Video Interview Adventure Consultants Guy Cotter
If you follow mountaineering, Adventure Consultants is one of the names that evoke almost three decades of memories. Guy Cotter, who began running the company in the mid-1990s, has deftly led his team through years of climbs worldwide. But in 2010, COVID was too much, and Guy made the difficult decision to put AC into ‘hibernation.’ Now, in 2022, he is ready to resume operations, smaller, leaner, and with an increased focus on running high-quality expeditions with discerning clients.
In this interview, I talk with Guy about his decisions with AC over the past few years and where he wants to take the company. We also delve into this new world of climbers’ linking multiple 8000-meter peaks in a single season, the record crowds on K2, and the discussion in the mountaineering community around the validity of claiming summits, especially on the fourteen 8000-meter peaks.
Guy is uniquely qualified to discuss these topics. I hope you enjoy our chat.
Everest 2017: Adventure Consultant’s Guy Cotter on ‘Fixing Everest’
As the guiding universe explodes with seemingly anybody and everybody jumping in, there are a handful of global companies that simply take care of business year in, year out and Adventure Consultants is one of the best. For close to two decades, Guy Cotter has been running the company with a strong philosophy of keeping it small and safe. Guy is not a figurehead but a true mountaineer. He has summited Everest four times as well as many other 8000 meter peaks and is returning for another attempt on Dhaulagiri this year while another AC team climbs Everest. I climbed with Guy or his team three times: Ama Dablam, and Everest twice. An Adventure Consultants expedition is well run with a loyal team of world-class Sherpas. Guy prides himself on not competing on price but rather charging what is needed to ensure personal attention to each of his members. He notes there has not been a price increase on Everest in 20 years! Guy, a native Kiwi, lives on the South Island of New Zealand in the amazing town of Wanaka on the shores of Lake Wanaka. He takes total advantage of everything his country offers from climbing to skiing to mountain biking. Adventure Consultants supports multiple industries of New Zealand by being part of world-class movies and running guided trips to their pristine mountains and ski slopes. Guy recently penned an article for the AC Blog entitled “Fixing Everest“. He has seen it all from tragedies, to avalanches, earthquakes to wonderful summits and helping members achieve their dreams. But he knows the Everest scene could be improved. Please read the entire post but some of the points he makes include: Open the Icefall earlier than in previous years to stretch the available summit windows. This will address crowds in one manner. Use helicopters to ferry gear into the Western Cwm, eliminating Sherpa loads thru the Icefall Address the epidemic of inexperienced climbers on Everest on low-cost, understaffed operators The last time I interviewed Guy was in 2013, so I thought it was about time to ask him to update us on Adventure Consultants and his thoughts on Everest. Here’s Guy: Q: Adventure Consultants seems to be doing quite well these days with New Zealand trips, International and supporting films. Congratulations. This must have been a bit of a challenge to diversify when other guides seem to be focused on only guiding the big mountains. Has this been part of a strategy? GC: Yes it’s always been a strategy to expand the foundation of the company and not merely rely on Everest and the other big peaks. This has been driven by a desire to offer a greater variety of exciting and fulfilling adventures to our customer base so there is something fulfilling to do after Everest! And if I’m going to be entirely honest it is also because I have a real desire for new destinations where I can spend time getting to know how to operate in a new area or environment. With the amount of operators out there I was very aware we needed to expand the costs of our administration base to keep pricing down and that’s why the price for our Everest expedition has not increased since 1993! Q: Guy, you were a consultant on 2015 Everest movie, loosely based on “Into Thin Air”. What was your reaction after seeing the final version? GC: I think they did a very good job on that film and I think the main reason was that they left everybody with their integrity intact and made it a story about the power of the mountains as opposed to picking up on every contentious issue that came out of those events and cramming them into a movie. I thought the visual effects were extremely well done too. I have worked on quite a few mountain films but I’ve never worked with a group of actors like this who were so engaged in doing justice to their characters. There were regular disagreements between them and the director about whether their character should say this, or do that, and I thought they were incredibly professional and I have a great deal of respect for all of them. Q: Were you pleased with how Sam Worthington portrayed you? Did you give him any hints? 🙂 GC: I actually had very little to do with Sam Worthington as he came in right near the end of the shoot and my role was minor compared to the rest. It’d pretty hard to say whether someone is portraying you well but I think he did a good job of it. When I saw one of the scenes being played out of all the climbers coming off the hill to base camp it sent a few chills down my spine as I had spent the previous 20 years moving on from those events. Q: You recently published an article on “Fixing Everest”. I thought you made excellent points but the obstacle seems to be the Nepal Government. Can you talk about what you think it will take to implement the changes you recommend? GC: I think that those of us who have a stake in Everest and care about it need to have an ongoing conversation about what direction we collectively need to take there. Everest represents so much more than just a geographical high point and all mountaineers feel a connection to it. I believe we owe it to mountaineering to manage the resource better so it doesn’t become a freak show (some will argue it already has) and of course we need to have the Nepalese government supporting positive change. Whether that can happen without their usual knee jerk random decision making that is driven by spin as opposed to good management remains to be seen but first we need to develop workable strategies between the people who work and play on the mountain. Some of the changes I suggested are already being implemented. The SPCC has instructed the icefall
Everest 2013: Interview with Guy Cotter – Boss and Climber
This interview with Guy Cotter is one of an ongoing series I do each season with Everest climbers. In addition to the regular climbers, the world’s leading guides occasionally pause to answer my questions. I welcome suggestions for anyone climbing in 2013 I should interview. Now here’s Guy: There are a handful of companies that professionally guide the world’s mountains year in, year out. Adventure Consultants is one of the in the world running trips to every corner of the globe and has for over two decades. Guy Cotter has been running the company since 1996 with a strong philosophy of keeping it small, and safe. But he is not a behind the scenes boss, but rather climbing with the of them, including Peter Hillary recently. I climbed with Guy or his team three times: Ama Dablam, and Everest twice. An Adventure Consultants expedition is well run with a team of Sherpas who have seen it all. Guy prides himself on not competing on price but rather charging what is needed to ensure personal attention to each of his members. Guy, a native Kiwi, lives on the South Island of New Zealand in the amazing town of Wanaka on the shores of Lake Wanaka. He takes total advantage of everything his country offers from climbing to skiing to mountain biking. As the owner of Adventure Consultants, his company supports the of New Zealand by being part of world-class movies, and running guided trips to their pristine mountains and ski slopes. I caught up with Guy just as he was leaving for Nepal to lead the 2013 Adventure Consultants Lhotse and Everest teams. Q: Adventure Consultants just moved into a large headquarters in Wanaka New Zealand. Business must be good! Tell us about the new place. The building we’d been in was getting too small so we renovated a nice old building right near the centre of our small alpine town called Wanaka. Wanaka is close to Mt Aspiring and has heaps of outdoor activities close by and really good weather so it’s a natural hub for climbers. The building has excellent views across Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains. It’s nice to have the additonal space of the bigger building. One benefit of the new location is that the staff get better views of our local ski hill meaning that on a good looking ski day the office might be empty! Q: Peter Hillary came to your grand opening. I understand both your fathers climbed together. I guess it was more history in the making with you and Peter together and climbing again? Both Peters father and mine were climbing together in the early 1950’s and were on an expedition together to a peak in the Garwhal called Mukat Parbat (7135m). After the ascent two members were invited by Shipton to join the Everest reconnaissance but my dad was too broke to join so didn’t get to go that one. The rest is history! Peter and I decided it’d be nice to get back in the hills as he was coming down to help us open our new premises so we took the time to climb of Mt Aspiring, a classic peak near Wanaka. We had a great catch up as it’d been a while since we’d been in the hills together. Q: You continue to be an active mountaineer as the owner of Adventure Consultants. Why is this important to you Guy? I got into this game because I love climbing. Guiding became a natural extension of my climbing and has provided me with a fantastic lifestyle. When I was a young climber I figured I knew what I was doing but it wasn’t until I started guiding that I realised how much I still had to learn! So I figure guiding has helped me evolve as a mountaineer at the same time as enabling me to go to some amazing places and get to know some great people. I think one of the main benefits I get from mountaineering is the relationships we develop with people by sharing experiences. Q: At this point you have summited 5 of the 8000m mountains (Everest (4x), Manaslu, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Gasherbrum II ) and climbed on two others (Dhaulagiri and Gasherbrum I). Any plans to do all 14? I’m not focusing on doing all the 8k mountains. It may end up happening by default as I enjoy getting away on expeditions to 8k peaks and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future but I’m also doing lots of other neat trips too that I really enjoy. For instance I ran another horsetrek to Mustang in Nepal this year with a group of members I’m very friendly with and that style of trip inspires me too. I also want to try to find time to do more technical climbing as I got out of shape when I had knee issues that required surgery so I’m slowly dragging myself back to some semblance of technical climbing fitness! Q: You are climbing Lhotse this year and being both guide and climber as part of your Everest 2013 team. How is your overall season shaping up thus far? We’ve got a good solid team for Everest this year and a nice small group for Lhotse. I’ve always maintained that small groups are the way forward for expeditioning to reduce impacts and enhance the experience. During the recession it was interesting to see prospective members shift towards the large impersonal groups because they are cheaper, but we’re now seeing people want more than that again now. From a business perspective I’d be better to steer AC towards running large groups with fewer guides as it’d be a way to make some margins but my philosophy has always been towards doing it properly, even if that means we have very small margins. If we run great trips for our members and provide employment for our team of guides/Sherpas/admin staff then I’m happy. Q:
Wave 1 Recap (updated)
May 22nd, 2010 will be a day recorded in history: the youngest person to summit Everest and the person with the most summits in history on the same same day yet from different sides. Apa Sherpa at age 47 made his 20th summit with the Eco Everest team and on the other side of the mountain, 13 year-old Jordan Romero along with his dad and Sherpa team made the top of the world, his 6th of the 7 summits. What a day. Jordan showed his strength by going directly from camp 2 to the summit. I am not sure of the exact time but believe it was around 9 hours. They are reported to be back at camp 2 and will descend to ABC. The SPOT technology and the map produced by ESRI worked extremely well. There were only a few times when a signal was not plotted on the map – two periods of about 45 minutes, which was probably due to the line of site being blocked to the satellite. But the world watched as the flashing red dot moved in a steady pace. Yet with all this excitement, many other “mere mortals” also summited including elite Sherpa climber Ang Dorge Sherpa who made his 14th summit with Adventure Consultants. With the AC team was Mandy Ramsden, 1st South African woman to complete the 7 Summits. With the Eco Everest team were the youngest Indian climber ever Arjun Vajpai at age 16 and David Liano, who intended to climbed Everest from both sides but became ill and had to go back to Kathmandu during his north attempt, was cleared, and returned to the south to climb with Apa Sherpa! Also on that team were two members of the Finnish team: Timo Jaatien and Mika Pitkamaki plus 9 Sherpas. There were many more summits Saturday morning, including the large Himex team, and I will try to note as many as possible over the next few days. I have updated the location chart based on what I know from last night. In the next post I will begin today’s summit wave. My sincere congratulations to all. update: This from Himex guide Adrian Ballinger: All 12 members, 4 guides and 17 sherpa successfully climbed to the roof of the world, and back down to Camp 4 at the South Col. The weather was perfect, no wind, cold at the summit, but quite warm lower down. The summit was totally clear, with incredible views all around. There were very few other climbers summiting at that time, affording our climbers time to savour their triumph at the top, and meaning they did not face the traffic jams that occured last year at the Hillary Step. Half the team have opted to continue on down to Camp 2 before stopping for the night, the others will overnight where they are at Camp 4. Great job everyone! Climb On! Alan
Wave 1 Summit (update 4)
update #4: the next wave of summits are moving up in good weather. Best of luck to all these climbers. Saturday morning climbers are moving down the mountain on both sides. No problems reported as of now. The weather continues to be good. update #3: Multiple south summits from Adventure Consultants and Eco Everest team in excellent conditions. Special congratulations Ang Dorge Sherpa with his 14th summit and Apa Sherpa with his 20th. Mandy Ramsden, sick 1st SA for 7 Summits and Arjun Vajpayee, discount youngest Indian to summit. Jordan Romero bags his summits as well at age 13. His SPOT map showed him at the summit but I wanted to wait for verbal confirmation via his website’s home team. No word on the Himex team but we could have seen 100 summits from both sides tonight. Congratulations to all the climbers and climb safe back down. Hundreds more to make their own history tomorrow night as the rest of the teams are now moving to the high camps for their summit bids Saturday night, Nepal time. update #2: Dawn in breaking on Everest. Adventure Consultants is at the South Summit so should summit in 2-3 hours max between 7-8 local time. Jordan Romero has cleared the 2nd Step. Should summit about the same time. Weather still is good. No reports of crowds. update#1:Looks like a great night on Everest with teams on both sides moving steadily higher. Adventure Consultants is doing a great job of keeping everyone informed as is Apa Sherpa and the Eco Everest home team. Both are above the Balcony. All eyes are on Jordan Romero’s SPOT map which shows them between the 1st and 2nd step. This will be the crux of their ascent; of course they need to descend as well. A strange comment was posted on their site that ” Update from the team: Everything is going super well and they may attempt to summit today.” Not sure what that means. If you are to the 2nd Step and feeling well, most climbers will push on to the top. Eric Simonson, IMG, posted this overview as seen directly from his team on the mountain: Ang Jangbu reports that the winds started to die down this afternoon. AC, Himex and Asian Trek group continued and made it to the Col today, so they will be climbing for the summit tonight. Greg and Mike, with their respective IMG climbers up at Camp 3, decided it was better to wait and not get so trashed in the wind going to the Col, so they have spent the day hanging out and will aim for the South Col tomorrow morning. Justin and the IMG climbers at C2 will go to C3 in the morning. That means for tomorrow night (the 22nd in the US and the 23rd in Nepal) it will probably be our first team, along with Willie Benegas’ team, and possibly Mountain Trip attempting the summit with our second IMG team the following night (the 24th in Nepal) along with RMI, AAI, and some of Henry Todd’s group. We have the new weather forecast that shows the cyclone weakening and moving to the east over the next few days. We may still get hit by some of the moisture from this system, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed! Good luck to all! start of original post Looks like there is serious movement on both sides of Everest. With the good news of the winds calming a bit per the forecast and Adventure Consultants reports seeing stars at the South Col; always a good sign! Also it looks like the cyclone is sliding to the northeast and may not hit as hard as expected but some impact is still anticipated. Some who pushed hard to reach their Advanced Base Camps have decided to take an extra day to rest up and also to stretch out the crowds. The South side feels a little less frenzied but there are reports of 100 climbers at the North Col. Many teams are now at their high camps for the night looking at summit bids on Saturday night but a few have posted their current status of heading up tonight. As of Friday night, May 21st at 11:00 PM Nepal time, this is the activity, certainly not all by any stretch: Apa Sherpa and Eco Everest team: left camp 4 (South Col) David Liano: left Camp 4 (South Col) Elia Saikaly: left camp 4 (South Col) Adventure Consultants are well on their way with 6 climbers, 2 leaders and 9 Sherpas split into two groups Jordan Romero: North; approaching 27,000. Still below the ridge proper. They just posted this update on their site: The team just called from their iSatPhone. They wanted to say hello to everyone and to give everyone an update. Right now they have stopped for tea, but they said that everything is going well and that they are ahead of schedule. They also mentioned that the clouds were clearing and they could see the ridgeline all the way up to the summit and it looked absolutely amazing. The team is using oxygen for this part of the climb. Everyone is strong; especially Jordan. On a very sad note, a death has been reported on the north side by news agencies. This from ScandAsia.com: Tom Jørgensen Tom, a 56 year-old Danish mountaineer, died on the way back to Zham Port in Tibet on May 19, said Zhang Minxing, Secretary-General of the CTMA. After found to suffer from serious high altitude sickness, Jorgensen was sent back to Zham Port from Mt. Everest, but died despite rescue efforts. My sincere condolences to all his family, teammates and friends. More updates throughout the day. Climb On! Alan Personal Note: As regular followers on my site know, I do this for Alzheimer’s causes. Read my story here. I am excited to update everyone that am finalizing my 7 Summits quest to raise $1M for Alzheimer’s research, awareness and education and will start later this year. More details to follow. If you have
Focus on Everest
Teams are all over Everest today, no some climbing; other stuck. High winds on both sides made progress difficult and sometimes impossible for some teams as they continue to push hard to avoid the impending weather. It is snowing at Base Camp on the south and the winds are pummeling the north side; stopping some teams only as high as the North Col. This from 7 Summits Club: The first group of expedition 7 Summits Club is blocked at the North Col (7000 m) by strong winds. For the second day, no one could go up. Sherpas, who were unable to carry loads to the upper camps, are also sitting in the tents. The second group remains in the camp ABC. Waiting on Everest, tedious, anxious – it is a heavy need. The main thing is not to get sick, save a form. Wind is expected to become moderate already the next night. However, in the coming days are expected with snowfalls. Would it be a good window for climb ? But a report just in shows Jordan Romeo’s SPOT tracker as having them at camp 2. Gabriel Filippi is proobably there as well based on his last dispatch: Violent gusts are beating at the summit right now. Still, I am going to attempt a climb to camp 2 (7900m) since the winds are calmer under 8500m. I am leaving in a few minutes, and if i can move in these conditions, Lhakpa will come to meet me later. It is pure pleasure to work with him again: he was with me on the summit in 2005. Always positive and ready, his superhuman strenght and his energy motivate me to the core. On the south, some teams are moving up as shown by this from Adventure Consultants: As I write this the Adventure Consultants’ Team are settling in for the night at Camp Three. When the team arrived early this afternoon they were experiencing gusts of up to 40 knots – not to be taken lightly at 7350m! However, Mike and Ang Dorjee have informed me that the winds are dropping and our forecasts support this continuing trend. Cyclone Laila, in the Bay of Bengal, is already threatening to add some excitement to the mix but current reports still suggest a dependable decrease in summit winds tomorrow night. But the winds did stop some teams. This in from Paul Fejtek with Mountain Trip: Unfortunately, the wind-swept snow blowing high above, and a new weather forecast received this morning, factored in to a decision by Scott to turn us around. He said during his last 5 Everest expeditions he has never seen wind this strong. We were disappointed to be sure to lose a day but feeling much more secure that our tents won’t blow away here at Camp 2 rather than up at Camp 3. However, the looming concern on everybody’s mind is the rapidly approaching end of the summit window. Every year near the end of May the monsoon arrives effectively shutting down the mountain. Last year this occurred on May 25th. Our new plan, assuming no more weather delays should put us at the South Col with a shot at the summit on May 23rd. I thought that some teams may wait out the threat of the cyclone and look for a very late summit in late May or early June; however this may not be the case as even Himex is moving quickly after skipping the first window: Russell opted for a bigger weather window and after having given his famous ’30 percent’ speech, the members, guides and Sherpas were off to Camp 2 in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. You might now wonder, what the famous ’30 percent’ speech is. Well, it is Russell’s ‘lecture’ to remind his members that once they get to the summit, they are only half way up. “You need to preserve some of your energy as you will still need 30 percent of your strength for the descent. Getting to the top is only halfway,” he always emphasises. Even Apa Sherpa is moving quicker than planned and in now on his way to the South Col. It seems everyone is taking this weather seriously with a huge number focusing on Friday night for their push with Saturday morning summits. It is clear the high routes are full of climbers right now – a true conga line if there ever was one on Everest. Perhaps 100 to 200 climbers (members and Sherpas) all attached to the fixed ropes between camps. And they are almost all on supplemental oxygen for the first time this season. For most of these climbers, they will be experiencing the use of supplemental oxygen for the first time ever. Climbers of other 8000m mountains like Cho Oyu, would have valuable experience but most will struggle the first few hours to get comfortable with the system. These days almost all the climbers use supplemental oxygen. The primary benefit is to help the body feel warmer, not make them feel like they are at sea-level. At a flow of 2lpm, an average rate for most climbers, it will only make a 3,000′ difference. In other words, using O’s at 28,000, the body still feels like it is at 25,000′. Climbers will sleep on Os during the summit push starting at C3 and climb with it to the South Col (similar camps on the north). Many of this week’s dispatches spoke of reviewing the oxygen systems. There are three basic parts: bottle, regulator and mask. While the bottles come in different sizes, most weigh around 6lbs each; larger ones up to 15lbs. They last about 6 hours at 2 lpm flow; 15 hours for larger sizes. The average summit bid usually takes between 12 to 16 hours thus the need for two to three bottles. But if you use a high flow or take longer, then more bottles may be required. Also, obviously, if a climber use oxygen going up, they
Everest is Buzzing with Activity for Next Window
Excitement is building once again for more summits as team after team left Base Camp for camp 2 on the south and ABC on the north. Their enthusiasm, however, was tempered by talk of monsoons in India; more on that in a moment. There were talks of additional summits for Tuesday, May 18th, but nothing has been reported. As the weekend summiters return to base camp on the south, more details are coming in of summits. First up is on the north, Julio Bird’s wife Maribel sent me this email: I just talked to Julio. He reached the top on May 17th at 7:00 am. He is now resting at Camp 2 and will move to BC soon. It took them 14 hours from Camp 2 to the summit. Apparently he was the first Westerner to summit from the North. I don’t have the details but he said “I was the first”. Our connection was not the . He climbed with Sherpas, Lhakpa Gelu and Lhopsang and the large rope fixing team. His climbing partners, Bill Fischer and 70 year-old Japanese Hoshino Kohei both had left the expedition earlier with minor health issues. To add an international flavor to my coverage,I want to highlight climbers from countries who do not usually receive a lot of western media coverage: The Indian team of Mountaineering Association of Krishnagar (MAK) reported in with some interesting news about the weather on the descent. Apparently they made their summit from C3, not the South Col: … 17th May at 7.45 am, their summitteers being Shri Basanta Singha Roy (aged 47 years) and Shri Debasish Biswas They had been guided by Pemba Sherpa and Pasan Sherpa who had summitted Mount Everest several times before. They had made the ascent from the Nepal side and had started from camp no. 3 towards the summit at 9 pm on the night of 16th May and finally reached summit at 7.45 am on 17th May, 2010. While on their descent to camp no.3 yesterday, the duo had run into a terrible blizzard. Nepalese cyclist Pushkar Shah summitted Mount Everest on Monday(18th May, 2010) morning. On his expedition, Shah had taken along flags of 150 countries he had visited. He had cycled through all the countries. Two Colombians, Nelson Cardona and Rafael Avila, toped out on Monday morning. Of note, Cardona had wanted to climb in 2007, but lost his right leg while training for the climb thus used a prosthesis on his successful summit this year. Talk about determination!! Basanta Singha Roy and Debabrata Biswas, two members of the first civilian expedition from West Bengal by ‘Mountaineers Association of Krishnanagar’, also summitted. Looking forward now, Adventure Consultants’ Mike Roberts has a very informative update describing their climb to C2 on the south. he noted about 150 people heading higher and the recent warm temps are melting out the lower Icefall and heating up the Western Cwm. They left base camp at 2:00 AM to minimize danger: Today’s early morning wakeup ritual was fairly typical: sleep deprivation; grunting rather than talking; bad humor; suppressed appetite; Ang Tsering praying with his Tibetan rosary beads; hugging the heater for all it’s worth; icefall and summit nerves kicking in; chuck in the odd throw-up for good measure (Tony, you got to hate that); and by 2.00am everyone was rolling clockwise around our puja altar and throwing rice three times for success, safety and luck. Caroline, thanks for getting up at that ghastly hour to see us off and for your wicked summit success art work! As climbers leave for their summit bid, the Sherpas light juniper boughs that produce a thick smoke. On mornings like today with so many teams leaving, base camp has a cloud of smoke. You walk up to the alter with the smoke, and wave the smoke over yourself three times. Standing still for a moment, you go deep in thought about the upcoming effort – it is a very private personal moment. And then you swiftly leave your base camp home knowing the next week will be the toughest physical, and perhaps mental, challenge of your life. North teams are also in full motion with Adventure Dynamics and the first wave of 7 Summits Club already to the North Col. Young Jordan Romero has been there a couple of days now. The world’s media has caught on to this year’s search for the Mallory & Irvine camera from 1924. Multiple reports are quoting Duncan Chessell. “I was at North Col (7050m) last week and the wind was 150kp/h and it was stripping snow off the mountain which has been there for many years,” he said in his latest message from Everest base camp on Tuesday. There is now bare rock exposed which has been deeply covered for decades in the most likely areas where Andrew Irvine’s body may be. It is my intention to search those areas en route to the summit and take this rare opportunity to find him and, perhaps, the missing cameras. I have studied this matter very closely and am now very familiar with Mt Everest. I believe we have a good chance of finding something.” As regular Everest followers know, this has become an annual event and this year there is a mystery team making a serious effort to look for the camera and Ivine’s body building on previous years, if not decades, of work. Most keep their effort low key and avoid publicity. For friends and family monitoring this upcoming summit bid, an interesting story. The wife of a climber on last weekend’s summit push told me she had not heard from her husband for over 30 hours, the last time he called he said he was 10 hours for the summit. Now she was worried. He was an independent climber so there was no home office to contact. Eventually she heard from him and he was fine, in fact had summited safely. It seems, his phone batteries had died. So
North Summits and South Push (update 4)
update #4: Multiple teams are reporting summits this morning in Nepal. I estimate well over 30 summits from the south, probably much more. Weather was holding as of early morning. Congratulations and well done to all. The tracking chart is updated based on available information but so please check their sites for details on their sites and a summary later here. update #3: teams at South Summit. Note: Please remember that my Everest coverage is to raise money for Alzheimer’s research. Please read my story. Please make a donation that goes 100% to research, nothing to me. Thank you. update #2. First reliable update directly from the climbers. Sounds like wind is not an issue. However, some teams have asked their slower climbers to wait for next weather window since winds are expected to pick up Monday afternoon. Also I added part of the Jagged Globe team to summit push. At this pace, look for summits from 7 to 9 AM Nepal time (see sidebar for current time) Could be a lot of people up there according to this from Jamie Clark: Above The Balcony, moving slow due to crowds. Enjoying star light, heat lightning in the distance. update #1: No solid updates from anyone attempting the summit Sunday night, now Monday morning as of 3:00 AM. By now, climbers should be above the Balcony. If winds were a big issue, we probably would have heard about by now. The next milestone will be at the South Summit where high winds, if present, usually cause teams to consider returning to the South Col. So far so good. We have new Summits! On the north, the Chinese team topped out while fixing the ropes to the summit according to Adventure Dynamics. This opens the door for all the climbers during the large summit window anticipated next week. And it looks like the South teams have begun their summit push from the South Col. Over 50 climbers and Sherpas were seen climbing the Lhotse Face on Friday and Saturday looking to take advantage of the predicted short summit window this weekend. As they began to go for their summit bids on Saturday night, the winds picked up thus postponing the effort. Now it is early evening on Everest and teams are on their way right now. Michale Fagin of everestweather.com said the conditions were good that afternoon. Note that this is a snapshot and conditions can change quickly above 8000m. Sunday May 16, 3 pm Nepal time estimated summit winds of 30 to 40 mph (48 to 64 km/hr), mostly clear. Temperatures -20 F (-29 C) This is bit high and could be uncomfortable for some climbers. There are reports of new snow on the Triangular Face which leads to the Balcony. A little new snow actually makes the climbing a bit easier as long as there is not too much. With all the traffic, a path will be worn in quickly. Patrick Hollingworth posted an informative audio dispatch from the North Col saying he took 11 hours to go from camp 3 to the South Col which is normally a 4-6 hour climb max. He had issues with his oxygen mask and cold feet. He also noted the effort to return the body of Russian climber, Serguey Duganov, who died on Lhotse last week. The routes are the same near the Yellow Band. He felt there were no summit attempts on Saturday night. His plan is to go for the summit leaving the Col 8:00 PM Sunday night. He is climbing with a small Sherpa team only from Himalayan Ascent. I like his post for many reasons but you feel his emotion in this 8 minute update. Kenton Cool of Dream Guides posted this report: All the team are now at Camp 4. We are resting on oxygen and attempting to get as much food and fluid down us as the forecast is showing that the winds will be returning shortly, so, if we are going to go for it, it’s tonight or not again for another week. It’s currently snowing which doesn’t make for great underfoot conditions on the ascent but we have a really strong sherpa team with us who will be helping me break trail (nobody has managed to summit yet this weekend so the trail is under quite a bit of snow). Wish us luck and let’s hope the next update has some good news. Jamie Clark and Scott Simper of the Hanesbrands team report planning on leaving the South Col via these tweets: Scottie, Sherpas, and I in Camp IV. Winds calmed down nicely last night. Trying for summit tonight. We will have radio darkness for a few hours, but will hear from us at The Balcony and share our Steps to the Summit. The Malta Everest team also posted they are leaving for the summit around 9 local time. During summit pushes there are long times with no communication. Climbers normally stop at the Balcony and South Summit to update their status back to base camp via radios. Then the base camps updates website if that is their process. But many will simply report a summit or a return to the South Col in the event of a turn-around. So all this is to say, no news is most often good news. On the north, we know there were teams and climbers making bids on the north the same time as the Chinese so there were probably summits from Western climbers but nothing official at this point. I assume there are summit bids on that side tonight as well. Remember there are more teams on that side than I list on the charts and many do not communicate with the world like commercial expeditions. Looking forward, the Adventure Consultants team makes this note of the next weather window: Meanwhile for the AC Team the Everest weather game continues as we try and tune into the time period for us to head up. Long term
A Race to the Summit
The lure of Everest’s summit has taken on new dimensions and is spreading throughout the south base camp. First up, we have an old-fashion foot race on Everest. Two Finish women are literally racing to claim bragging rights to being the first Finish woman to summit Everest. Then in addition to the previously announced summit intentions, click including the Hanesbrands team, the entire Summit Climb team is heading up. The concern is that summit winds are currently in the 80 mph range. The forecast calls for a reduction on Saturday night and then regaining strength. Climbers like to see the summit winds under 30 mph at max. With extreme winds, if something creates a delay, there is a high likelihood of frostbite, hypothermia or even death; especially on the descent. These teams are out on a long, narrow, weak limb that all the other teams are refusing to touch. Most teams are looking at a May 22nd-26th as the summit opportunity. Obviously, I wish them only safe climbing up and down. The first summit this year was on May 5th. While early, there have been other early summits according to research with 44 on May 5, 54 on May 8 and 44 on May 9 over the years by various routes. There have even been summits in February and April! Historically the majority of Everest summits have occurred between May 20th and 25th. Now the details. After weeks of posting on their blog about being careful and not taking risks including some strong comments about Lucille deBeaudrap summit in a narrow window, she has succumb not only to the call of the summit but also the competition of a race. Anne-Mari’s decision to start her summit push was made yesterday. Her goal is to be the first Finnish woman on top of Everest. Another Finnish woman, Ms Carina Räihä, has the very same goal and she started her summit push early Tuesday morning, a day ahead of Anne-Mari. Even though mountaineering should not be a race, Anne-Mari felt that she should climb higher up, at least to Camp 2, and be ready to strike should a weather window open. Today, both Anne-Mari and Carina are in Camp 2 and cannot yet climb higher due to strong winds. Carina is climbing with Peak Freaks, who already put one climber on the summit. Anne-Mari is with Sky Climbers team. Honestly, I am baffled by these attempts. As experienced guide Phil Crampton of Altitude Junkies posted today, the two premier weather forecast services both agree: We have been studying our weather reports very closely the past few days as we received some data revealing a possible small weather window on the 16th and 17th. As the two dates approached, the window seemed to close as we were not satisfied with the safety margin it offered us. The wind speeds predicted by the two premier weather forecast services used on Everest, both our US forecast and the Swiss forecast, are still predicting very dangerous high winds for another week. Robert Hill of No Guts, Know Glory team summed up the danger with this dispatch direcrtly from the south Base Camp: Several teams moved up the mountain today hoping to take advantage of a potential window from May 15th to the 17th, but accounts from camp two suggest that some camps have been decimated and attempts to move up to camp three have been thwarted by high winds. We expect the wind to diminish somewhat over the next few days – summit winds have been 100 kilometres an hour plus for the past four or five days – but not enough to offer a good window. Any teams who decide to push up the mountain are taking considerable risks, including the chance of severe frostbite. The absolute latest reports have all the teams attempting the summit on Sunday pinned down at camp 2 in howling winds with reports of destroyed tents. Let’s hope the winds abate for safe conditions for every climber this weekend. On the north, the weather continues to change plans. Bill Burke called in with a detailed reported from Advanced Base Camp. Basically, they are on hold due to weather and lack of fixed lines. He described the harsh winds and extreme cold on that side this year and then the fact that the fixed lines and from camp3 to the summit are still not fixed. Bill commented that one of their empty tents literally blew away and was never found and a laptop computer ripped from the hands of a climber standing outside his tent. Many expeditions use a mesh net to secure tents against the high winds. As a result, Bill has abandoned his plan for a double summit – a climb from the north then a climb from the south. He will focus only on a north summit around May 22nd. This is the same date young Jordan Romero is probably considering. Meanwhile, Bill’s partner, David Liano will continue with the original plan. He is looking at May 17th as a summit day when the winds will still be high, Bill said 40-64 mph. Still dangerously high. David will utilize a running belay where climbers use a rope and anchors but move it as they progress through the climb. David still may be able to utilize fixed ropes. Summit Climb reports a large team leaving base camp today: The latest talk has been about the weather, as its too windy on the summit to climb Everest now. However, we did see the larger Chinese-Tibetan team leave BC today with around 30 people in their party. That is good because they aim to fix the ropes to the summit in the next few days!!! In other updates, Alpine Ascents has listed their Sherpa who participated in fixing the ropes and making the first summits this year. To be complete, here is the entire list of these strong climbers: IMG: Nima Karma Sherpa (Phortse) Phu Tshering (Phortse) Phinjo Dorje (Pangboche)
Inside the Climber’s Minds
With teams mostly enjoying the comforts and electricity of low villages or base camps, the blogs are full of rich details about their recent acclimatization climbs. As I have said so many times, I deeply appreciate it when a climber takes the time, and sometimes risk, to describe what is happening on the mountain. Not so much for the mountaineering details but for the insight into the human experience of climbing Everest. Thanks to you all. But first some mountaineering status.