halfway,” he always emphasises. Even Apa Sherpa is moving quicker than planned and in now on his way to the South Col. It seems everyone is taking this weather seriously with a huge number focusing on Friday night for their push with Saturday morning summits. It is clear the high routes are full of climbers right now – a true conga line if there ever was one on Everest. Perhaps 100 to 200 climbers (members and Sherpas) all attached to the fixed ropes between camps. And they are almost all on supplemental oxygen for the first time this season. For most of these climbers, they will be experiencing the use of supplemental oxygen for the first time ever. Climbers of other 8000m mountains like Cho Oyu, would have valuable experience but most will struggle the first few hours to get comfortable with the system. These days almost all the climbers use supplemental oxygen. The primary benefit is to help the body feel warmer, not make them feel like they are at sea-level. At a flow of 2lpm, an average rate for most climbers, it will only make a 3,000′ difference. In other words, using O’s at 28,000, the body still feels like it is at 25,000′. Climbers will sleep on Os during the summit push starting at C3 and climb with it to the South Col (similar camps on the north). Many of this week’s dispatches spoke of reviewing the oxygen systems. There are three basic parts: bottle, regulator and mask. While the bottles come in different sizes, most weigh around 6lbs each; larger ones up to 15lbs. They last about 6 hours at 2 lpm flow; 15 hours for larger sizes. The average summit bid usually takes between 12 to 16 hours thus the need for two to three bottles. But if you use a high flow or take longer, then more bottles may be required. Also, obviously, if a climber use oxygen going up, they
Monsoon Watch
A huge wave of climbers on both sides of Everest have moved to their respective Advanced Base Camps. Many have declared a summit day of May 22nd but are monitoring the weather closely. This season is beginning to look identical to 2009 when bad weather basically shut Everest down around May 23rd and eventually delayed departures from base camps by almost week due to the heavy snow. Leaders who were there last year want to avoid a repeat, try especially on summit night. Mountain Trip, led by Scott Woolums with climbers Cindy Abbott and Paul & Denise Fejtek are looking at this weekend but have not pinned down a summit date. They explain: We are still confident that the decrease in winds forecast over the 22, 23, 24 will hold a good summit day for us. But we also have our Quiji board, tarot cards and our lucky dice! We are not being elusive with exactly when we are going, its just as the date gets closer, the forecasts become much more accurate. To say we are going say on the 24th would be reckless as things are changing rapidly by the day. One factor that will play a big role over the next week is a large tropical depression that’s formed in the Bay of Bengal and basically is heading our way. We may see precip and cloud from this as early as the 21st. This is the same type of storm that shut the mountain down last year with a lot of snow! Way to early to predict what will happen with this, but we are watching closely. On the north, an identical situation. Gabriel Filippi made this plan: I am getting ready for the summit push. I will leave around noon, and climb to camp 1 (7100m) hoping for the weather to hold. Strong winds are in the forecast until Friday night, and snow moves in on Saturday. Therefore, I am aiming to be at the last camp for the very small window during the night of the 21 to the 22, where no wind and no snow are expected. Clearly, things can change fast on a mountain, and the very notion of prediction is almost ironic. I will stay alert…. and optimistic! Looking at the weather that is playing a huge role in summit plans; IMG’s Eric Simonson posted this update on their blog that a monsoon in the Bay of Bengal is forming and moving north towards Everest. Eric posted: We are tracking tropical cyclone Laila in the Bay of Bengal. Our longtime IMG weather forecaster Michael Fagin (www.everestweather.com) forwards us this satellite photo (courtesy of Meteorological Forecasting Division, Government of Nepal). As this storm moves north, we are hoping it will be pushed east by the jet stream, missing the Everest area! So we might see a rush to the top similar to last year, 2009. Regular followers will remember that Himex actually sent their team up a bit before schedule to miss the heavy stuff. Summit night of May 22, 2009 was a tough one with stiff winds and snowfall. Dave Hahn commented last year on his summit night as the cyclone brought huge changes to Everest (remember this was 2009, not this year): We passed the other climbing teams, one by one, as we went up the face in the night and just as dawn was beginning to the East we overtook a final team at 28,000 ft and felt fully in control of our pace and destiny as we took on the South Summit. As daylight came on, I knew it was one of the prettiest mornings I’d seen from up high. But I didn’t reach for my camera. The morning was pretty because there were clouds at many levels and in many directions. I didn’t take pictures for the same reason I wouldn’t if I saw a large tiger coming my way with fangs barred. It was clear that our good weather window was closing and we needed to move fast and hard if we wanted to squeeze in a summit. We felt the full force of the winds as we crested the South Summit, but all were strong and all nodded their heads when I pointed across the crazy traverse topping the Kangshung and Southwest Faces and leading to the Hillary Step and the summit. We went for it, but even before we’d scrambled up the Hillary Step, clouds had covered the mountaintop. Visibility was poor at 6:45 AM when we stepped up to the summit. Most of us kept our packs on, knowing our stay would be short. It was not a day for photos and flags… just a few handshakes and hugs and we were out of there. We made quick time back down through the storm to high camp. Lucky. You can read Dave’s excellent description of how the cyclone’s impact hit Base Camp last year. Of course it can snow all it wants once the climbers are down! Many teams on the south are looking to start their summit bid on Friday, May 21s which would have them on top Saturday morning, May 22nd between 6:00 AM to 10:00AM, normally. Apa Sherpa 21st Chad Kellogg 22nd Jordan Romero May 23rd Alpine Ascents 22nd Adventure Consultants-22nd Altitude Junkies 22nd IMG 22nd, 23rd Adventure Dynamics 23rd 7 Summits Club 22nd, 23rd The only team still holding their cards close to their vest is Himex which is normal operating procedure for them. You can see the latest radar image for Cyclone Laila aka 01B through this link that the feeder bands are approaching Nepal. It is not time to worry, but it is time to pick up the pace a bit. Climb On! Alan