Everest 2024: Weekend Update April 21: Route to C2, Permits Catch Up

This is the late April Everest 2024 Weekend Update. The headlines are significantly more positive than last weekend: Permits are a bit higher, which is good for the local economy but not so good for the mountain. The fixed ropes, aka the route, are all the way to Camp 2, thus opening the path for Sherpas to establish the upper camps and for clients to begin acclimatizing. #everest2024

Everest 2024: Weekend Update April 14: Icefall Woes, Fewer Climbers

Welcome to the Everest 2024 Weekend Update in mid-April. This week’s headlines are a bit concerning. The fixed line that should already be at Camp 2 is only halfway through the Icefall. I’m not sure this is bad news for climbers, but Everest permits lag significantly from 2023, down 34%. However, we saw the first 8000er summits this past week, with many more to come. Base Camp at Everest is filling up. Trekkers are on the move, and mountains are seeing summits. Hello, spring 2024. #everest2024

Everest 2024: Weekend Update April 7: Climbers on the Trek

Welcome to the Everest 2024 Weekend Update. The Everest spring season is on track. Hundreds of people are advancing towards Everest Base Camp on the Nepal side of the Mountain. The Tibet side remains quiet, as teams will not arrive for at least another week. There are a few snags here and there, but nothing serious at this point. Each weekend during the season, I’ll post a “Weekend Update” summarizing the main stories from the past week and what we can expect coming up. #everest2024

Everest 2022 Season Summary: The Year of the Missing Jetstream

2022 brought even more stable weather windows than during the great Everest 2018. This May, a stalled high-pressure system made for horrendous temperatures in Northern India while paradoxically creating nearly ideal climbing conditions across much, but not all,  of the Himalayas. The net result was nearly 650 people summiting from Everest’s Nepal side and another 50 on the Tibet side.

Unlike previous seasons, this spring saw more experienced climbers resulting in fewer deaths, rescues, and an overall low drama environment. Despite this good news, there were periods of brutal weather and climbing conditions, and yes, there were rescues, close-calls, and, sadly, deaths.

This season, we saw the continued trend of a very high member to support ratio. A milestone reached with more Sherpas summiting than foreigners in total since Everest climbing began in the 1920s. We’ll dig into this later. All in all, it was a year like we saw a decade ago. But, unfortunately, it was not without deaths, three deaths on Everest and three more on the other 8000ers.

In the good news department, for the first time in many years, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism seemed content to stay out of the way and the headlines. But, this spring, significant changes appeared in the world of mountaineering. These changes will disrupt decades of climbing norms on the 8000-meter peaks.