{"id":44488,"date":"2024-03-21T18:26:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T00:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=44488"},"modified":"2024-03-28T16:08:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T22:08:17","slug":"everest-2024-climbers-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/21\/everest-2024-climbers-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Everest 2024: Climbers to Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As we near the end of March, climbers fly to Kathmandu and Lhasa for the Spring 8000-meter expeditions. I expect climbs on all the 8000ers in Tibet and Nepal: Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri I, Manaslu, Annapurna, and Shishapangma. If history guides, 97% of all climbers on Everest will use supplemental oxygen, and on most of the others as well. Here are a few to watch this spring.<\/p>\n

No O’s<\/h3>\n

First up is a tip: Norwegian endurance athlete Frank L\u00f8ke<\/strong>, 44, who has already summited Everest and K2 in 2021 and 2022, respectively, now wants to try the Big E without O’s. \u00a0The former handball player is regarded as one of the best line players of his era. He retired to become a TV personality, competed in several Norwegian reality TV shows and participated in multiple ultramarathons, ultra-distance cycling, triathlon and quadrathlon competitions, including the Norseman Triathlon and the \u00d6sthammar Adventure Race. 8K Expeditions confirmed he is climbing with them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Then there is Turkish climber Tunc Findik, 52, who has completed all fourteen of the 8000ers, including Everest twice, and will now return to Everest for a no-O attempt. He told ExWeb<\/a> that he would use Os if he felt it was necessary, “For sure, there is no rule that says you must die sticking to ethics. It is only a climb.” According to the Himalayan Database, he has a good track record for no Os summits: Annapurna I, Manaslu, Kanchenjunga, Dhaulagiri, and Cho Oyu. His first summit of Everest came at the young age of 29 in 2001.<\/p>\n

These no Os attempts are always fascinating to watch and often with tragic results, as we saw last year with Hungarian Szilard Suhajda<\/a>, who was climbing Everest alone with no Sherpa support and without supplemental oxygen when he went missing. A Seven Summits Trek summit team of Sherpas guiding Chinese clients last saw him at the base of the Hillary step. He is presumed dead as he was never seen again last season.<\/p>\n

The use of supplemental oxygen always creates a spirited debate among the purists. They cite fair play, style, and cheating. I respect their opinions and feel similar about massage tents, saunas, and pool tables at base camp. However, I feel that climbing is a sport with few rules, and each person’s choices are theirs to make and not ours to judge…unless they lie, cheat, or profit from a false accomplishment.<\/p>\n

For a clear view of using O’s, listen to my Podcast<\/a> with Dutch climber Wilco Van Rueln, 57, who told me in 2022 about his experience in Kanchenjunga. The short story about Wilco, as close to a professional climber as you can get, found himself high Kanch with a climber he didn’t know and a very young and inexperienced Sherpa. Wilco faced a decision that would test his character and commitment to the style he had sworn to honor – climbing in as pure of style as possible, especially without supplemental oxygen.<\/p>\n

Best of luck to all who are climbing this season. Stay safe and come home.<\/p>\n

Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n

\n

The Podcast on alanarnette.com<\/h2>\n

You can listen to #everest2024 podcasts<\/strong>\u00a0on Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Podcast<\/a>, Breaker<\/a>, Google Podcasts<\/a>, Pocket Casts<\/a>, RadioPublic<\/a>, Anchor<\/a>, and more. Just search for “alan arnette” on your favorite podcast platform.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Preparing for Everest is more than Training<\/h2>\n

\"summit<\/a><\/p>\n

If you dream of climbing mountains but are not sure how to start or reach your next level, from a Colorado 14er to Rainier, Everest, or even K2, we can help.\u00a0Summit Coach<\/a><\/strong> is a consulting service that helps aspiring climbers throughout the world achieve their goals through a personalized set of consulting services based on Alan Arnette\u2019s 30 years of high-altitude mountain experience and 30 years as a business executive. Please see our prices and services on the Summit Coach website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we near the end of March, climbers fly to Kathmandu and Lhasa for the Spring 8000-meter expeditions. I expect climbs on all the 8000ers in Tibet and Nepal: Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri I, Manaslu, Shishapangma, Dhaulagiri I, and Annapurna. If history guides, 97% of all climbers on Everest will use supplemental oxygen, and on most of the others as well. Here are a few to watch this spring. #everest2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7,147,669,81],"tags":[448,670],"class_list":["post-44488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing-news","category-everest","category-everest-2024-coverage","category-everest-news","tag-everest","tag-everest-2024-coverage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/everest_2002_504.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}