Climbing the World to End Alzheimer's
Climbing the World to End Alzheimer's
With a good window before a brief windy period, teams are positioning for Everest summits and reaching the summit of Makalu, Kangchenjunga, and Dhaulagiri. But there was a tragedy on the South Face of Lhotse.
It was a busy week in the Himalayas with summits on multiple 8000ers, including Everest. On the Nepal side of the mountain, Kami Rita Sherpa led the rope team to the summit and at the same time extended his summit record to 26. Sadly, there were two more deaths of the season, one on Kangchenchunga and another on Everest. Still, thus far 2022 is a low-drama season. With the good weather emerging, the summit trolls will now allow everyone to make their attempts.
Big Picture
2022 is turning out to be an unusual season but in a good way. On Thursday, I did a podcast with three world-class meteorologists, Michael Fagin of Everest Weather, Chris Tomer of Tomer Weather Solutions, and Marc De Keyser of Weather4expeditions , about what we are seeing and can expect these last few weeks of the season. They all agreed that it is warmer than usual, drier than usual, and with less wind than usual. The culprit is the Jet Stream is not sitting on top of Everest like it usually does.
They even suggested that we may see another year like in 2018 when we had 11 consecutive days of low winds that allowed a record year for Everest summits with 802 summits on both sides. The Nepal side saw a total of 562 summits made up of 266 foreigners (aka members) and 296 High Altitude Workers (aka Sherpas). We won’t see anything like that number of summits in 2022, perhaps around 400, including support.
A wild card was a potential typhoon brewing in the Bay of Bengal but now it appears that “ASANI” will track away from making landfall. Again, there are currently NO typhoons warnings issued by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center:
A member of the Russian team, Seven Summits Club has died of assumed altitude sickness at Camp 2 on Everest while completing their acclimatization rotations. Pavel Kostrikin,55, according to the Himalayan Database, had attempted Everest in 2013 and 2016 turning back both times citing exhaustion.
11 Sherpas led by Kami Rita, with his 26th summit, got the fixed ropes to the summit earlier than expected. Look for wave upon wave of commercial teams making their summits bids, some as early as tonight. And more summits on Kangchenjunga.
A 52-year-old Indian client of Pioneer Adventure died after leaving Camp 4 on Kangchenjunga. His outfitter, Pioneer Adventures, tells the press that his Sherpas told Narayan Iyer to turn back, but he refused. Also, Helicopters are consuming the Khumbu.
With most Everest climbers resting at EBC or down-valley waiting for the weather window, the ‘other’ 8000ers are still busy. There are remaining attempts on Kangchenguga, Makalu, and Dhaulagiri.
In my Podcast yesterday with Michael Fagin of Everest Weather, Chris Tomer of Tomer Weather Solutions, and Marc DeKeyser of weather4expeditions.com, they are seeing something very different this year – a missing Jet Stream! All three experts agree that we are in for a period of calm weather, albeit with higher than usual summit temperatures. However, note that it will still be -20C/-4F on top! They also talked about the potential typhoon in the Bay of Bengal that may have landfall around May 15, but the path is very uncertain due to an immense area of high-pressure in the area.
With both sides of Everest seeing significant activity, let’s take a pause and talk to three world-class weather experts about the current situation and what they see in store for May. Also, I ask them to predict the first day for a member to summit Everest.
The historical weather pattern on Everest has been a calm April, a rough beginning of May before calming again starting around May 15 for about two weeks. In this Podcast with three professional weather forecasters who are currently supporting many teams on Everest, Michael Fagin of Everest Weather, Chris Tomer of Tomer Weather Solutions, and Marc DeKeyser of weather4expeditions.com, they are seeing something very different this year. The case of the missing Jet Stream!
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.
It’s May Day on Everest and some teams are having a party, while others are focused on their acclimatization schedule, and some now eying the summit. But everyone needs to wait for the fixed ropes. The upper mountain may have some moderate winds that may delay the rope team. We saw summits on a few 8000ers but the conditions remain iffy. Still, thus far 2022 is a low-drama season.
Big Picture
With so many climbers high on Everest, the news is scarce due to a lack of comms. Teams are doing their rotations on Everest to Camp 2 and sometimes a bit higher to Camp 3, few if any thus far are following the traditional model of sleeping at Camp 3, nearly 7,000-meters. Those who won’t be using Os will need to go to 8,000-meters before their summit attempt. But for now, several teams declared good enough and are settling in to wait for the summit weather window. It will be at least two weeks or so until the forecast shows a few days with the summit winds under 30mph/50kph. Some teams are now doing the fashionable “touch grass” down valley, ready to return at a moment’s notice for the summit push.
Climbing the World to End Alzheimer's
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