{"id":30735,"date":"2018-05-19T18:49:43","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T00:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=30735"},"modified":"2019-04-06T12:27:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T18:27:56","slug":"everest-2018-weekend-update-may-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/19\/everest-2018-weekend-update-may-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2018: Weekend Update May 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot to cover from this week!<\/p>\n

Last weekend I started the update with “… this upcoming week will be like riding a wild horse. It appears, the winds have finally calmed and the jet stream has moved away … Hold on tight, its summit season!” Well was it ever! There were summits every day of the week and it looks like it may keep going until the base camps are empty or the monsoons begin, whichever comes first. But as everyone who follows Everest knows, its the weather that has the last say and it bears a close eye today. By my reckoning, there are now close to 500 summits combined from both sides, not a record year but will be in the top four or five.<\/p>\n

The Big Picture<\/h3>\n

I’ve been on or writing about Everest since 2002 – 16 years now and can’t remember a week like we just had – summits every day, mostly good weather and tragically, but realistically, two deaths. By now the typical season has had a few bad summit weather days where teams turned around primarily due to high winds. There have been several deaths, usually on the Nepal side of inexperienced climbers and unqualified “guides”or bargain guides, which was the case this week for both deaths. Also, individuals, once back from their summit push, have posted comments about crowds, slow climbers and the like, but we’ve seen little of that this year – even though it certainly has happened.<\/p>\n

This season is going perfectly in many respects – on both sides. The ropes were in at a decent time that lined up with the acclimatization rotations. In other words, teams were ready as the ropes reached the summit. That timing along with this past week of good weather allowed teams to spread out and not bunch into a few days like in 2012 when there were less than five good days the entire season. We’ve already seen summits on eight separate days thus far in 2018.<\/p>\n

It’s been interesting watching the “summit strategies” of the teams. The old guard has waited and is either going this weekend or summited late this past week. Some of the younger companies were the first to push. \u00a0Usually its warmer with less wind around the 19th<\/sup> to 21st<\/sup> of May so it pays to go “later.” This year, I’m not sure it made all that much difference, however teams did report cold temps earlier in the week as in -20F\/29C, some said it was -40C!<\/p>\n

If the weather continues to hold, we could see an unprecedented series of summits days unfold. Teams are targeting daily summits up to the 25th<\/sup> of May. If that occurs, 2018 would have seen almost two weeks of daily summits – simply amazing. But not to paint too rosy of a picture, there have been issues this season from failing oxygen systems to preventable deaths.<\/p>\n

Typhoons and\u00a0Monsoons<\/h3>\n

On 6 May, I asked Michael Fagin of Everest Weather<\/a>\u00a0to discuss what brings an end to the season,\u00a0“The main reason is the onset of the\u00a0Monsoon. Close to June 1 there is a strong southerly flow that brings moist air from the Bay of Bengal into India and\u00a0Nepal and of course into the entire Himalaya region including Mt. Everest. The net result is starting in June and continuing through\u00a0the summer India and Nepal get periods of heavy precipitation which certainly causes issues for mountaineering in that region.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

Michael tells me that the best source for tracking these storms is from the US Navy Joint\u00a0Typhoon Warning Center<\/a>.\u00a0This is the latest map showing a developing system off the coast of Africa that might travel east into the Bay of Bengal,\u00a0just as Michael described. I’m not a meteorologist or even play one on TV, but this bears watching as it could be the season\u00a0ender as we move towards the end of May.<\/p>\n

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As of 19 May 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oxygen Issues<\/h3>\n
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Summit Oxygen System<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adrian Ballinger’s Alpenglow<\/a>, team of 16 people experienced the nightmare scenario on 16 May. They were\u00a0at 27,887’\/8,500, only 3,766’\/1,148m below the summit, near the 2nd Step on the Tibet side when 10 of 39 oxygen bottle regulators spontaneously failed over a 3 hour period. \u00a0They were not the only team to see this phenomenon. Also on the Tibet side, Furtenbach and Transcend had regulator failures and on the Nepal side both Adventure Consultants and Kenton Cool’s member Ben Fogel had issues. All the teams were able to salvage their summits by using spare regulators except for Alpenglow who was forced back by the sheer numbers. All individuals are safe and a few are trying again. You can read the details on this post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A regulator controls the flow of oxygen between the bottle and the mask. If it fails, there is no oxygen in the mask and in this case all the oxygen in the bottle escapes into the atmosphere. All the failures were made by\u00a0Summit Oxygen<\/a>\u00a0(SO). I have spoken live several times this week with SO’s founder and CEO, Neil Greenwood. In our last conversation he thought they were moving towards understanding what happened. \u201cIt is worth noting have been no regulator failures before or after May 15\/16 when it appears a unique combination of temperatures and high atmospheric humidity have been the cause of the issue.” more details<\/a><\/p>\n

To keep this in perspective but to also illustrate the significance, regulator do fail. They freeze up, or simply stop working from all suppliers – Summit Oxygen, Top Out<\/a> and Poisk<\/a>. This is why quality, experienced teams will always carry spares – many in fact for large teams. But they don’t double up on this critical part because each one weighs 8.47 ounces\/240 grams – that’s heavy at 8,000 meters!! In my experiences over 16 years, a failure of this magnitude is an extremely rare event – unheard of. I have used SO several times, including on Manaslu and K2 with complete success so this was a frightening shock.<\/p>\n

Preventable Deaths<\/h3>\n

There were two deaths this week. First, Lam Babu Sherpa from Kurima solukhambu working for Seven Summits Treks and supporting a Ukraine team.\u00a0Details<\/a>\u00a0Russian climber\u00a0Rustem Amirov<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>died from AMS after nearly summiting Lhotse\u00a0Details<\/a>. Both tragic for friends, family and fellow climbers and from the information available, both were preventable. I say this not to be critical or insensitive but as a case study for future climbers.<\/p>\n

I received message regarding Rustem saying he was a strong climber and one friend added, “I\u00a0learned during the day that he was in a “hurry”, which is very far from the Rustem I knew. I wish I knew what went through his mind.”\u00a0<\/strong>Bashinformation Russia<\/a>\u00a0provides a report but I’m told first hand from people who knew him and spoke with him at base camp that he had only made one acclimatization rotation, was climbing without a teammate or support and was not using supplemental oxygen. He collapsed about 328’\/100m from Lhotse’s summit,\u00a08,516\u00a0m\/27,940′ in the gulley.\u00a0Sherpas found him and helped him down to camp 2 where he unfortunately passed away. He was on a large group permit with Nepal company, Monterosa, and intended to climb unsupported.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lam Babu Sherpa is a very confusing case. He was supporting a Ukraine team.\u00a04Sport.ua<\/a> has an account with very different themes. One of the climbers with Lam wrote a report<\/a> but using Google translate is difficult to decipher exactly what happened. I confirmed the events the day of the death with\u00a0Gyanendra Shrestha<\/a>, the Ministry\u2019s representative at EBC who said he had snow blindness, went “missing” and the rescue team stationed at Camp 2 was unaware of the incident as it was happening. I find it hard to understand how the 45 year-old Sherpa developed snow blindness, was reported to be staggering and no one was able to help him. I look forward to obtaining more details on this sad event.<\/p>\n

Speaking this week with Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue<\/a>, probably the largest evacuation company for Everest he told me they were conducting two to three evacuations a day and have over 60 this season. More on my conversation later next week.<\/p>\n

Summits ~500!<\/h3>\n

With all this drama and tragedy, it was actually one of the most successful and safest weeks on Everest in many years.\u00a0You can review all the summits to date by number on the Location Table<\/a> and click on the links to the team site that in some cases show the names of the members and Sherpa who summited. In almost all cases it was a 1:1 member to support ratio.\u00a0I list some of the big teams along with the number of members plus guides and Sherpa who summited: The total number are my estimates.<\/p>\n

Nepal: 311 summits – 149 members with 162 Sherpa<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Adventure Consultants<\/a>\u00a010\/16<\/li>\n
  • CTSS \u2013 Mike Hamill<\/a>\u00a08\/8<\/li>\n
  • Imagine Climb<\/a>\u00a07\/6 with Chinese double amputee Xai Boyu<\/li>\n
  • Madison Mountaineering<\/a>\u00a010\/12<\/li>\n
  • Seven Summits\u00a0Treks Indian<\/a> 7\/7<\/li>\n
  • Seven Summits\u00a0Treks Chinese<\/a>\u00a09\/9<\/li>\n
  • Seven Summits\u00a0Treks International<\/a>\u00a011\/12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Tibet: 177 summits – 86 members with 91 Sherpas\/Tibetans<\/p>\n

      \n
    • 7 Summits Club<\/a>\u00a020\/17\u00a0(more to summit)<\/li>\n
    • Transcend Adventures<\/a>\u00a018\/22\u00a0(more to summit)<\/li>\n
    • Furtenbach Adventures<\/a>\u00a05\/5 (more to summit)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      And the big teams still left include<\/p>\n

        \n
      • International Mountains Guides<\/a>\u00a0over 25 members<\/li>\n
      • Asian Trekking<\/a>\u00a0over 40 members<\/li>\n
      • 7 Summits Treks\/Arnold Coster<\/a>\u00a08 members<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        And in the department of overcoming obstacles,\u00a0Matt Moniz<\/a> and Willie Benegas<\/a> had to slow down and stop because they were climbing too fast otherwise they would miss the sunrise!!!! \u00a0he messaged “We went way too fast, we are burrowed in at south summit waiting for the sun inr.ch\/5CEYVJJ<\/a> – Matt Moniz” They waited an hour for sunrise and summited per\u00a0Matt’s Tracker at\u00a0<\/a>\u00a04:49 am. They are off to Lhotse for a summit on 21st.<\/sup><\/p>\n

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        Kami Rita Sherpa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        All summits are notable to the individual and their families, but these stood out this week:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Lhakpa Sherpa<\/strong>, 44, set the female record for summits, 9 on 16 May 2018.<\/li>\n
        • Kami Rita Sherpa<\/strong>, 48, set the record for anyone with 22 Everest summits on 16 May 2018<\/li>\n
        • Chinese double amputee Xia Boyu<\/strong> summited on 14 May with Mingma G Sherpa’s Imagine Climb team<\/li>\n
        • Kenton Cool <\/strong>broke his own record for most UK summits at 13<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Inspiration<\/h3>\n

          Mingma G Sherpa<\/a>\u00a0posted this short video of Xia Boyu approaching the summit:<\/p>\n