Wave 4 Recap (updated)
On what could have been the final push for 2010, many climbers summited from the south including a record 12th summit for Dave Hahn who was guiding Leif Whittaker. The weather cooperated for the teams however it was extremely cold at 18 below zero F. Once on the summit, the winds started to pick up so climbers hustled down as quickly as possible. In addition to Hahn and Whittaker, mind climbing under the First Ascent/RMI banner, the rest of team made it to the top including Michael Brown topping out for his 5th time. They commented once back at Base Camp they thoroughly checked themselves for frostbite and thankfully found none. In a bit of drama, Robert Hill with No Guts Know Glory, named due to Robert’s Crohn’s Disease, stopped at the South Col after spending two days at the South Col waiting for improved weather. His site Manager did an excellent job of keeping everyone informed throughout the climb and posted this emotional statement from Robert at the South Summit: 8:45 AM Everest: Rob Hill has finished his Seven Summits dream! “I’ve gone as high as I ever will,” said a elated sounding Rob from the South Summit. “John and I have been sitting here for the past 30 minutes talking about all that we’ve done, all that IDEAS has managed to accomplish and all that this 7Summit campaign has done for people fighting inflammatory bowel diseases and living with an ostomy. Even though my Everest summit sits several hundred meters below the true summit, I can hold my head high with pride. I will come home safe to my family and loved ones. I don’t have the energy to continue. The hours I spent in the South Col drained me of everything, I’ve given it my all, my and I am happy to be here with my good friends and climbing partners. Darrell is within spitting distance of the summit now along with our three Sherpas. John and I will sit here and bask in his glory as he, too, finishes his 7Summits dream today. With Robert safe, his guide John Furneaux and climber Darrell Ainscough made a “quick” run from the South Summit to the true summit. There were other teams on the South including the young new married Colorado couple Brandon and Kristine Chalk. They stopped an attempt the previous night due to blizzard conditions, stay at the Col and summited last night. Congratulations to them on their perseverance. They were climbing under a Henry Todd permit. There was finally some information on the speed attempt by Chad Kellogg posted, not on their main site but as an answer on his sponsor’s Facebook page. It simply read: Here’s the update: Chad is back at basecamp after being on track for the speed ascent, climbing to his high point in ~12hrs. Just below the Balcony, 40+ mph winds and stormy conditions turned him around for a ~7hr descent back to basecamp. Chad is resting for a couple days before making a second summit bid, though this climb will not be intended for setting a speed record. We wish Chad a strong climb and a solid weather window! On the north side, Summit Club had 16 people attempting the summit but no word from them. Duncan Chessell and Jamie McGuiness were also on their summit bids but no word from them either. I will update this page once I receive any information. Finally, the First Ascent site posted a teaser saying that Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton assisted in a rescue in the Icefall. There was a report of a Sherpa who was hit by a falling serac and broke an arm or leg but he was evacuated to Base camp. I have heard of other rescues as well but thus far no details. To be clear, there has been one reported death, Sergei Duganov, on the south side this year, actually on Lhotse, another, Laszlo Varkonyi, on the north near the North Col and a third of a north climber, Tom Jørgensen, suffering from HACE who died a few days alter in a Tibetan village. It looks like the weather is slowly deteriorating however there may still be a few small teams to summit from both sides. Once the camps are clear on the South, the Icefall Doctors will remove the ladders thus ending the season; this usually happens no later than June 1st. There is no such restriction on the North and summits can go as long as the weather holds. update: Summit Climb reports 5 members and 4 Sherpas summited on the 25th in windy conditions. Duncan Chessell also reported summits of 8 climbers. he did not mention the Sherpas. They had already returned to the camp 3/2 levels. Congratulation to all these climbers. On a personal note: It’s been great covering another Everest season. Congratulations to all the climbers, regardless of their results. There are a few more updates and my annual summary later this week and then I am going to start some climbing of my own. Thanks for all the comments and emails throughout this Everest season. And thanks everyone for your support of my Alzheimer’s efforts and a special thanks to those who made previous donations to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund and also during this season. You are making a difference (you can make a donation anytime). It goes 100% to research, none to me. Climb On! Alan
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) and IMG (9) put a combined 26 climbers on top. AAI commented on the heavy snow resulting in not only difficult climbing conditions but also making radio communications challenging. This was IMG’s second group and put a total of 42 on the top of the world for 2010. From the Australian team, Brad Jackson and Sandy Hobby sumitted! well done you two! Simone Moro also summited. he used supplemental oxygen due to the difficult conditions. The elite climber explained: Only 48 hours of climb and the 22nd May I was on the summit of Everest. I planned a no oxygen climb but it had been not possible to realize it due the cold. In fact when I arrived at South col 8000 m coming from 6300 m of C2, the weather deteriorated and started to snow. After 2 hours the sky get clear but the temperature drop down. So I started after midnight to climb without oxygen but it started also my fight with the cold. At 8500 meters I lost the sensibility of my feet and hands and to avoid dramatic frostbites I decided to use oxygen for the last 300 meters. At 6:25 I arrived on the summit and enjoyed for the 4th time that moment. Probably I will go back for the fifth time to attempt a no oxygen climb but I’m happy also for this climb. I had a wonderful view from the op and realized how free and lucky I’m to enjoy this life…. An update on Chad Kellogg’s status with an interesting twist that will add fuel to his detractors: Update from the VertiCulture Editor; Sun. 5/23: Chad began his summit bid Saturday at approx. 3 a.m. For those waiting on the word, we have not directly heard from him, but received an update from Sam Bricker that Chad has returned to basecamp. A technical glitch prevented us from getting the SPOT coordinates, but we will update with this information as well as details on Chad’s ascent as soon as we can. Thanks for checking in On the North, the very proud South African team, Adventure Dynamics, summitted 6 members and 7 Sherpas including expedition leader Sean Disney, who now has a double for the entire 7 summits. Another 6 people from 7 Summits Club made it as well. Plus the Mexican climbers Yuri Contreras and Laura Gonzalez Montagna.org reports 5 north summits from Silvio Mondinelli’s team including a no O’s summit from Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner who is looking to be the 3rd woman to summit all 14 8000m mountains; Everest was her 13th. The Austrian team lead by Kari Kobler’s company put 11 climbers up made up of 4 members and 7 Sherpas to the north summit. Congratulations to all these climbers for making it in difficult conditions. Check the location chart for links to all the teams plus summit numbers. A new post will begin for the what could be the last push for 2010. Climb On! Alan
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 Argentinians and 5 Sherpa on the top of the world. The Australian Everest placed 3 there as well. In a bit of a mystery, Mountain Trip’s home team said they received a phone call that went dead then a brief audio blog implying a summit and now their logistics company out of Nepal has confirmed seven summits from the team (Scott Woolums, Bill Allen, Cynthia Lou Abbott, Paul Fejtek, Denise Fejtek, Ania Lichota, Vivian James Rigney). On the north, Bill Burk turned back at the 2nd Step. His wife posted this on their site: I got a phone call tonight from Bill at 7:50 PM. He was back at Camp 3 after reaching the “Second Step” and turning around. He said it was dark, windy, cold, and his legs got very weak and wobbly. He said it was the same feeling he had in 2007 when he turned around. He knew he couldn’t make it to the summit and then back down. He will be posting when he gets down to a lower level and gets some energy back. I’m so proud of what he has accomplished and now I want him to get back home. and Adventure Peaks reports 11 summits and: No news for definate in the last few hours, we are still waiting for Stu to give an update. It is understood however (not confirmed) that a number of team members turned round between 8600-8700m. All these are without doubt below the first step and probably in the high camp at 8300m. Geordie was the last person who may have made the summit before the turn around time. We await news. Dave Pritt There has been no information posted on Chad Kellogg who was doing a speed ascent. He was scheduled to be back at the south Base Camp at 10PM on the 23rd, 7 hours from this post time. Please visit various team’s websites for all the names and congratulations to all! There are still many more teams on both sides looking to start their summit bids on Sunday night. update #5: My thoughts only: With the large number of climbers, it may take longer than you would expect for them to go from the South Summit to the top. They have to negotiate the Hillary Step and now there are climbers coming down. There should be two ropes, an up and down rope to aid in moving people along but it can still be a bottleneck. Similar situation on the north with the 2nd Step. If you have not head from your team, this is probably what is going on. Winds were expected to pick up later today but still expected to be manageable albeit a bit uncomfortable for some. Posted at 9:30AM Nepal time update #4: Summits beginning: These teams are already there or very close: IMG, Patagonian Brothers (Damien and Willie Benegas), Peak Freaks on south and Adventure Peaks on north. Good weather, calm winds and clear skies. Views should be incredible! Check your team’s website for current list of names. Congratulations to all! update #3: IMG reports climbers above the South Summit and others near. Adventure Peaks is at the 2nd Step on the North commenting on great weather. Summits should happen between 7-8 Nepal time (see sidebar). update #2: South teams that left earlier should be approaching the Balcony in early morning, Sunday May 23rd. Usually this is where oxygen bottles are swapped out for fresh ones. Over on the north, with the good weather (albeit some wind), teams are taking advantage of it. It looks like there could be some bottlenecks on the north according to this update from 7 Summits Club: In the camp 3 at the altitude of 8300 meters there are about 100 climbers. In such situation, a turn on fix ropes could be a major obstacle for success. Therefore, our first group decided to go to climb before everyone else – in 9:30 p.m., before getting dark. It looks as a new word in tactics of Everest climb. According to our calculations, our group should reach the top of Everest in the 4-30 – 5-00 a.m. local time. The second group came to the camp 7700 meters, everything is OK. First group: guide Noel Hanna (Ireland), Andrey Filkov, Vadim Nadvodnyuk, Mikhail Turovsky (all – Russia), Steve Berry (UK) , James Wilde (USA). update #1: Many teams have left for their summit bid including the IMG and Peak Freak climbers. Melissa Arnot has changed her mind and will climb with supplemental oxygen after a long climb to the South Col. Winds are reported manageable. There are around 100 climbers on the south side headed up today. Probably a similar amount on the north. Bill Burke is headed up tonight on the north for those following the 68 year-old who summited from the south last year. start of original post With excellent conditions and a successful summit wave the previous day, new teams are now leaving the high camps once again on Saturday evening, May 22nd to the top of the world. On the north, there are a large number of climbers heading higher including Adventure Peaks and 7 Summits Club are at Camp 3 for a few hours. There were 100 climbers reported at the North Col a day ago. On the south, several teams are at the South Col. AAI will spend 24 hours there and go for the top Sunday night. They report lite winds and mild temps as well. Altitude Junkies, Peak Freaks, IMG, Mountain Trip and the Patagonia Brother’s team plan on going up today, Saturday. Also Melissa Arnot, climbing without supplemental oxygen is there with her teammate Dave