{"id":10260,"date":"2012-05-20T09:13:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T15:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=10260"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:28:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:28:07","slug":"everest-2012-weekend-update-may-20-summits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/20\/everest-2012-weekend-update-may-20-summits\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2012: Weekend Update May 20 – Summits! – Death Update 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Everest<\/a>
Everest Plume<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Update 3: Season summary – 8 Confirmed deaths, 1 Missing:<\/h4>\n

40 year-old Karsang Namgyal Sherpa climbing with Prestige Adventures related to alcohol at base camp; Peak Freaks\u2019 Namgyal Tshering Sherpa fell from a ladder into a crevasse near C1; Dawa Tenzing with Himex from stroke and died in Kathmandu; 33 year-old Indian, Ramesh Gulve, climbing with the Pune team suffered a stroke around Camp2 and died back in India. Dr Ebehard Schaaf with Asian Trekking of HACE near South Summit, Shriya Shah-Klorfine, 33, a Nepali-born Canadian, Song Won Bin from South Korea died at the Balcony from AMS and then a fall. Chinese climber, Ha Wenyi. A Nepali Sherpa guide has been missing since May 19.<\/p>\n

Update 2: 4 Deaths<\/h4>\n

This report from the Nepal Ministry<\/a>:<\/p>\n

According to Tilak Ram Pandey, Liaison Officer, Department of Mountaineering at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Shriya Shah, a Canadian Non-Resident Nepali and Dr Schaff Erich, a climber from Germany, lost their lives while descending from the top of the Mount Everest.<\/p>\n

\u201cShah died near Everest summit, while Schaff breathed his last at the South Cole,\u201d Pandey told THT over phone from Everest Base Camp. Shriya, who was born in Kathmandu in 1979 and grew up in Mumbai, was the owner and president of SOS Splash of Style Inc, a company recognised as the exclusive importer of Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor\u2019s \u2018Khazana\u2019 products in Canada.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Song Won Bin from South Korea, a Chinese climber and a Nepali Sherpa guide have been missing since Saturday. \u201cFellow climbers are searching for them,\u201d Pandey said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More information on Shriya Shah and her website<\/a>. She was climbing with Utmost Adventure Trekking<\/a> out of Kathmandu. Very, very sad.<\/p>\n

More information on Song Won Bin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update 1: 4 Deaths<\/h4>\n

I can confirm that there were 3 deaths, probably 4, on the May 19th summit push. Western guides reports 3 bodies on the South Col route near the South Summit and 1 person apparently suffering from severe HACE. Their names, countries or teams are unknown but the deaths have been confirmed.<\/p>\n

As I previously reported, Asian Trekking chairman,\u00a0Ang Tshering Sherpa, reported that\u00a0 Dr. Eberhard Schaaf of Germany, climbing with AT died from high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) at the south summit.<\/p>\n

If I have a summit number on the location table<\/a>, those teams have not published any reports of death or injuries from their respective summits teams. Obviously, I don’t track every team or climber if they don’t publish public information. So if their team is not on the list, I have no way of knowing anything about them.<\/p>\n

I know this is horrible news and those who have not heard from climbers they were following are quite upset. All I can suggest is to contact the company they arranged their climb with if you have not heard from them directly. Please do not contact me as I have no further information or means to find out more details at this point. However, I will post confirmed\u00a0 information as I receive it on this site.<\/p>\n

The normal fatality process is that the Nepal Government Liaison Officer assigned to each team files a report with the Nepal Ministry of Tourism who then issues a press release. The families are usually notified immediately by the expedition organizer.<\/p>\n

Last night, the weather was very difficult with high winds and low temperatures. There were many summits but also many teams turned backed. Note, it appears these deaths were not related to the earlier Lhotse Face rockfall or Kumbu Icefall dangers.<\/p>\n

Normally I wait to post such information until there are more details but news of these deaths are all over the climber’s blogs and creating massive anxiety, thus I felt I would share what I could 100% confirm.<\/p>\n

My sincere condolences to all the families, teammates, and friends.<\/p>\n

\n

If there was one word that described this week it has to be “whiplash”.<\/p>\n

The excitement, uncertainty and drama of Everest 2012 continued to captivate climbers and non climbers alike. This week we saw a bit of everything from summits to turn-arounds to false starts to full out res. And sadly one death that was reported.<\/p>\n

I estimate there have been over 300 summits this week alone.<\/p>\n

Ropes<\/h4>\n

The week started perfectly with the teams on the South side working together to contribute the Sherpa power needed to fix the lines to the summit.<\/p>\n

It was a classic “brotherhood of the rope” moment with Sherpas from IMG, Jagged Globe, Patagonia Bros, Rimo, AAI, Chilean, North Face, Peak Freaks, Adventure Consultants,\u00a0 7 Summits, and Asian Trekking all working together to attach over 1000 meters or 3300 feet of rope to the icy flanks of Everest all the way to the summit.<\/p>\n

However, once complete, the flood gates opened and teams were already positioned at the South Col in anticipation.<\/p>\n

Weather Windows<\/h4>\n
\"Lhotse<\/a>
Lhotse Face above C3 on May 18, 2012. Courtesy of Cian Brolchain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point in any Everest season, the weather dominates everything. Two weather windows had been identified. The first was around May 18th and the second, May 25th. With the warm conditions, low snow in April and early May, combined with rock fall and avalanches, almost every climber and Sherpa wanted to get up and off Everest ASAP.<\/p>\n

This sense of urgency translated into one of the largest crowds the South side has ever experienced. Over 200 climbers snaked their way up the Lhotse Face this week, jugging the lines towards Camp 3 and then to the South Col with laser like focus on summing on the morning of May 19th.<\/p>\n

A large concern was this window was viewed as narrow with high winds picking back up towards the end of the period. That combined with the crowds caused many teams on the South to make the safe bet to wait for the second window.<\/p>\n

The same movie was being shown on the North but, in already almost constant windy conditions, they knew if they wanted to summit this year, it was going to be in high winds, no matter what the forecast said.<\/p>\n

In the midst of all this, Conrad Anker pulled the plug on the National Geographic sponsored climb of the West Ridge due to dangerous icy conditions on the ridge proper. He said he would join their South Col team in the second window. The Eddie Bauer effort remained coy but I fully expect the same decision.<\/p>\n

South Summits<\/h4>\n

Not content to wait for the Sherpa rope fixers, a very strong and experienced Chilean team climbed along with them and had the honor of claiming the first summit of 2012. Led by Chilean Rodrigo Jordan, a legend in Chile with summits of Everest’s Kanshung Face in 1992,\u00a0 a 1996 K2 ascent, and many more impressive climbs; his team of 10 plus 10 Sherpas set the standard for 2012.<\/p>\n

In a moment of pure honor, the Sherpas stepped aside as Rodrigo claimed the summit on May 18th. Oh and\u00a0\u00dcber speed climber Ueli Steck with Nepalese climber Tenzing (last name or village not mentioned) summited along with this group without using supplemental oxygen<\/p>\n

Then the flood gates opened with over 150 climbers making their way up the dark Triangular Face towards the Balcony, onto the Southeast Ridge only to personally experience the dreaded bottleneck at the Hillary Step early on May 19th. But they worked through it and over 100 summited.<\/p>\n

It was an impressive performance from many small, independent teams but also the large commercial outfits including:<\/p>\n