South Teams Racing Against the Weather for Summits

The summit push is on and the south is pushing hard. Teams are at camp 3, Sherpas are at the South Col with tents and oxygen ready for the summit push. If the weather window holds, per some forecasts, teams should arrive at the South Col mid-day Saturday, Nepal time and start their summit bids later that evening, May 15th. This would have summits on Sunday morning, May 16th starting perhaps as early as 6:00Am. Of course all of this assumes the winds die down enough for them to climb. The competition continues and now is a bit ugly with feelings of deceit designed to trick the competitors. The Sky Climber team down at base camp report Carina Räihä at the South Col prepared to go for the summit anytime and Anne-Mari Hyryläinen has climbed to Camp 3.

Fins at High Camps in Race for Everest

With teams now heading higher, the race between Carina Räihä and Anne-Mari Hyryläinen to be the first Finnish woman to summit Everest is being explained fully by their support teams, Peak Freaks and Altitude Junkies. Both are viewing it as a friendly race (kind of) and this is supported when I interviewed Anne-Mari back in February. She commented then on the “race”: