{"id":25821,"date":"2017-04-02T12:17:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T18:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=25821"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:28:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:28:02","slug":"everest-2017-weekend-update-april-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/02\/everest-2017-weekend-update-april-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2017: Weekend Update April 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu has become flooded with climbers in addition to the normal spring trekkers. The hotels are full, the restaurants noisy and an overall feeling of anticipation in the air.<\/p>\n

Everest 2017 is well underway and it appears Nepal’s tourism industry has recovered from earthquakes, strikes and embargos.<\/p>\n

Each weekend during the season I will try to post a “Weekend Update” summarizing the main stories for the past week.<\/p>\n

The headlines this week are\u00a0all about climbers\u00a0flying into Kathmandu<\/span> and some starting the trek to base camp<\/span> and that the Icefall Doctors have the route to Camp 1<\/span>, VERY early which might\u00a0help reduce crowds IF the early teams take the\u00a0opportunity to begin the acclimatization process and go for summit in early to mid May\u00a0IF the weather allows.<\/p>\n

Most climbers will not begin serious climbing on either side until mid April. But of course a few people\u00a0will break ranks and go very early and very late with the season ending around June 1.<\/p>\n

A Busy Spring in Nepal<\/h3>\n

\"Kathmandu<\/a>This Spring will be busy with record summits expected on Everest from both Nepal and Tibet. \u00a0There could be 1,000 climbers (foreigners and Sherpas) on Everest from Nepal alone. Also look for huge crowds on the normally low volume Lhotse and\u00a0the other Nepal 8000ers of Dhaulagiri, Makalu and especially Kanchenjunga will see many teams.<\/p>\n

For most teams, the action starts when they arrive at their hotel in\u00a0Thamel.\u00a0The next big event\u00a0is the flight from Kathmandu to Lukla to begin the trek to EBC. Early reports have the teahouses overflowing, which s great for the local economy.<\/p>\n

White Knuckles at Lukla<\/h3>\n

Teams climbing from Nepal fly into\u00a0Lukla at 9400\u2019 and finish at EBC at 17,500\u2019. While it is only 30 miles, it is the altitude that makes for the slow going. The general rule of thumb for acclimatizing is to gain about 1000\u2019 a day to allow the body to adjust to the thinner air but most teams go faster than that.<\/p>\n

The air quality around Kathmandu has been poor this spring\u00a0resulting in delayed flights into Kathmandu and to Lukla but that is somewhat normal. The Lukla flight is one of the milestones of an Everest climb.\u00a0Many climbers\u00a0have posted videos of their landing and of takeoffs from\u00a0the very short runway. \u00a0It has been a safe year thus far with multiple dispatches speaking\u00a0of uneventful landings at the infamous\u00a0airstrip.<\/p>\n

Luka, now named the Tenzing-Hillary Airport<\/a>\u00a0has a deadly\u00a0reputation. There have been several\u00a0accidents over the years including the tragic death of 18 trekkers in October 2008 when the Yeti Twin Otter snagged its wheels on a security fence and crashed at the airport. However, in recent years, there have been no incidents with fatalities.<\/p>\n

This one of my videos of landing in Lukla.<\/p>\n