Everest teams are doing the usual acclimatization rotations but are seeing heavy attrition that will ease crowding concerns. There’s a new level of base camp luxuries that might be beyond the pale for some purists. \u00a0Heavy snow is forecasted on Dhaulagiri, stalling movement there. Overall, it’s been a low-drama year, thankfully.<\/p>\n
Last week, there was the normal mid-season activity on Everest<\/strong>. Teams rotated between Base Camp and Camps 1 & 2, some even tagging 3. An American climber was choppered down from C1 with a leg problem, but overall the season continues in a no-drama fashion. The internet through Everest Link had issues this past week, so the news was slowly getting out.<\/p>\n Speaking to people on the mountain, they report the Icefall route is long, as in nine miles measured on a Garmin watch. There are only five ladders, so it appears the Icefall Doctors choose to weave the route around crevasses to avoid ladder placement instead of going the most direct route.<\/p>\n I was also told that this is making it challenging for a lot of climbers. A very fit person took seven hours on his rotation to reach Camp 1, and others took as long as sixteen hours. I suspect that person will call it quits. I’m told that many teams have attrition already in the 20% range. This is about average as we near the mid-May summit widows, but for late April, it’s a bit more than usual, so we may see a 25, even 30% reduction in clients, suggesting that instead of close to 500 clients, there might be 350, which would ease potential queues.<\/p>\n Over the Top Base Camp Luxuries?<\/strong><\/p>\n Several operators are continuously marketing (bragging) how great their base camp is. We are seeing reports of:<\/p>\n I remember asking Russell Brice back in 2011 about his huge dome tent in his base camp and how he offered cappuccino and wine to his clients. I suggested that perhaps this was over the top and not real mountaineering. He grinned and said, “If you have a glass of wine at home with dinner, why not here? Just because you are climbing Everest doesn’t mean that you have to suffer.”<\/p>\n I also heard from Caroline Pemberton<\/a>,\u00a0CTSS Co owner & General Manager. She noted: “haha we like to keep raising the bar every year on climber happiness factor.”<\/p>\n OK, I get it, but call me old school, or just old, but to me, mountaineering is all about the three “S’s”\u2013 suffering, stinking and summiting.<\/p>\n Other 8000ers<\/strong><\/p>\n Over on Shishapangma<\/strong>, several climbers and Sherpas claimed they made the true summit. To be candid, I don’t know any more about these claims on difficult and confusing peaks, especially for people chasing records. I don’t have a reason not to believe them adn the video looks conviencing. I just am weary of being fooled over and over. Ed Viesturs made three attempts before reaching the true summit demonstrating the challenge of the peak.<\/p>\n This is a video from the outfitter, Climbalaya<\/a>, showing the summit:<\/p>\n\n