Autumn 2019 Himalayan Season: Manaslu Crowds!
The Himalaya climbing activity is picking up with climbers trekking to Everest Base Camp and others already there on Manaslu. The Nepal Ministry of Tourism posted these stats for the autumn 2019 season and as expected when factoring in Sherpa support, there are well over 400 people on Manaslu the season: Of note, the […]
Autumn 2019 Himalayan Season: Rare Everest Attempts
Climbers are on their way to Kathmandu for a rare Everest autumn attempt that includes some famous personalities. Plus there will be potentially record setting action on Dhaulagiri. There could be some interesting storylines this season. Mountain Hardwear Revival with Madison Mountaineering I spoke today with Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering. He was on a […]
Autumn 2019 Himalayan Season: Coverage Begins – Updated
With the Himalayan spring and summer season completed, the autumn season is about to begin with more climbs in the Nepal, Tibet, perhaps Pakistan and around the world. For a change Everest and Lhotse will see a lot of activity this autumn but there are rumors that China may make it difficult to climb in […]
Everest: Nepal Looking at Huge Permit Fee Increase
Its been rumored for the past two years that Nepal will increase the permit fee to climb Everest from the current $11,000 to $15,000 but now, according to conversations I had this week with both major foreign and Nepali operators, there is talk of increasing the Everest permit fees to as much as $25,000 per […]
Everest 2019: Indians Fake their Summit Claim
Three Indian climbers came home to celebrations and fanfare for summiting Mt. Everest last month but there was only one problem – they never got above Camp 3 at 23,000-feet, much less on the summit at 29,035 feet. Vikas Rana, Shobha Banwala, and Ankush Kasana all from villages in Northern India, were climbing with the […]
Everest 2019: Season Summary The Year Everest Broke
Everest 2019 will go down as the year Everest finally broke. It was one of those seasons where a lot of things went wrong, more things went right and many trends took center stage with new and old lessons for members, support, guide companies and governments. The only remaining question is, is anyone listening? One […]
Everest 2019: Season Over?
One of the last teams known to still be on Everest made a gamble that they could catch the last available window, but as usual this year, the weather had the last word. Scott Woolums with his single client, John, along with three Sherpas: Migma,, Karma, and Namgyl spent much of April trekking in Nepal to […]
Everest 2019: Team Locations and Headlines
LATEST HEADLINE May 31: Season Over 11 Everest Deaths, 900 estimated total summits Welcome to the 2019 edition of Alan Arnette’s annual coverage of the Everest climbing season. I try to provide insight and interpretation of the activities ranging from routes to weather to the challenge and reward of climbing Everest. It’s based on my own three Everest […]
Everest 2019: Summit Wave Recap 7 – Quiet Summits, Another Death
While almost all the teams are packing up at base camps on both sides, a few are still aiming to summit and one did this Monday, May 27 morning. Mike Hammil’s Climbing the Seven Summits‘ team lead by Casey Grom summited with no one else around! They say the weather is perfect and they have […]
Everest 2019: Weekend Update May 27 – It’s Not About the Crowds
The third week of May 2019 may go down as one of the best and worse in Everest history. Over 500 people summited but it was not without cost, 10 people died, many of which were avoidable in my view. More are headed up to summit on Sunday, May 26. As I will develop in […]