Tag: Everest Weekend Update

2010 Coverage, Everest, Weekend Update

Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 9 (updated)

This was a busy week on Everest with the first summits for the 2010 season along with a risky gamble. And several accidents and, sadly, a reported death on nearby Lhotse. A team of nine Sherpas fixed the ropes to the summit on the south side. They included Sherpas from IMG, Alpine Ascents and Himex. One western guide who was doing route work high on the mountain also joined them to the summit. Over on the north, it is an entirely different story. According to teams, the ropes are currently fixed only to camp 3 or about 27,300′, far short of the summit and thus stopping most summit attempts. The weather has been difficult this year. As usual, the north receives more snow and wind than the south and increases the difficultly of climbing on that side. It appears no summits attempts until May 11th when the winds could begin to ease but more likely it will be a few days later than that.

2010 Coverage, Everest, Weekend Update

Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 1 (updated)

There are good weeks and bad weeks on Everest, a bad week is when someone dies. On Monday, April 26, Hungarian climber Laszlo Varkonyi was swept into a crevasse by an avalanche on the North Col. A desperate search ensued, however, by Thursday, the search was called off. Teams on the south, while aware of the north side events, continued their acclimatization rotations with many climbers spending the uncomfortable night at camp 3. The weather continued to play nice and Sherpas took the fixed line all the way to the South Col on the south and to camp 3 on the north. They are now being supplied with oxygen bottles, stoves, fuel, tents and other suppliers needed to launch summit bids. Both camps are roughly at 8000m. As of today, the ropes are not fixed to the summit from either side.