{"id":34258,"date":"2019-05-23T10:07:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=34258"},"modified":"2019-05-23T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T20:12:08","slug":"everest-2019-summit-wave-5-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/23\/everest-2019-summit-wave-5-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2019: Summit Wave 5 Recap – 3 Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another big day on Everest with well over 200 total summits from both sides. The winds picked back up testing some climbers along with extremely cold temperatures. \u00a0Everest ER is noting a lot of frostbite. Sadly, yet another death.<\/p>\n

Sherpa Family Summits<\/h2>\n

I’m so happy and proud of Kami Sherpa, whom I summited Everest and K2 with, that he summited Everest with two of his sons while working for Climbing The Seven Summits team. Mingma Dorjee Sherpa<\/a><\/span>\u00a0became what he thinks is the first Nepal educated Engineer to summit. He graduated a few years ago with an Electrical Engineering degree. Also Phinjodorjee Sherpa<\/a>, Kami’s oldest son and brother of Minga summited with them.<\/p>\n

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Mingma Dorjee Sherpa, son of Kami Sherpa on the summit Everest 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Route Update: First Attempt Over, Considering Another<\/h2>\n

Looks like Cory Richards and Topo Mena are struggling with the conditions. Cory posted:<\/p>\n

@estebantopomena<\/a> 1st attempt: @estebantopomena<\/a> and I spent 40 hours on the wall with one open bivvy at 7300 m (around 24,000 ft). The conditions we encountered coupled with our chosen tactics compounded by exertion meant that we had to turn back at around 7,600 m. Downclimbing safely took another 7 hours from our high point. Back in ABC and reassessing our approach, we are looking into the early days of June for a potential second window and attempt. Is it a failure? In the most strict sense of the word, Absolutely. But is it a building block? For sure. I’ve always maintained that this is truly a journey vs. a summit sport. But to truly understand the whole process, you have to get to the summit. Fingers crossed that happens this season.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Topo’s perspective:<\/p>\n

To retrace steps on such a big route is painful, not just physically but also on an emotional level knowing all that is behind each meter you climbed up. \u00a0Yesterday @coryrichards<\/a> and I decided to abandon our first real attempt of the dreamed #theLine<\/a>; what happened? A tight weather window and marginal conditions that simply kicked our asses! Well, anyway we had a hell of a first go that took us up to 7600m and most importantly, we learned so much more about the nature of this beast we are dealing with. Needless to say that even tho this time things didn’t happen as we wanted, its the mountains right? All we can do now is to be grateful ’cause the mountain let us leave it’s grounds, adjust what is in our hands to be adjusted and trust that all that is not in our control will play a more favorable role on the next go.\u00a0Today is just recover our bodies and start planning the next move…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

13th, 14th and 15th Deaths<\/h2>\n

Sadly another Indian climber has died increasing the total to 13 death across all the 8000ers this season including 4 on Everest. Overall 6 Indian climbers have died this season. Guided by India’s Transcend with logistics from Arun Treks, Anjali S Kulkarni<\/strong>\u00a0from Mumbai, India apparently collapsed after summiting with her the husband, Sharad Kulkarni. She was close to the South Col per reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nepal based Dreamers Destination client\u00a0Kalpana Das<\/strong>, of Odisha, India summited but died on descent near Balcony. It’s reported she had summited Everest in 2008.<\/p>\n

On the Tibet side of Everest, Swiss operator Kobler & Partner said that one of the members only identified by his first name, Ernst, died after summiting around 8600-meters\/28,2125-feet<\/p>\n

My deep condolences to their family and friends.<\/p>\n

A Record?<\/h2>\n

With so many people going for the summit, many are wondering if this is a record year from the Nepal side. Using the outstanding reference from the Himalayan Database and little coaching for HDB Zar, Richard Salisbury, I found that perhaps May 22, 2019 may have in fact broken the record set on May 19, 2016 of 207 summits. But we will have to wait for the great folks at the HDB to gather all the data before crowning the winner. I’m estimating close to 300 summits on this Wednesday alone.<\/p>\n

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Hillay Slope?<\/h3>\n

With the death near the Hillary Step yesterday, a lot of people are wondering if it is still the bottleneck it once was pre-2015 earthquake. Well apparently yes. With 2 to 3 hour waits to descend it seems to be an obstacle when the mountain is crowded like yesterday. This is a picture from last year courtesy of Mike Hamill and Casey Groom:<\/p>\n

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Hillary Step 2018 by Casey Grom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And from my files from pre-earthquake:<\/p>\n

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“traditional” Hillary Step<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you can see, climbers no longer deal with the off-width rock crack but it still a 45 degree angled snow slope. And at almost 29,000-feet, even with supplemental oxygen, its tough for most people going up and down. I’m unclear if there were dual ropes – an up and down this year.<\/p>\n

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Wave 5 Summary – Well over 200 from both sides<\/h2>\n

Nepal – \u00a0104++ that I know of.<\/h3>\n