Young Sherpa Brought to U.S. Before Amputation
One of the tragic stories from Everest 2017 was of Dawa Sange Sherpa who had all of his fingers severely frostbitten while working with a member who reportedly refused to turn back in bad weather. Thanks to the generosity of the climbing community, Sange is now in Vail, Colorado receiving treatment from some of the world’s best doctors but he needs our help. Good Samaritan David Snow was trekking to Everest Base Camp with his group from Utah. Sange was guiding them on the trek and on to attempt Lobuche Peak. David found the young Sherpa eager to help his members, happy and healthy. They were impressed and optimistic for his future as a mountain guide, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle who guided on Everest. This was Sange’s first year as a full guide. After the Utah team’s trip was finished, Sange joined another group on Everest. That is where tragedy struck. Upon learning of Sange’s story, David established a fundraiser to offset unexpected and uncovered expenses. In David’s words: Sange has a very tough road ahead. Finding employment and companionship will be extremely difficult or even impossible in Nepal. Sange will be receiving reconstructive treatment with Dr. Randall Viola through the Kees Brenninkmeyer Foundation. Dr. Randall Viola is considered a top surgeon in the field and he is currently the Head Team Physician for Men’s US Alpine Ski Team. The Kees Brenninkmeyer Foundation, with the Core Mission to financially assist alpine guides, patrollers, or instructors who require surgery in order to continue their careers, has agreed provide financial help for all of Sange’s surgeries and rehabilitations. This will be a long and hard process and we ask for your support in helping us help a young man who gave so much to others. Sange would not abandon his member–we won’t abandon Sange. Summit Fever A little background on how Sange got in this spot. Dawa Sange Sherpa was guiding Pakistani Col Abdul Jabbar Bhatti on the Nepal side of Everest on 21st May 2017. Both were feeling good when Sange swapped out Bhatti’s oxygen bottles at the Balcony – normal procedure. Sange had chosen not use supplemental oxygen on the ascent, saving it for the descent – a mistake on his part. As they made their way towards the summit from the South Summit, the weather turned for the worse. It was very bad. Strong winds and snow froze their masks, goggles and oxygen supply. They were in trouble. Young Sange repeatedly asked his member to to turn back but the Colonel refused citing how much he had paid, according to Sange. Senior guides monitoring their situation by walkie-talkie told Sange to turn back, even if it’s just himself, when they learned the member repeatedly refused, but again, Sange decided to stay with his member. They continued climbing and eventually reached the summit at 3 pm, after 18 hours of slow climbing from Camp 4 at the South Col. The 21 year-old Sange posted later on his Facebook page: Suddenly the weather started to turn bad and soon worse . Unfortunately my oxygen mask and goggles were frozen completely. The wind was too cold and strong, blowing all the new snow in the air that I could hardly see through my goggles. I realized that it’s more important to return back than heading up for summit of Mt.Everest as I was aware of the risk included. So, I requested my member to return back immediately for our safety but my member he refused my request because the Everest summit was very near and said he had paid a lot of royalty to climb Everest. So, he don’t want to return back without successful summit of Mt. Everest Now both Sange and the Colonel were in desperate trouble. They had been climbing for over 18 hours. Sange gave his member another new oxygen bottle and they left after staying on the summit for only 5 minutes. As they descended, both climbers began to lose the will to live. Again, Sange tells the story: My member was was walking very slowly and I was also doing good climbing down without use of oxygen. It became dark and we had to stop after a long descend. When I looked for my member he was resting on the ridge just few meters away from me. I called him a lot but he didn’t respond me at all. By now he was unconscious and too weak to walk and speak so do I. I inhaled my oxygen and I was too tired and unconscious that I didn’t realized when I went into sleep. Luckily I was awaken by the noise of other climbers, otherwise the climbers walking nearby would have considered me dead and left there. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying unconscious. If I look around, it was just bright white ice and snow. It was just burning my eyes.There were many climbers going to the summit. I was feeling very hungry and thirsty, my water bottle was frozen and no matter how hard I tried I was not able to move my hand and body at all, there was no sense in my both hand. Soon I realized my hand were completely frost bitten, I was very hopeless and tired that I could have easily closed my eyes and become a permanent member of the mountain. It would have been very peaceful than suffering. About to die that day in the snow just below the summit of Mt. Everest, Sange relaxed and prepared to let go. But then Ang Tshering Lama, Nima Galzen Sherpa, Jangbu Ang Mingma Chhiri Sherpa and Pema Chirring Sherpa all with Sherpa Khangri Outdoor came upon the two climbers for the second time. The pair had been seen by other Sherpas who had advised them to descend but obviously they had not. Now they were found in tragic conditions. Led by Ang Tshering Lama who is a certified Wilderness First Responder and has volunteered as a search and rescue climbing ranger on Rainier and Denali
Everest 2017: Season Summary – A Mountain with Two Sides
This is one of the more difficult seasons I have covered to sum up in one word so let me use several: wind, tragedy, misinformation, spin and summits. Overall it was a good year, a normal year with many summits on both sides plus the average death toll. I think we saw how the pressure to be first with news can backfire with incorrect stories but we also saw the power of dreams. Similar to 2016, there were no natural disasters or issues with people getting along, other than a few individuals acting very irresponsibly and selfishly. While weather forecasting proved to be challenging across the entire two month season, it was not an inhibitor to teams reaching the summit. Finally the fear of overcrowding, dangers of the Khumbu Icefall or China closing Everest forever, proved unfounded. Bottom line – it was good year on Everest and for both Nepal and China, and for hundreds who quenched a long thirst to stand on the summit of Mt. Everest. UPDATE: Nepal Tourism announced on 9 June 2017 that the Nepal side had 455 summits: 190 foreigners, 32 fee-paying Nepalis, 233 Sherpas and 375 climbing permits were issued to foreigners. the summit rate for foreigners was 50%. However – a Toxic Mix Awaits As I am in Kathmandu for a speaking engagement on behalf of Nepal tourism, I must begin this summary with my concern that the climbing on Everest continues to be threatened by inexperienced climbers and unqualified guides – on both sides. In speaking with multiple climbers, Sherpas and guides they all make the same points: there are too many people on Everest who lack the basic mountaineering skills to survive a major weather event or their own misstep when it will undoubtedly occur. There are too many “Sherpa Guides” who simply don’t have the experience or skills to be of aid to those inexperienced climbers when the inevitable occurs. This toxic mix of inexperienced climbers with unqualified guides will result in a tragic event that will make 1996, 2006, 2014 and 2015 look minor. And the young climbers, dreaming of leveraging an Everest summit into fame and fortune will never come home. Perhaps I am whispering in the wind, but I will continue to raise these issues, along with my suggestions, to anyone in authority who will listen. More on this in future posts. Banner Year? As we entered 2017, it was clear that the south side would see record permits issued by the Nepal government. Permits that were extended after the truncated 2014 and 2015 season were expiring. A very successful 2016 season convinced many that Everest was back in business and an aggressive campaign by new companies courting the Indian and Chinese markets were seeing success. It stood to reason that some spillover might occur onto the north side for climbers fearing the crowds and those believing the constant doom and gloom spouted by the PR machines of a few that it was immoral to climb on the south side. So as late March neared, many held their breath not sure what this Spring would bring. And now that we are into early June, the answer is simple, and complex – Everest 2017 was a fairly normal season. No villains, victims or conspiracy plots. Not a bad or good year, just a bunch of people climbing a mountain. Sit back, grab a beverage and let’s review what happened on Everest in the spring of 2017. Permit Fever In late March, Kathmandu filled up with aspiring climbers. The Nepal government issued 371 permits for Everest. 70 used their prior permits, saving $11,000 on the cost of this year’s climb. Some spent all of that at the Kathmandu bars before they left for Lukla. These days you can count on at least one Sherpa for every foreigner so that meant the south side was looking at least 750 humans going up and down, probably closer to 800. Over on the Tibet side, figures are always hard to get. I was chastised by one western guide for using the wrong numbers (he read my post incorrectly) so he gave me the ‘right’ figures which I used only to come back and tell me I posted the wrong numbers (his numbers) and gave me newer ones. Sigh, see I told you getting accurate numbers from the north is as easy as understanding Presidential Tweets … covfefe Anyway, I digress. The north seemed to have about 136 foreigners and 170 support staff. Not nearly as many as I had thought. It would be interesting to understand why the north side never regained the strong momentum it had back in 2006 and 2007. I have my theories and a lot has to do with if you are spending tens of thousands of dollars, you want some kind of assurance you will get to climb. The big growth in climbers on the Tibet side was stopped cold when the Chinese effectively closed their side to take the Olympic torch to the summit in 2008. It has never reached the pre-2008 figures even with fights, serac releases and earthquakes on the south. Perhaps with the Mountaineering Center under development in Tingre and helicopter rescue to be offered in 2018 for Everest north for the first time, the north will again see big numbers. 100 permits were issued for Lhotse, a stone’s throw from Everest. A few were looking to bag both peaks while above 8000 meters making Lhotse significantly easier – if you had any strength left from summiting Everest! When you add all this up, there was over 1,000 people on and around Everest in 2017 – and that was a record. UPDATE: but the summits from Nepal was the second highest, not a record. Trek and Drive The usual trek and travel to base camp on both sides went smoothly. The Chinese played their usual games with permits delaying a few teams but those who climb regularly in Tibet know the drill well by now. The dirt trails were filled with Zos, yaks, school kids, porters, locals – oh and climbers and trekkers
Everest 2017: Weekend Update May 27
This season had more twists and intrigue than a U.S. Presidential election. While not completely over, this past week brought a strong end for almost all the teams on both sides of Everest. Many dreams came true, like that of my climbing buddy Jim Davidson (who is already back home in Colorado!), and for others they set a difficult goal but were disappointed like Ralf Dujmovits. Perhaps the strangest twist of the week, or season, came from the report of four bodies found at the South Col. Then it was said they made a mistake but came back and said there are bodies, just not from this year. The truth remains elusive. While confusing, the deaths on Everest did prompt the annual discussion on how to make Everest safer, climbers more prepared and guide more competent. Why this coverage? Before I go further in the last weekend update of 2017 I want to thank you for all your great comments and questions plus your interest in my writings. This was my 15 year of covering all things Everest and you broke the traffic record with close to a million visits in April and May from virtually every country on the planet. I’ll keep reporting on more summits and other stories from the spring season but will wrap it all up with my season summary in a couple of weeks. Alos, I want to remind my readers that I am just one guy who loves climbing. With 35 serious climbing expeditions including four Everest trips under my belt and a summits of Everest in 2011 and K2 in 2014, I use my site to share those experiences, demystify Everest each year and bring awareness to Alzheimer’s Disease. My mom, Ida, died from this disease in 2009 as have four of my aunts. It was a heartbreaking experience that I never want anyone to go through thus my ask for donations to non-profits where 100% goes to them, and nothing to me. Any amount that is meaningful to you is meaningful to me. Select your own Alzheimer’s organization or I have suggestions at this link. This Past Week’s Summit Summary There were lots of summit this week, well over 300 total on both sides taking the season total to over 600. It will take a while – months – to sort out the exact numbers. Many of the commercial teams and no O’s climbers kept their powder dry until the very end hoping for several days of good weather. And it paid off. Click on the links to read all the names as I noted some of them throughout the week but these teams made it to the top: North Transcend finished out an excellent season with young Indian climbers having 38 summits. The wild Russian team of 7 Summits Club ran their shortest climb in 10 years at 39 days and also executed an unusual oxygen strategy. They won with 12 including Janusz Kochanski – world record of 128 days on all 7 summits, and Lhakpa Sherpa who set a female record for most summits at 8. Also under the leadership of 7 Summits Club Director, Alexander Abramov, they covered up some of the many visible dead bodies on the north side including Tsewang Paljor aka “Green Boots”, which I thought had already been moved by the Chinese: We also managed to cover the “famous” green boots. Everyone knows that at the level of 8 500 meters… (said with heavy breathing – approx. ed.)… Sorry, I now the air is not enough… In 1996 there died one Indian climber Tsewang Paljor, he just lay down to rest and froze to death. His body had frozen into stone. He had a green climbing boots. And all the climbers began to determine the height to talk about the green shoes. This is the mark of 8,500 meters. update: 7 Summits Club told me that just said that for the press and didn’t cover Paljor’s body … “I think it’s not worth mentioning. Maybe they put a couple of stones. These words were more for the press to show it’s done more than one action. In reality they covered only one Marko.” SummitClimb says they had summits but have not provided any details. The Iowans for Everest, Andy and Andy, summited after a false start. They were on a small team with few frills and showed what can be done. Alpenglow member team summits: Brooks Entwistle with guides Zeb Blais, Chad Peele, and Sherpas PaNuru, Dorji, Phurba, & Nawang Furtenbach Adventures had 100% success with 17. They endorse using altitude tents heavily. Austrian climber Andy Holzer became the second blind person to submit after Erik Weihenmayer in 2002. Rowaling Excursion summited 21/22 May Tibet including Benjamin Breckheimer becoming the 3rd Purple Heart recipient to summit Everest. Rounding out the international team was Swede Erik Akerberg and Pole Grazyna Dorota Machni Arnold Coster Expeditions got most of his team up – 10 climbers and support Adventure Peaks also saw summits with 6 total And a shout out to Anita Devi, a sub-inspector in Haryana Police has become the first Indian woman to scale Mt Everest from the North Col route. Note: it appears that Kilian Jornet is done for the season … I think 🙂 He should be tired, he went from the Rongbuk Monastery to the summit in 26 hours – a FNT record. He stopped on the descent at ABC due to illness. UPDATE: Well Kilian Jornet did run again, this time from ABC to summits and back in 29:30 on 27 May. He went from ABC to the summit in 17 hours. Amazing. This makes him the first person to summit twice in one week without oxygen – as if anyone ever thought of this before!! South IMG finished out their season with big numbers: 23 members and 30 Sherpas. Plus they had a summit without supplemental oxygen, James Brooman. Benegas Brothers were successful this week with all their members, three, plus guides and Sherpas for 10 total. Willie reported “NO WIND” Madison Mountaineering pushed in bad weather to put 29 up, including 13 members. After three weeks of waiting for improved weather, Himex, got
Everest 2017: Who is left? – updated
It has been a season of wild swings from the weather to information from the mountain. But it’s not over. Let’s look at who is left and where they are. Heavy snow appears to be arriving on 28 May, so there is a sense of urgency for those still heading higher. UPDATE: Summits thus far Saturday 27 May: South: 11+ summits Ferran Latorre – Summit per his tracker, used Os late in push Yannik Graziani – “”Too much snowfall, too much wind, you freeze on the spot … I turned around at 8 500m, too risky without oxygen, now safe on the south pass.” Elisabeth Révol, Hanz Wenzl, – no info but were with Ferran so probably summited Alpine Ascents – summits – Hello everyone team just reported that whole team members (11) peoples made to the summit at 8:15 am. Congratulations to Ben jones, Eric Murphy, Malcom Alexander, John Peterson, Santiago Perez, John Zeckendrof, jangbu sherpa, kami rita sherpa, fur kancha sherpa, mingma tshering sherpa and Dawa nuru sherpa. Great job everyone and have safe descent. North: 10+ summits SummitClimb says summits – no details Alpenglow member team summits: brooks entwistle, zeb blais, chad peele, PaNuru, Dorji, Phurba, & Nawang Adrian Ballinger with no Os, Cory Richards on oxygen summit Ralf Dujmovits -turned back at 8,500 m – 40 km/h wind and snow. He was losing feeling in his hands and feet. source UPDATE ~1:00 am Saturday morning 27 May Nepal time: Teams on both sides are moving well early 27 May Winds have calmed on south and north Alpine Ascent headed up Update from late Friday night: NEPAL: there were summits on south side by Tim Mosedale and Himex with generous oxygen on 26. David Klein without Os turned back citing high winds on 26. Ferran Latorre, Yannik Graziani , Elisabeth Révol, Hanz Wenzl, Sherpa Dawa Sangay left 9 pm 26 May. TIBET: No Os climbers –Ralf Dujmovits and Adrian Ballinger, Cory Richards and Alpenglow team, perhaps SummitClimb also, are starting up early 27 May. South Teams Alpine Ascents seems to have had perfect timing this year lead by Ben Jones. They have been off by a day or so from all the major movement on the mountain and have not had any of the difficult weather or crowds – in fact few teams have commented crowds on either side. They are at the South Col preparing to summit hopefully on the 27. but they will need to watch the snow coming in. Ben posted an update with a nice picture – he has posted some amazing photos this year: Last few minutes to the South Col today. It was unbelievably hot the entire day from Camp 3 to the Col but our team did great. We had some people coming sporadically but for the most part we had the entire day and route to ourselves…..just the way the entire expedition has been! Tomorrow we rest here breathing supplemental oxygen at almost 26,000ft before leaving for the summit the last couple of hours on the 26th. We have mild winds here at the Col right now and look for the wind to be quite calm on our summit day. We are pumped!! UPDATE: on summit push Himex with three members, one guide – Bruce Hasler – and a team of Sherpas are on their summit push. Jeff Smith and Joe Burke are two of the members. It has been a tough season for Himex with early summit attempts by David Tait and Kenton Cool not working out plus some illness in their team. Russell Brice choose not to even post his traditional information filled newsletters due to computer issue but probably more due to all the issues. UPDATE: Himex got their summits:Kazu,John,Jeff and guide by Bruce Hasler and 4 Sherpas. – reported no wind at 7:20 am 26 May Tim Mosedale and crew of three members plus support are pushing to the top. Tim already summited earlier this season with Scott Mac and documented the state of the Hillary Step. All the Irish back home are pumped for another Irish summit, this time by Rory Mchugh UPDATE: Blake Pension posted SPOT tracker from summit around 8:00 am 26 May NO Os David Klein turned back due to winds UPDATE: David turned back early 26th, just after midnight, Friday. That was last night. He is already down in camp 2 and descending to EBC tomorrow. source: Laszlo Pinter www.mozgasvilag.hu Ferran Latorre is at Camp 3 now Camp 4 headed higher. So is Yannik Graziani who posted: Reached this morning C3. Beautifull weather but verry warm (35degrees). Tomorrow to South Col, and saturday should be the day! Weather window seems to be great! We are the last team I think. UPDATE: Yannik posted: “We reached South Col at 12:00 (now time) with a bad weather. Fortunately this is the time to climb to the summit! “Fuerza !!!! West Ridge Nobukazu Kuriki has changed his mind adding my own personal issues with getting credible information from the mountain 🙂 He said he was feeling well, returned from Camp 2 or higher on the West Ridge – back to Gorak Shep, started feeling better and now feels he can summit via the West Ridge and Hornbein Couloir on 31/31 MAy. He will certainly be alone by then. One concern will be if the Icefall Doctors are still maintaining the route. He posted: Hi, It’s me, Kuriki. Yesterday, on the 24th May, I started to climb aiming for my final camp, but actually on the 23rd, I had been felt like vomiting, so yesterday, I waited until the afternoon to make decisions. I arrived until the altitude of 7,300m, however my nausea didn’t go away, so to make my condition better, I came down till Gorak Shep, 5,300m. At first, I thought about mountain disease, but my SpO2 is 80 and it’s quite good, and I don’t have headache, just have nausea, and now my condition is much better. I will stay here for one day, then, I will make my attempt again on 27th. If the weather holds, I will arrive at the summit on 30th or 31st. The belt of blue ice, on
Everest 2017: South Col Dead Body Report was Wrong
The same people that reported 4 bodies – 2 Sherpas, 1 foreign woman and 1 foreign male – were found at the South Col now say they got it all wrong. I spoke live with both key sources last night. Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks, Mingma Sherpa, who provided the the information to Himalayan Times reporter Rajan Pokhrel who wrote the story. Both now say it was a mistake and were no 4 new bodies. I also confirmed with another Nepali operator Navin Trital plus long time Everest climber and guide, Willie Benegas of Benegas Brothers contacted me from the South Col and said no new bodies. He said he checked every tent. Too Many Bodies? The best explanation is that the Seven Summits Treks Sherpas somehow “confused” seeing one body and thinking it was four. Assuming good intentions here, perhaps an analogy with the “fog of war” is apt. the six Sherpas were were sent to the South Col to retrieve the body of Slovak climber Vladimir Strba who died between Balcony and South Col while climbing as independent with no Os. That retrieval was successful. Seven Summits Treks was also involved in retrieving body of West Bengal climber Gautam Ghosh from the South Col. Another body retrieval will soon start for Indian climber, Ravi Kumar, 27, who reportedly died from a fall near the Balcony after summiting. He became separated from his guide from Arun Treks. First Report The original article on finding four bodies at the South Col reported: At least four climbers including a woman mountaineer were found dead inside their tent at a high altitude camp on Mt Everest taking the death toll on the world’s highest mountain in the spring climbing season to at least nine in Nepal side, the base camp officials have confirmed. Sherpa climbers from Seven Summit Treks who were there to recover the body of a Slovak mountaineer spotted four more dead bodies inside a tent, Managing Director at Seven Summit Treks Mingma Sherpa quoted the rescuers as saying over the phone from the incident site. Though the precise details of the incident are not available yet, the cause of death could be suffocation inside the tent, the rescuers reported. Multiple sources at the base camp also confirmed that four persons belonging to a new trekking company have gone out of contact since Sunday after they were last seen near the Balcony area. “We are trying to verify all shreds of evidence before naming the victims,” a liaison officer at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said. There were four deaths over this past weekend: Vladimir Strba, 50 Slovakia, died between Balcony and South Col on south side, climbing as independent with no Os Francesco Enrico Marchetti, 54 Australia, at 8300m after summit from Tibet with Thamserku Treks and Expeditions Ravi Kumar, 27, from fall on Nepal side near Balcony after summit, separated from his guide from Arun Treks Roland Yearwood, 50 from USA Alabama climbing with SummitClimb Good News While all this has created worldwide headlines, I am grateful there are no new deaths to report in addition to the current six. The other good news is that the mistaken report has generated a conversation about the experience of climbers and the qualification of guides. And that is a good subject to further explore. Summits Continue 25 May was another good day on Everest’s Nepal side with over 40 new summits including the Benegas Brothers and International Mountain Guides. Both reported superb weather conditions. On the Tibet side, several climbers seeking to summit without supplemental oxygen have moved to the higher camps. Heavy snow is now predicted for Saturday, so best if they can get up and down before then. Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Everest 2017: Climbing Continues – Updated
The last teams on both sides are moving higher and higher and some going for the summit tonight. IMG reports around 5:00 am Nepal time on Thursday 25 May. They have probably over 20 on this push. The lead climbers are getting close to the summit, and others are getting close to the South Summit. So far so good! The Benegas Brothers are also on their push: It’s 02:50 here, and all the team have already made it to the balcony, nearly half way to the South Summit, and where the South East Ridge takes a left about half way up to the South Summit. They will take a bit of a break here and change oxygen bottles and drink, before heading up the snow line of the South East Ridge with the enormous Kangshung Face of Tibeten Everest down on their right. It will take them several hours of climbing up the ridge before they cross some rock bands and reaching the South Summit. Stay tuned! Great work all! UPDATE: Benegas puts 10 on top: Willie just radioed in – NO WIND, MOST AMAZING SUMMIT EVER!!!!! Damian Benegas 6th Summit, Willie Benegas 12th Summit, Reagan Rick, Ed MacCollugh and John Oldring 1st Summits!!! Lopsang Sherpa IFMGA, Lhakpa Sherpa, Dawa Sherpa, Pasang Bhote (1st summit!!) and Chedden Lama Sherpa (1st summit!!). Everyone arrived at the Summit of Mt. Everest by 0810am May 25th 2017!!! 9 hours from South Col to Summit – an incredible effort. We could not have done it without our amazing Summit Sherpas who have not only encouraged endlessly but carried heavy spare oxygen bottles and drinks, and the rest of the team at the South Col and Camp 2 who carried close to 80 bottles of oxygen up (and soon down) the mountain this season in addition to tents, meals, sleeping bags, and stoves! Lam Babu Sherpa IFMGA, Lopsang Sherpa IFMGA, Lhakpa Sherpa, Dawa Sherpa, Khangdu Sherpa, Rinjin Bhote, Yuberaj Rai, Ang Rita Sherpa, Pasang Bhote and Chedden Lama Sherpa. As well as our base camp crew who literally work around the clock in addition to before and after the trip, spending three months in base camp! Shiva, Raju, Laxmi, Jetha and Maila, we can’t thank you enough. Everest is not climbed by any one individual, we have a huge support team here up the mountain as well as in Base Camp and furthermore around the world that make it possible for our climbers to be where they are now. Most of all we want to give thanks to all the friends and family that have supported us for the last 2 months here and during the entire last year of training and planning, this dream started for our members way back in 2014 and 2015, and has finally come true. You have been with us every step of the way and we could not be here without you. Thank you!! The weather definitely is improving on the south side according to Ben Jones with Alpine Ascents: Today we left Camp 2 for upper Camp 3 at about 23,800ft in perfect conditions. Just the way our rotations have gone and with waiting patiently for a weather window we have not encountered a single crowd this entire expedition. We feel good about that continuing through our summit bid as well. It’s definitely still windy up high and we have had some gusts of wind through Camp 3 here but overall it’s been a beautiful day. The Clearskies team canceled their climb: Due to the still bad weather forecasts and the stormy winds at Everest, Hannes and Markus decided today to cancel the ascent. The conditions are simply too bad and too uncertain for a climb without oxygen this year. Health is a matter of course!They have returned to the base camp with the entire equipment and will report in detail about your attempt to climb tomorrow. Looks like Nobukazu Kuriki has called it on this effort: We are informed that Kuriki got out of condition and he decided to go down. Even though he is out of condition, he doesn’t need to be rescued, and he is getting down all by himself. Ralf Dujmovits is optimistic he will summit: Today some still remaining climbers and I started the final ascent of Mount Everest from it’s North side. We hope for a late weather window starting the 26th of May and continuing for some days – low winds and relatively high temperatures are expected. This picture I took yesterday, 23rd of May at 06:15 a.m. with a 200 mm lens from advanced basecamp at 6,300 m: it shows the final summit snow slope on the Tibetan North side and if you look carefully you can see five Chinese Climbers coming down from the summit. I’m here to undertake my 8th and definitely last attempt to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen. Everest is the only of the 14 8000m peaks on which I used oxigene during the summit climb (early October 1992). Since then I tried six more times to reach the summit without supplemental oxygen. After a perfect period of acclimatizing this time I’m really positive and optimistic. I hope so much it works out, fingers crossed. Finally the Nepal Mountaineering Association which represents the operators in Nepal choose to comment on the Hillary Step today instead of the deaths at the South Col – if they even occurred: Regarding the recent news reports now the Hillary Step has collapsed: We are aware of the reports and are actively seeking more sources of informations to varify this information. Untill our findings (investigations) is concluded, we can not officially authenticate the claims. The NMA’s charter is: Nepal Mountaineering Association was established on 1 November 1973 (2030 Kartik 16) Thursday. It is a non-governmental, non-profit and non-political organization working as a national alpine association of Nepal to promote mountain tourism, climbing sports, protect mountain environments and preserve and promote cultural heritage of mountain people. It is the only national alpine club authorized to issue climbing permits
Everest 2017: 4 Found Dead in Tent at South Col – Updated
A horrible tragedy today on Everest. 2 foreigners and 2 Sherpa “guides” were found dead in the same tent at the South Col, 8000 meters. Rajan Pokhrel broke the story a few minutes ago on the Himalayan Times It was very windy and many teams choose to stay in their tents and not go for the summit. Update 2: Sources, reporters and officials now say report was wrong Update 1: as usual with stories like this, differing information will emerge. However, my main points remain the same. It doesn’t matter if one person died, four or 40. There are long overdue changes in the way Everest is guided and climbed. I will break my rule and speculate here that it is most likely they died from carbon monoxide poisoning by using their stoves in the tent without proper ventilation. source The dead were part of a new “guiding” company on Everest: Multiple sources at the base camp also confirmed that four persons belonging to a new trekking company have gone out of contact since Sunday after they were last seen near the Balcony area. “We are trying to verify all evidences before naming the victims,” a liaison officer at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said. My Opinion This is not just sad, it is totally irresponsible – to die from carbon monoxide poisoning is to break a basic rule of camping. The foreigners paid the “guides” to take care of them. While I promote self sufficiency, and will suggest the “climbers” should have also known better, these so-called Sherpa “guides” clearly did not do their job – if this is what they died from. Sherpa “Guides” A few years ago, Nepal started to call every Sherpa a Guide in an effort to elevate their status and promote that climbing in Nepal was safe. I commented then that that is like calling every person on an airplane a pilot. This public relations ploy by the Nepal government has to stop – the press believes then, uninformed people believe them and people die as a result. This has to be the breaking point. How many parents will continue to stand by and let their children die – yes a lot of children are going to Everest these days. On the north side there was an entire expedition with teenagers. While they had no problems, this encourages other teenagers to seek fame and fortune with an Everest summit – and it never happens. In my last blog post I talked about one family demanding that the body of their son be recovered from a 200 meter crevasse at a cost of $60,000+ and risking the lives of the Sherpa rescuers – this is ridiculous and irresponsible. Their son got “separated” from his Sherpa “guide” and he died. Sherpa is not Sherpa Tim Mosedale wrote an article a few days ago on his observation on the so-called Sherpa “Guides” on Everest. It is even more pertinent tonight: A couple of ‘Sherpas’ have been helped down from The Balcony this morning by some members and Sherpas (note the lack of ‘quotes’ this time) from a team who were on the way back to The South Col from their successful summit bid. This is exceedingly worrying and I’ll tell you for why. In the good old days Climbing Sherpas tended to be ethnic Sherpa or at least people who lived year round in a moderate altitude environment. This (usually) gave them a bit of a genetic advantage from the outset of the expedition. Added to that a lot of the expedition staff used to have previous experience of being on Everest and so they knew the route, they had an idea about what was expected of them, they understood the foibles of dealing with members and their various needs, they understood the importance of summit day protocols and knew where they needed to be within a certain timescale if they were going to successfully get their member to the summit and back again safely. In short the Climbing Sherpa staff would cumulatively have tens of Everest summits under their collective belts and they were experts in their field. I’ve just been told by Kame, my Sirdar, that from his village (Pangboche) there used to be 64 Everest Climbing Sherpas … and now there are 13. All that expertise has been lost and the general level of professionalism has been drastically diluted. A lot of the (cheaper) expedition providers are recruiting inexperienced ‘Sherpas’ on below average wages who have no idea about putting on their own crampons (let alone assisting their members) who are used pretty much as load carriers. These guys are goat herders, or have a small parcel of land that they tend during the monsoon, or are vegetable sellers and they are brought from a sub 1,000m environment to work on Everest with the promise of summit bonuses beyond their wildest dreams. This is yet another example of what I would call a toxic mix. Inexperienced members are perhaps introduced to ‘Pasang, who summited Everest last year’. ‘Oooo’ say the group. But what they don’t realise is that he only just got away with it and he is operating at a level where he can barely look after himself let alone assist them in an ultra hypoxic environment. Over the years there’s been a huge dilution in the cumulative experience of staff whilst at the same time there’s been a net increase in inexperienced or poor expedition providers. When you combine this with a decline in the amount of experience of the members who are accepted on board it’s a worrying equation. On the one hand there doesn’t seem to be any due diligence or sense of accountability on the part of the expedition operator. On the other hand the member who finds out that their company of choice has had fatalities on every expedition for the past 5 years seems to think that ‘it won’t happen to me’. I don’t know what the answer is except to offer these salient pieces of advice … if the price sounds too good to be true
Everest 2017: Wind Returns with Vengeance, Costly Body Retrievals
There were summits early morning of 23 May, but it may not have been the best choice to push it. Teams turned back, some never left camp and those who made said it was difficult. Meteorologist Chris Tomer told me “full on Jet Stream on the summit”. He advised his member, Ricardo Pena, to stay at the South Col, which he did on 23 May. Meanwhile the family of a climber who died over the weekend are willing to put more lives at risk to get their loved one home. And the admired traverse is not what was advertised. North Gets Hit Big winds hit the north side around midnight on 23 May. This is a startling report from George Kashouh with SummitClimb: Jet stream has hit the summit. Woke up to 100kph winds. I thought I was dreaming but my tent ceiling was nearly on my chest. Tent poles snapped and tent itself is shredded. I seriously thought I’d be blown off the mountain inside the remains. The door was on the ground and I was able to unzip it and slide my oxygen bottle out. Next I escaped myself with a mitt on a me hand and a glove liner on the other while some of my gear blew out into the sky. I tried to sit on my tent to keep whatever gear remained inside but was losing feeling in my fingers. I called for help and my friend Les saw me sprawled over the remains of my tent and threw me a rope. I was able to get into his tent along with Ian. Winds continued to get worse. After the sun came our expedition leader must have seen my tent which looked more like a prayer flag in the wind and checked on us. He was two feet in front of us but we couldn’t hear a word he was saying. He motioned for us to leave our tent and go to his. A short time later the second tent I was in was destroyed. I had left mine tent with my sleeping bag, harness, water, food, and backpack. Not sure if any of that is still there. Our leader who has been a mountain guide for decades including seven times on Everest said he has never seen winds like this before in his life. Currently we are taking turns sleeping and sitting against the wall of the tent to try to maintain this one which already has tears. All members are safe.Danish Everest solo, No Os climber Rasmus Kraghat, calling for help from 7700m on North side There is no update on George but Danish climber Rasmus Kragh was reported in trouble. His home team told me: There are some worrying news about Rasmus. He arrived back at 7.700 last night after a long day out without oxygen. He says he had to abandon his attempt at 8.500m due to high winds. South Side Hit As Well, But Summits Garrett Madison put over 20 on the summit with the winds: Today at the top of the world it was clear but very windy, we had to work hard for this summit. Feeling grateful our whole team of 20+ climbers, made the top. Other teams never risked going up in the winds. Rare North-South Traverse Claims in Question Janusz Adamski named his Everest attempt “No Oxygen Solo Everest 2017 – First Polish Traverse of Mount Everest Expedition.” So when it was announced that he was successful with this Facebook post on 21 May, it was assumed he didn’t use supplemental oxygen and had no Sherpa support: TODAY MORNING TIME NEPALESE JANUSZ CONQUERED MT. Everest from the north, and then he went down on the south side first and the fifteenth of the polish world traverse mountains. At the moment, JANUSZ IS ALREADY SAFE AT CAMP 3 Nepalskiej side. Tomorrow night will occur at the level of Janusz Takeover by Andrew CB Ziółkowskiego and attempt to get through to Kathmandu. The Polish mountaineering media and community were correctly proud, but there were problems The media started making corrections: [Update] Initially, we administered the Janusz climbing without the use of oxygen from the cylinder. This information proved to be false. The Problems So first, he used supplemental oxygen, 2) he hired a Sherpa to carry gear and 3) he, apparently, didn’t have a permit that allowed him to cross from China into Tibet over the summit of Mt. Everest. In summary his “No Oxygen Solo Everest 2017 – First Polish Traverse of Mount Everest Expedition.” was illegal, supported and used supplemental oxygen. But his announcement said it was as advertised and very successful hailing him as the first Pole to accomplish such a climb. However, upon questioning, he is backed off his claim with these additional comments: Due to the time required for peaceful acclimatization, I need help carrying tents “booking” space in C1/C2. The rest of equipment + mountaieering activity and summit push solo. and With Andrew we met yesterday and we are coming down slowly to lukli. With Kronikarskiego Duty I’ll clarify that the traverse I made alone with oxygen from camp 3 (8250 M), which was necessary to transfer the 20 pounds of gear needed to safely continue the action on the south side of the mountain. His Kathmandu agency told me he did not have a legal permit to cross into Nepal from China and was briefed in Kathmandu before receiving his permit to climb from Tibet. There was no mention of a traverse. It appears his plans changed for good reasons but I am a bit confused as to why the post on 21 May failed to mention all those details. But the big issue is the permit. I hope he can explain that We will see where this goes. Body Retrievals – Risky and Costly The family of Indian climber Ravi Kumar, 27, wants his body retrieved “The bereaved family wants the body at any cost,” said Chowang Sherpa, managing director of Arun Treks and Expedition, the agency handling Kumar’s expedition. Apparently this means even at the risks of the 8-12
Everest 2017: What Really Happened to the Hillary Step
As we wait for more summits this week, let take a look at one of the most talked about stories from Everest 2017 is the fate of the Hillary Step. First reported as “gone” now Nepal officials are saying it’s just fine, just covered with snow. For those outside the climbing community, and for many inside, this seems like a silly discussion as we all know mountains move, change, grow and collapse all the time. So what if the Hillary Step changed? Latest News – 23 May early morning in Nepal Nobukazu Kuriki has left Camp 2 to ascend to the West Ridge then the Horbein Couloir and on to the summit. Kilian Jornet may give his speed run another try. He already set a record with a 26-hour push from Base Camp to the summit and Madison Mountaineering puts 6 members, 3 Guides, 13 Sherpas on the summit morning of 23 May. Sir Edmund Hillary First, lets look at some basic information. The Hillary Step was named after Sir Edmund Hillary who came upon it with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953 as they approached the summit. It is located between the South Summit (28,500′) and the true summit (29,035′). It is often described as a nearly vertical rock face with a height of around 12 metres (39 ft) at 28,839 feet. Hillary described it as noted in Hillary and Norgay: To the Top of Mount Everest By Heather Whipple: National Geographic put it this way: Scraping at the snow with his ax, Hillary chimneyed between the rock pillar and an adjacent ridge of ice to surmount this daunting obstacle, later to be known as the Hillary Step. 2015 Earthquake The devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015 was 100 miles away from Everest yet shook the ground severely. I was in the Western Cwm the day for the earthquake and can personally attest to moving ground and massive avalanches off Nuptse, Lhotse and the West Shoulder of Everest. It is obviously plausible that large unstable boulder like the ones that define the Hillary Step could have moved. The recent case study for this was in New Zealand where the highest peak, Mount Cook lost 93 feet off the summit in 1991 due to a rock avalanche. 2016 Discovery News broke early in the 2016 season by climber, David Liano that the Hillary Step was gone. He took pictures, posted on his blog and the second guessing began. Hillary Step 2016 left, 2014 right. courtesy of David Liano The two arguments came down to 1) it is covered with snow and is still there and 2) the 2015 earthquake caused the massive boulders that defined the crack toppled in the quake. Given it was covered in snow, no one could make a definitive conclusion however many tried. If you want to explore this further a good start is with Mark Horrell‘s investigative report on his blog from last year. I posted this in 2016: A few days after these summits, David Liano set the Everest climbing community abuzz with a Facebook post suggesting the 2015 earthquake had moved the rocks on the Hillary Step and it was now a snow slope. I consulted with multiple operators and Sherpas who have collectively over 100 Everest summits and had been on the Hillary Step after David. They felt the rocks had not collapsed and it appeared dramatically different due to an unusual amount of snow. Later in conversations with 2016 summiteers, they said the Step was a simple snow slope that looked nothing like the pictures for previous years. It may be next year if the snow blows away that the real shape of the Step will be known. 2017 Opinions So now we move into 2017 and Tim Mosedale, one of the first westerners to summit Everest this year on 16 May, took photos and made the declaration that “the Hillary Step is no more” Tim reported: The route from the South summit is reasonably technical and, shock horror, there’s no Hillary Step. The next thing you know we’re on the summit enjoying the views and the sense of achievement. It’s official – The Hillary Step is no more. Not sure what’s going to happen when the snow ridge doesn’t form because there’s some huge blocks randomly perched hither and thither which will be quite tricky to negotiate. Officials Say No Change But hold on, CNN is reporting that Gyanendra Shrestha from the Nepal Tourism Board and Ang Tshering Sherpa, the President of Nepal Mountaineering Association, are saying Mosedale is mistaken: “This is a false rumor,” Ang Tshering Sherpa said. “After this news surfaced … I checked with Sherpas, climbers, and officials at the Base Camp. Hillary Step is intact.” He said the rock face had been covered by “excessive snowfall … so some people assumed it had collapsed.” Shrestha said the step had been completely covered by snow so it “made it easier for climbers.” And that is why I love this sport! Climber Impact First, I have heard no one say that summiting Everest was soooo much easier this year because the Hillary Step was gone. 🙂 It does appear to be a long snow slope, and to my eye it looks like the large boulder to the climber’s left on ascending has “moved”. Now, is this simple a optical illusion, or has the snow covered so much that we really can’t tell? Perhaps, but the before and after photos are fairly clear. Jamie McGuinness, posted one of his photos from 2008 next to Tim’s: And with that, let the games begin! Climb On! Alan Memories are Everything
Everest 2017: Huge Wave 3 with a Traverse and Speed Summit
As I posted in almost real-time, there were many summits on Monday morning on both sides and there were some surprises! Here is a quick update of summits and information not in my last post North Updates: The Russian team 7 Summits Club lead by legendary Alexander Abramov put more on the summit. I have lost count but believe it is over 20, maybe 30, including support: Like an hour ago, said Alexander Abramov, today, 22 May at 4:30 am Nepal time the whole team reached the summit of Everest. Successful descent guys! At 6 am Moscow time all were already in 8300 and continued the descent. Peaks reached Valery Tebiev Daniel Briman, Eugene Kravt, Aznaur Akka, Alexander Abramov (in the 8-th time) . Transcend continued a very successful season with a male/female team including Aparna Prabhudesai from the city of Pune, India, an entrepreneur, marathoner, social worker. Good on them for naming their Sherpa support: A summary of our Team 3: 6 climbers and 6 Sherpas made it to the summit, while one woman climber had returned before the summit. They had reached the summit between 5:20-6:45 a.m. local time. The Sherpa Guides that made it to the summit are: Tenzing Chhotar, Pasang Dorjee, Mingma Nuru, Lakpa Gyalgen, Karma Gyaljen, Samduk Dorjee Tamang The total number of climbers from the Transcend Adventures Indian Team who have reached the summit so far, now stands at 16 Climbers and 22 Sherpas One of my favorite writers this year was Ricky Munday with Summit Climb. He turned back on his summit bid and explains in an excellent post on Facebook. Click to see his pictures and read the rest of his post. My appetite was severely affected by the altitude. After a big 10-hour, 900m climbing climbing from the North Col to Camp 2 (7,900m), all I was able to eat was a handful of peanuts, a protein bar and two mini Babybel cheeses. I could smell George’s freeze-dried meal and I almost vomited. For two nights, I had very limited intake. This lack of calorie intake was completely unsustainable, but I couldn’t force anything more down. I made the difficult decision not to continue with the team, and to descend. I was unwilling to put my life at risk or to become a burden to the team. South Updates I already provided updates on many commercial teams but a few more are just coming in. Asian Trekking for the Greek team: Asian Trekking’s Eco-Everest members Mr. Michail Evmorfidis and Mr. Antonios Sykaris along with our HAS Mr. Pemba Tshering Sherpa, Mr. Ki Dorjee Sherpa and Mr. Tshering Chhosang Sherpa left South Col (Camp 4)last night at 10 pm and successfully sumitted MT.EVEREST today on 22nd May 2017 at 10:30am.They spent 5 minutes at top and now descending. We are so happy for their great achievement and pray for their safe return. Elisabeth Revol reached the summit of the Lhotse Kilian Jornet’s Speed Climb Kilian Jornet summited but ended his speed attempt due to illness stopping at ABC on north. His team posted on Facebook: Kilian Jornet reached the summit of Everest at midnight of 21st to 22nd May (local time) in a single climb without the help of oxygen or fixed ropes. He reached the summit via the north face of the world’s highest mountain (8,848m) following the traditional route. Kilian Jornet began the challenge at Everest Base Camp Base near the ancient Rombuk monastery (5,100m) on May 20 at 22h local time (+5:45 GMT). At 12h15 local time of May 22nd he is back in the Advanced Base Camp (6,500m) where he confirmed summiting Everest at midnight, 26 hours after beginning the ascent. 38 hours after starting the temptative, he has arrived to the Advanced Base Camp of Everest, he explained: “Until I reached 7.700m I felt good and was going according to my planning, but there I started to feel stomachache, I guess due to an estomach virus. From there I have moved slowly and stopping every few steps to recover. However, I made it to the summit at midnight”.Due to this indisposition, Kilian Jornet choses to conclude the attempt, and stay in the Advanced Base Camp and not returning to the Rongbuk as planned. Once we have more information about the challenge, we will inform through the channels of Summits of My Life. Rare North-South Traverse The Chinese have rarely issued permits to traverse from north to south but it appears it happened over the weekend by Polish climber Janusz Adamski as reported on his Facebook page first Polish solo Everest Traverse without O’s by Janusz Adamski (summit on 21st), Descended safely to camp 3 on summit day. UPDATE: There are many questions now being raised from use of oxygen, Sherpa support and illegally traversing without a permit. According to the Himalayan Database there has only been 34 traverse and only one without supplemental oxygen, Jozef Just, who died in the process. Deaths and Rescues The body of missing climber Ravi Kumar was found: The body of an Indian climber was spotted on Mount Everest on Monday, after he went missing two days ago while descending from the world’s highest peak. Sherpa rescuers spotted the body of Indian climber Ravi Kumar, but it was impossible to retrieve the body, said Thupden Sherpa of Arun Treks and Expedition. It appeared that Kumar had fallen some 200 meters (650 feet) below the route, he said. EverestER provided a public update on the long-line rescue and how they have been working with all the teams throughout the mountain on health issues. Click to read the entire post:: But we’ve been doing over the radio consult to the people having health problems at camp 2 and above. Over the radio night consultation was done, last night on a climber who was left between camp 3 and 4, and spent the night outside the tent in that area. Capt. Folini of Fishtail air with the help of our own Lakpa Norbu tried to bring him down via longline four times yesterday but failed to do so