Is $65K for Everest a Good Deal? Alpine Ascents Interview
There are a handful of companies around the globe that guide the world’s highest mountains. Of these Alpine Ascents International (AAI), based in Seattle Washington has a strong track record – and a price tag that matches. I have been interviewing guide companies for years now including IMG, drugstore Adventure Consultants, Himex, Altitude Junkies and […]
Wave 3 Recap
Sunday night saw the last large push of the season however, climbers still remain in position for summit bids Monday night, May 24th. There were summits on both sides in spite of variable conditions and heavy snow at time. Most of the summits occurred in very snowy and cloudy conditions. On the South AAI (17) […]
Summit Wave 3 (update 6)
update 7: Summits!! With late news, as expected, discount there are more summits Monday morning on the north. Adventure Dynamics reports 6 members and 7 Sherpas on top. 7 Summits Club put their second team up with 6 members plus an undetermined number of Sherpas, they do not list their Sherpas unfortunately. A foot of […]
Summit Wave 2 (update 6)
update #6: As we are in mid afternoon, online Nepal time, it appears the south side had a lot of success with over 50 new summits. The north remains very, very unclear with limited reporting. IMG reported 100% success with 15 climbers plus 15 Sherpas summiting and are back down now. Patagonia Brothers puts 8 […]
Positioned for the Summit Wave 1
After fighting fierce winds on Wednesday and Thursday, team after team made progress and climbed to the launching point on both sides of Everest Friday, ask May 21st and are ready to go for their summit bids starting Friday night, Nepal time (see sidebar for current time). The good news is the winds have calmed […]
Weather Watch
Teams on Everest seem to be taking the day off and sending wishes to all their mom’s back home. Most teams are down valley looking to stay for at least 3 nights. But Peak Freaks has issued a call for their climbers to return to base camp by May 11th thus portending the start of a summit bid. However more than likely we will see the next wave of summits around the 19th.
Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 9 (updated)
This was a busy week on Everest with the first summits for the 2010 season along with a risky gamble. And several accidents and, sadly, a reported death on nearby Lhotse. A team of nine Sherpas fixed the ropes to the summit on the south side. They included Sherpas from IMG, Alpine Ascents and Himex. One western guide who was doing route work high on the mountain also joined them to the summit. Over on the north, it is an entirely different story. According to teams, the ropes are currently fixed only to camp 3 or about 27,300′, far short of the summit and thus stopping most summit attempts. The weather has been difficult this year. As usual, the north receives more snow and wind than the south and increases the difficultly of climbing on that side. It appears no summits attempts until May 11th when the winds could begin to ease but more likely it will be a few days later than that.
Devloping an Everest Climbing Plan
With the Everest season in full swing, many people ask what it takes to climb the highest mountain in the world.
It comes down to a few areas: skills, experience, fitness and commitment.
Que the Weather!
Well, right on schedule a somewhat unexpected snowstorm, complete with lightening and thunder, rolled into the Everest camps. Climbers stopped in their tracks, literally, to wait it out. Needless to say, this put a bit of a chill on talks of an early summit. But we will see. As I had mentioned before, it uncanny how the weather is excellent in April then turns ugly on May 1st almost every year – happy May Day!
Everest 2010 Weekend Update May 1 (updated)
There are good weeks and bad weeks on Everest, a bad week is when someone dies. On Monday, April 26, Hungarian climber Laszlo Varkonyi was swept into a crevasse by an avalanche on the North Col. A desperate search ensued, however, by Thursday, the search was called off. Teams on the south, while aware of the north side events, continued their acclimatization rotations with many climbers spending the uncomfortable night at camp 3. The weather continued to play nice and Sherpas took the fixed line all the way to the South Col on the south and to camp 3 on the north. They are now being supplied with oxygen bottles, stoves, fuel, tents and other suppliers needed to launch summit bids. Both camps are roughly at 8000m. As of today, the ropes are not fixed to the summit from either side.